I recently took one of those What’s Your Type quizzes, and my result:
“You’re HIPSTER VEGAN!
OMG, you’re too cool for school! Your Insta account is curated within an inch of its digital life and most of the content consists of vegan food. You almost cried when Oatly released their Barista blend (“YAY! Cappucinos are back on!”) and your sunny studio apartment is crammed full of plants in terracotta pots and macrame hangers which you like photographing with your DSLR. You skateboard to work – you probably work in digital media, hence why your Insta is so important to you – and love places like Hastings, Ramsgate and Reykjavik. Your fave vegan meal to make is tofu ramen, and your lunchtime treat is avo and asparagus maki. Oh, and you’ve got a ring in your septum, which your mum thinks is fake.”
Well, somebody is happy that she’s put me in a defined box. Never mind that I don’t have an “Insta account” or a “ring in your septum”, but she’s got me FIGURED OUT! Great, so long as there’s no torture on my plate I guess I’m good with it—think what you want about me (And, true, Iceland is on my bucket list).
You know what this all says to me? It’s time to CELEBRATE the fact that there are enough vegans around to want to typologize us! Remember when it was “You don’t eat no MEAT? What do you mean you don’t eat no MEAT?” Now its “What type of vegan are you?” I much prefer the latter to the former. And the world recognizes that vegans are an actual population now.
The saying attributed to Gandhi is that “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. Well, we’re beyond being ignored; even The Economist Magazine called 2019 The Year of the Vegan. There are old memes laughing about hippie-weirdo-vegetarians, but even those memes seem outdated now. There ARE fights now, about whether “milk” is a word that can legally be put on cartons of plant-based milks—the dairy industry has stood up and taken notice, and some dairies are taking the smart route and going plant-based in response. Guess what the next step is, friends: Then You Win!
It gives my heart joy to no end that the true winners in all of this are the animals who will be emancipated from the slavery and torture that we human animals put them through in the name of nutrition. The fact is that we need ALL kinds of vegans:
- We need the animal rights vegans who work to end the unspeakable torture;
- We need the culinary vegans who give us the BEST food EVER;
- We need the spiritual vegans who remind us of our better angels;
- We need the rational vegans who show us the utter insanity of the animal-based agriculture system;
- We need the scientific vegans who keep us mindful of the Earth as a finite system;
- We need the environmental vegans who work to lessen humans’ planetary footprint;
- We need the fashionista vegans who show us how to incorporate compassion into our fabulous wardrobes;
- And yes, we even need the vegans like me, who know that the future is vegan and work to make veganism the present—people who call for vegan options in every aspect of life because it’s the only way we’re getting through this thing called life. I don’t want to just “get through,” I want to decorate! I want to spread wonder to all our senses. I want to see everyone thrive and that includes every non-human-one. I want to see kindness prevail.
What kind of vegan does that make me? I don’t care, so long as we get there. We humans truly are what we eat, and eating compassionately is one aspect of living a sustainable life on this planet that we share. What kind of vegan are you? Among many other things, you’re the necessary kind—Go forth and be vegan, whatever type you are!
Dr. Stacey J. Anderson (aka Chef Stacey) is a professor of public health by day, ferocious vegan foodie by night. She is a certified Master Vegan Life Coach and Educator (MVLCE) from the Main Street Vegan Academy. She owns the educational venue Vegan Buen Vivir, a scrumptious way for the vegan-curious and new vegans to learn how to dive head-first into the vegan good life, with lots of great cooking and eating along the way. Chef Stacey lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and her two incorrigible cats.
New nice ideas that hadn’t occurred to me. Thanks.
Very interesting article, Chef Stacey. It really does take all of us doing what we do best to make a real difference in this world. I began eating a Vegan diet for health reasons, but refused to identify as a “Vegan” because they were a bunch of really weird people with agendas. Militant, angry people with no compassion for other humans – just the animals. Over the years, I have come to realize the things that you so articulately point out here: It takes ALL types of Vegans. We all make a positive impact on the world around us as Vegans, no matter what “type” we are. Now, I am in it for health, for the animals, for the environment……..I am Vegan for EVERYTHING. We all need to come together around the things that we have in common, rather than our differences.
You forgot to mention Health Vegans, people who cook and eat whole plant foods and avoid processed food that’s heavy on refined ingredients, sugar, salt and oils. We take a pass on the Impossible Burger, but support the rights of others to eat it.