Adrift in the mainstream: Challenges facing the UK vegetarian movement

Abstract

Assesses how the mainstream availability and acceptability of vegetarian food has impacted on the organised vegetarian movement in the UK. Presents data collected during an ethnographic case study to show the dilemmas facing the leading UK vegetarian organisation during the mid-1990s. In order to understand these dilemmas distinguishes between vegetarian food and the ideology of vegetarianism, using existing evidence about variability in diets, motives and organisational politics. When reflecting on the implications of the case study suggests that mainstream acceptance is a double-edged sword that facilitates the adoption of the diet but threatens the moral foundations of the ideology.

“What Pushed Me over the Edge Was a Deer Hunter”: Being Vegan in North America

“…Learning involved discovering information about animal cruelty and acquiring the necessary knowledge to transition to a vegan or vegetarian diet. MacNair (2001) agrees with McDonald that the role played by one's practical knowledge (e.g., how to cook), ideological beliefs (e.g., the value of all life), instrumental learning (selfefficacy with regard to the ability to nourish oneself satisfactorily), and communicative learning ("having a commitment to the ideals of vegetarian or vegan practices") are also important factors in this conversion process (p. 67).…”

“…Little research has been conducted that explores the process of becoming vegan (Larsson, et al, 2003;McDonald, 2000;MacNair, 1998) and remaining vegan. Utilizing the framework provided by McDonald (2000), this study examines the career path of vegans.…”

It's not vegetarian, it's meat-free! Meat eaters, meat reducers and vegetarians and the case of Quorn in the UK

“…Elzerman et al, 2013;De Bakker & Dagevos, 2012). The list of positive attributes is also related to concerns over food safety, fair and ethical trade, animal slaughter and the environmental impact of meat products (Smart, 2004). Nevertheless, the impact that these factors will have on the demand for meat substitutes and future meat reduction is questionable, as only a small number of consumers (mainly vegetarians) have shown preference for these attributes of meat substitutes (Hoek et al, 2011).…”

Vegetarians: Uninvited, Uncomfortable or Special Guests at the Table of the Alternative Food Economy?

“…These developments, which entail the incorporation of aspects of vegetarianism's cognitive praxis within the mainstream, industrialised agro-food system could not be further from a non-industrialised, locally based and natural alternative food system. Indeed, this is supported by Smart's (2004) study of the UK Vegetarian Society which he suggests is now 'adrift in the mainstream' (2004, p. 1), even though its strategy (of persuading the food processors and retailers to label foods as suitable for vegetarians or by endorsing particular products) has successfully recruited many more people to vegetarianism: 10…”

“…It is, of course, the case that vegetarianism has been the focus of some scholarly enquiry (e.g. Twigg 1983;Adams 1990;Beardsworth and Keil 1992;Spencer 1993;Eder 1996;Maurer 2002;Smart 2004), but not, on the whole, among those interested in the operation of the agro-food system and the reconfiguration of this system along more sustainable lines through the development of alternative productionconsumption relationships, with all that this might imply for rural development (a couple of notable exceptions are McManus 1999, andMiele 2001). A number of reasons for this neglect can be posited.…”