Veganism and vegetarianism movements have been growing nowadays. According to Ibope (Instituto Brasileiro de Opinião Pública e Estatística) in 2018, 14% of Brazilian population considered themselves vegetarian or vegan. In order to maintain the profit and their consumers, big meat companies have adopted a few vegan options among their productions. On that matter, there is a polemic dividing vegans’ opinions. Here are three influencers who use their social media to discuss veganism and its relation with big companies.
Considering the growth of the meat industry, most politicized vegans believe that, by consuming food produced by these big businesses, they would be funding meat consumption. This argument is supported by a research done by Abiec (Associação Brasileira das Indústrias Exportadoras de Carnes) which has reported that the meat industry achieved 20,8% of growth in 2020. On the other side, the ones who agree with liberal veganism consider these “green products” and face them as a market tendency.
That issue was pointed out by Nicoly Alves, the founder of União Vegana Feminista: “we see big monopolies trying to enter veganism and transform it into a market niche”. So, the movement, which has historical and ideological bases, loses its main principles when it follows a market agenda.
The same side is considered by Carla Cadance, a social communicator, a culinary and anti-speciesism influencer that promotes ways of being vegan without spending much money on her Instagram, Veggie Sem Grana. She states that “it is necessary to politicize our food. We have to look for alimentary autonomy, we have to stop giving our food rights to big companies that only want to make profit with it”.
Adopting it as a political fight, following a healthy way of life, or trying to help the environment: veganism is the answer for Paulo Jazzin, chef of Subte Vegan restaurants. He realizes that the number of vegans will grow more and more every day, considering the fact that the planet and its conservation are on the spot.
Carla Candace
Carla is a social communicator who has created an account on Instagram, Veggie Sem Grana, that has been popping up since 2018. “Nowadays I don’t consider myself a vegan anymore. I am an anti-speciesism supporter”. Anti-speciesism defends the idea that non-human animals are not inferior to human beings, putting them in a position of having the same rights.
When Carla came across veganism, she was already part of the black, the LGBTQ+, and the feminist movements. She sees animalization as the base of speciesism, which is present in all of the “isms” — racism, homophobia, sexism, etc — and is caused by the idea that every non-conforming being, other than the white cis-straight male, is to be treated like an animal.
About some of the subjects discussed on her account, Carla says that even though people usually think they would have to stop drinking cow milk and start drinking the industrialized soy one, which is expensive, the movement is about deconstructing our speciesist way of life and basing our meals on vegetables.
The activist believes that the future is not vegan, because this idea excludes individualism. Even though she is not pro-violence against animals, she understands the depth of this debate, which includes ideas such as the plurality of cultures. The Yakutsk, for example, are from northern Siberia, a place where temperatures are mostly negative all year long, so they eat mostly meat. In that case, it’s impossible to grow vegetables and maintain a plant-based diet, so it would be unfair and eurocentric to judge them based on occidental principles.
Nicoly Alves
Nicoly Alves has founded UVF, União Vegana Feminista. The focus of the group is on the freedom of females, as a way of combating all kinds of oppression. When she was 17, she realized that it was necessary to politicize her meals and the way she used to face the world. So she became a vegan.
“On veganism, I found a way to fight against animal oppression, which I consider sexist. In the same way that we, female human beings, female animals are the ones at the front of that industry. They are the most explored and the ones with the lowest life expectancy”.
With her work, Nicoly also tries to highlight the political role of veganism, which, in her opinion, has been losing strength because of some deturpations done by media and big companies. The media encourages meat consumption, for example, in advertisements where a man’s virility and intelligence are associated with meat consumption. The women, in that scenario, are in the background, not consuming meat, but doing domestic chores. That’s the sexism acting both on work and on food organizations. The introduction of meat into our diets has been done by an ideology, not by necessities.
Her collective works together with other social projects and on popular demonstrations and rallies. Also, it has an Instagram account and a website in which articles about the theme are published. The circle of people reached by the UVF is considered big, but one of their goals is the expansion, especially outside of the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo axis. “In the future, we wish that women from all over Brazil are organized in favor of gender and animal freedom”, punctuated Andrade.
Paulo Jazzin
Paulo has been vegan since 2000. His trajectory in the movement started not by politics, but by taste: “I was immersed in the reggae and Rastafarian universe and I started trying vegan restaurants. I’ve been astonished by new tastes and possibilities”.
So, thinking about his health and the positive impact veganism has on the planet, Jazzin opened, in 2006, Cyber Cafe in Porto Alegre with vegan and vegetarian options. He confesses that the idea wasn’t well-welcomed by southern people at first — the region is historically populated by cattlemen — but, now, it has taken off.
Trying to bring vegan ideas and tastes to more people, the Cyber Subte Cafe was transformed into a cultural space and expanded its reach. Five years ago, Subte moved to the center of São Paulo, and the customer flow has been good: “we already had more than 120 clients per day, it’s so magic”. Nowadays, Jazzin has received proposals to open Subte units in Brasilia and New York. There is already a product network covering the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro region.
Subte’s owner believes in popular and political veganism but confesses that the movement has its problems. Although, he thinks that the future is vegan: the planet is warning us with signals — such as the Amazon deforestation effects, the temperature increase, the pandemic, and health diseases caused by pollution — and we have to respond. Each person has their own personal time, but considering veganism is fundamental if we want to live on a healthier, better planet. “We are arriving there”, closes the chef.
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The article above was edited by Julia Bonin.
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