Why is veganism being promoted at the cost of vegetarianism?

At a lunch many years ago at the house of a prominent Marwari industrialist in New Delhi, Angela Hartnett—yes, the same one who recently said that mutton curry should become the Coronation Chicken of King Charles’ reign—was blown away by the array of vegetarian dishes. There were some 25 items from starter to dessert, with nary a meat-substitute in sight and the Michelin-starred British chef marvelled at the distinct flavour of each item. Note: the meal was not vegan. The invitees at the White House and State Department dinner and lunch for Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week may have been similarly gobsmacked that the elaborate and mostly vegetarian meals actually did not leave them feeling hungry afterwards. Fish was available upon request at the dinner, a concession to diehard ‘non-vegetarians’, a term widely used only in India. The rest of the courses were a medley of vegetables and grains. Note: both meals were not vegan either. The presence of yoghurt and butter in the dishes must have annoyed the vocal and visible if numerically insignificant US vegan lobby. Because the movement for ‘meat-free’ food has been made to veer towards veganism in the West, whereas in India vegetarianism has a different ethos. Extreme forms of any dietary practice are always hard to promote, and veganism latches an unnecessarily fanatical tag to what is otherwise an eminently practical and doable praxis: vegetarianism. This is in part due to Western animal welfare groups clubbing the commercial rearing of cows for meat in the West with that of the milk industry, making rejecting or giving up dairy products part of the crusade to save cows. In reality no cows are saved by forsaking milk but it does make for ego-boosting virtue-signalling despite gaps in the logic of veganism as a planet saving practice. Veganism is touted as the true form of vegetarianism but, crucially, the very same meat-and-dairy free philosophy in the West readily accepts, promotes ‘plant-based’ proteins that mimic animal flesh right down to colour, texture and even taste. India’s idea of vegetarianism resoundingly rejects that. Moreover, the promotion of vegan ‘staples’ that can only be created by industrial and synthetic means raises an ominous question: who or what does veganism benefit? Probably not the planet—which is held up as the reason for going vegan in the first place. Unsurprisingly, vegan products have been seeing dizzying growths (albeit on a low base) in the West, which has been the epicentre of industrially manufactured, synthetic produce of all kinds, including food. People forsaking meat for a natural vegetarian diet of vegetables, grains, legumes and dairy would leave mock meat and milk factories and food engineers with nothing to do. Ironically, the mainstay for the growth of veganism is the increasing availability of plant-based substitutes for meat and dairy, the very same things it professes to despise but tacitly sustains as key flavours for Western palates. Rather than trying to make people appreciate actual vegetarian flavours, there are Herculean efforts to produce fake meat and milk. How can falsehood lead to real, permanent change in dietary preferences? Or maybe that is not the main purpose anyway. Food companies have invested millions to produce meat that is like the real thing except that it does not come from a dead animal. For instance, heme—the iron-rich molecule that helps an Impossible Burger look red and bloody—is extracted from soy plant roots and inserted into genetically engineered yeast and thence into the mock meat. But as this plant based product looks, bleeds and tastes like meat what kind of a vegetarian or vegan would actually want to eat it? Imagine if, instead of a chunky portobello—the most meaty of mushrooms—the White House chefs had decided to put in a plant-based heme-bleeding patty on the main course plate for the PM’s dinner. He would not have eaten it. And nor would the other Indian vegetarians there, despite reassurances about the ‘plant-based’ origin of those meat-like blobs. The non-vegetarians among the Indians may have had a stab at it, though with misgivings about its factory genesis. Vegans present there, however, would have had no issues with the heme patty but scowled at the yoghurt in both menus, as the US is now the land of (almond) milk and (non-bee) honey. Lactose intolerance (real or political) and ‘saving cows’ has led people to almond and other nut-based ‘milks’. Yet milk production is still rising globally. But so are droughts, especially in the US, due to the huge amount of water needed to grow the trees for those nuts—the fruit, not the people. When vegan Californians virtuously order Iced Almond Milk Toffee Nut Mocha do they know 6,098 litres of their state’s depleting water resources are needed to ultimately produce just one litre of almond milk? That is a dubious distinction indeed for the American state that singlehandedly produces 80 percent of the world’s almonds. And that vegan toffee nut syrup includes sugar, salt, flavourings besides potassium sorbate as preservative, citric acid and potassium citrate. Indians have nothing against faux milk, with the trendy ones discovering their lactose intolerance at the precise time that substitutes are readily available in India. But most Indians, whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian, have steadfastly refused to give up real dairy. Thayir-saadam (curd-rice) made with cashewnut yoghurt, rabri with soymilk or paratha topped with margarine have not captivated the Indian palate. And ghee is actually enjoying a culinary renaissance. India is the world’s largest producer of milk, but the nature of our dairy industry is very different from the US, where enormous farms with upwards of 2.5 lakh milch cows in each are the norm. India has a spread-out cooperative based system, which does not entail vast tracts of land given over to intensive dairy farming. Cows in India are also fed with the fodder obtained from the leftover stalks of crops grown in the area, altering the ‘water footprint’ of the milk produced. The traditional market for non-dairy milk is lactose intolerant East Asia, where soymilk products have been made and consumed for millennia. They are not vegan but non-dairy non-vegetarians. But the global market for ‘plant-based milk’ that was $35 billion in 2021 and is slated to hit $123.1 billion by 2030 has almond milk as the fastest growing segment. And almond milk’s popularity is definitely linked to its strenuous advocacy by Western save-the-planet-wallahs. A curious dichotomy emerges: India is the world’s largest milk producer and the US is the world’s largest almond milk producer. Milk is being vociferously criticised as terrible in every way now but almond milk is praised. There is also a deliberate disinterest in revealing the industrial, engineered origin of plant-based meat and milk substitutes that negates the “better for health” and “better for the planet” self-righteous argument of veganism, but vegetarianism is downplayed. India is the best placed to tell the world that milk products in moderation are sustainable and vegetarianism is not the same as veganism. It is neither nutrient-deficient as opposed to meat-based diets nor lacking in flavour or variety as Chef Hartnett realised at that Marwari lunch. Just like PM Modi persuaded Australian PM Anthony Albanese to try chaat and jalebis (which he reportedly loved), only Indians can introduce real vegetarian flavours to untutored Western palates. The author is a freelance writer. 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