'People should ditch Veganuary greenwash', says butcher calling for Regenuary

16 January 2023 , 12:27

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Glen Burrows from the Ethical Butcher thinks Veganuary lacks nuance when it comes to regenerative farming (Image: The Ethical Butcher)

Every year as January rolls around, many of us join in Veganuary, where you pledge to follow a vegan diet for a month.

For avid meat eaters, such a stark change can be hard to follow, and between two thirds and three quarters of those who take part return to non-vegan diets afterwards.

Glen Burrows from The Ethical Butcher was fed up with the narrative that "all meat is inherently destructive and all plants are inherently better than meat" that he decided to hit back at the movement.

Glen Burrows founded Regenuary in response to a lack of nuance he saw from Veganuary

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He posted on Facebook with one message "Regenuary not Veganuary" and a new movement was born that focuses on buying solely ethical, local or regenerative food throughout January.

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Glen said: "I really wasn't expecting it to become a campaign, it was simply an angry Facebook post that has turned into an annual campaign."

At this time, he was researching for the launch of The Ethical Butcher and began paying close attention to ethically sourced produce. A poster in the window of KFC caught his eye, advertising a vegan friendly burger for Veganuary, he said: "It just stank of greenwash but not just from KFC but from Veganuary.

"I thought how can the movement of Veganuary support a business in any way that is basically reliant on the most awful form of factory farming of animals that we can possibly do. It got me thinking that this whole message around going plant based was oversimplified.

"January is the worst month that you can try and go plant based in the UK because there's very little that grows in the UK that is protein rich that we're harvesting."

Regenuary is inclusive for all diets - even vegans (The Ethical Butcher)

Glen is focusing on encouraging restaurants to use regenerative meats and vegetables rather than cheap produce for Regenuary 2023

This lack of UK produce results in vegetables being imported from around the world, Glen told the Mirror, adding: "I did the comparison of if you're not eating fatty meats and you're switching to avocado.

"A lot of avocados are now controlled by cartels and the way they're farmed is absolutely destructive in places, like Mexico, where in some places they've affected the water table so much that small earthquakes are occurring.

"The destruction is far worse than anything that is happening with animals in the UK. So you make that simple switch and you're doing way more damage, and yet it's vegan, so it's okay."

Glen is keen to point out that Regenuary is not an anti vegan movement, he himself was vegetarian for 25 years. Instead he wants to highlight that the problem is not meat itself but the mass production and buying from abroad, which also impact a vegan diet.

He said: "I'm not against the concept of Veganuary but I feel it is severely lacking in any sort of nuance in the messaging, and I've kept an eye on it over the last four years and I don't see that changing.

"There is still this very tired narrative coming from Veganuary that all the plant agriculture is lower impact than any animal agriculture and that simply by being vegan, you're reducing your impact.

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"That simply is not true. That is an outright black and white lie, there's no black and white in this subject.

The Ethical Butcher uses UK based farms to supply restaurants with regeneratively farmed meat

Regardless of your diet, whether plant-based or a carnivore, Glen wants those involved in Regenuary to think about where their food comes from and make an ongoing lifestyle shift to ethical consumption.

He cites true cost accounting as one simple thing to think about when shopping for food - ask yourself what is the true cost of this meat or vegetable. This takes into consideration the entire chain like the transport, the fuel, the land usage, the social and environmental impact of that single piece of food.

This is harder when out to dinner at restaurants as most do not advertise the source of their ingredients unless it is of particular merit, such as Hereford beef or Scottish salmon. The Ethical Butcher and Regenuary has been working with restaurants this year to push for local sourcing and transparent supply chains on the menu.

Glen founded the Ethical Butcher in 2019 with Farshad Kazemian without intending to start Regenuary

Despite good intentions that Glen believes we all have towards our planet, he is not blind to the issues that the cost of living crisis poses when trying to make good choices.

"We're never going to make factory farming go away. Unfortunately, there will always be that end of the market," Glen adds. "I see a massive dissonance between things that people would or wouldn't buy in a supermarket compared to turning a blind eye when they're eating out.

"I don't want to guilt and shame people for enjoying a meal but I just want to bring a bit of awareness to it, saying you know that you would only buy organic chicken in the supermarket but when you're in the pub, it ain't that."

Glen wants people to be aware of where their food comes from and understand the impact of that

For the accidental Regenuary founder, at the heart of the movement is quality food, he said: "A lot of the cheap foods that we eat are high calorie and low nutrient density so as a nation we're overfed and undernourished with too many calories, not enough nutrients.

"There's nothing wrong with a pack of Pringles once in a while, it should be an odd treat but in general, it's not food."

Danni Scott