WHEN, last week, William Sitwell, editor of Waitrose Food magazine, suggested to a journalist, who had pitched an idea about “plant-based” recipes, that it might be good to run a series about “killing vegans, one by one”, he was throwing himself right into the hot heart of the cauldron of current identity politics. Of course, he didn’t realise he was doing this, because he wasn’t aware that the email that he fired off in private to journalist Selene Nelson would then be posted on social media and the viral outrage would begin.
For, in these days, what you eat, which used to be attached to the place and culture in which you grew up, but also, often, your religion, is rapidly becoming one of the more sensitive aspects of personal identity. Like everything, in this globalised world, it seems to be becoming more tribal, not less.
There’s little more personal that you can do than comment on someone else’s diet. There’s good reason for this. Although it is possible to change what one eats, and many have already done that, it is nevertheless intimately tied up not just with the family culture we come from, and all the accompanying emotions, but, increasingly, with our politics.
On some levels this isn’t new. Food is what has brought cultures and tribes together, but also what distinguished them. Throughout history our slurs and nicknames for other nations have revolved around what they eat. Some of the most intensely felt divisions between religions revolve around food. Yet, even those divisions seem to be paling into significance in comparison with the food identities that dominate the current culture wars.
Sitwell resigned following the reaction to his comment. Perhaps an apology should have been enough – except that the magazine he worked for was not an independent publication but one issued by Waitrose which sells to a growing vegan market, and this is about the market and consumer relations. No doubt the company wouldn’t tolerate such comments from staff on the shop floor.
There’s also no denying that the words “kill” anything are misjudged. Exchange the word vegan for a whole host of other identities and he’d probably have fewer defenders. Bear in mind this is the same week in which Twitter has had to apologise for the fact that the words “kill all Jews” became a trending topic on the social media platform, after the words were used in hate graffiti at a New York synagogue.
In fact, what surprised me most was how many people were keen to defend him. This is probably because, among certain circles, vegans are considered one of those groups that it’s okay to insult. It’s not hard, on social media or even in real life, to find people saying such things about vegans.
It’s fairly clear to most of us that this is another episode in the culture wars, in which we find that rather than looking for ways to come together, we’re hunkering down and refusing to share tables. The depressing thing about this is that, as a result, a rich global culinary heritage is being reduced down into a kind of binary politics.
On one side are the vegans, stereotyped as social justice warriors and snowflakes. On the other are the carnivores, roughly stereotyped as conservatives. Of course, people who eat meat and those who consume plants transcend those categories, but in his world those subtleties are forgotten.
What’s sad about this is that food should be about coming together, a shared experience, through which we commune not just with our own tribe, but the others we invite into our lives – but we’re losing touch with that.
I’m not denying that food is political. There is much to resolve about how we feed everyone in a climate-change imperilled world and make that healthy and affordable. But when diet morphs into identity politics then we lose our intuitive relationship with food. Dazzled by our rich food landscape, paralysed by choice, food becomes no longer a way to fuel ourselves and commune, but another aspect of our identity and narcissism.
LAND VALUES
Anders Holch Povlsen, the man who has just, with his snapping up of the 1,100 acre Kinrara Estate near Aviemore, become the individual to own the most land in Scotland – he’s a decent guy, isn’t he? The billionaire seems like a good enough fellow, what with his laudable intentions to protect the natural assets of Scotland for the next 200 years.
He’s a rewilder who has embarked on Scotland’s biggest reforestation project. And, apparently, for all the Dane is a billionaire, back home in Denmark he still drives a battered VW Golf and sends his kids to state school.
But still, decent as Povlsen is, he’s just one individual, in control of 220,000 acres of Scottish land, and that’s proof of how much more there is to do on land reform. We can’t just be sitting around thinking how lucky we are that a landowner happens to have decent values. What about those who don’t?
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here