An anti-Veganuary campaign called Regenuary has been hijacked by a vegan fitness pro.
The online campaign has around 24,000 Instagram followers on its account titled the Ethical Butcher. It calls on people to ditch Veganuary in favor of eating meat from ‘regenerative farms’.
According to the Ethical Butcher, its movement is ‘better for you and the Earth’ than Veganuary.
Hijacked
However, fitness influencer Alasdair Fitz-Desorgher has set up a satirical Instagram account as a rebuttal against the Ethical Butcher. He wants to highlight that slaughtering animals is never ethical.
The original page claims ‘simply swapping out beef and pork for nuts and avocado is worse for the environment than simply choosing to eat well-raised animals’.
It states: “Regenuary, whether you’re vegan or omnivore, is all about eating foods that are local, seasonal and farmed using regenerative methods, now that really could save the world.”
Regenuary debunked
But Fitz-Desorgher has debunked the claims made under his new Instagram account: Ethical Butchers.
Speaking to PBN, he said: “I was prompted to create the satyrical page ‘@ethicalbutchers’ after ‘@ethicalbutcher’ reused an old advertising campaign from last year which aimed to justify animal exploitation by falsely claiming it’s more eco-friendly than veganism.
“Its claims were so laughable that I knew it would be easy to make parodies of their posts and, in doing so, help to debunk the misinformation they were spreading for their own financial gain.
“The science is clear. Going vegan is the single biggest thing you can do to reduce your effect on the environment. But, they’re trying to confuse consumers with pseudoscience that was already disproven nearly four years ago.
“By creating a lookalike account, I hope to beat them at their own game, but using actual science that withstands intellectual scrutiny.
“I was surprised to discover the handle ‘@ethicalbutchers was still available. But, I guess that goes to show – no one else thinks ‘ethical’ and ‘butcher’ belong in the same sentence.”
‘It needs to be called out’
PBN co-founder Robbie Lockie supported the Ethical Butchers page and helped with the production of the slides.
He said: “A campaign that directly tries to tear down the good work of Veganuary needs to be called out. It would be understandable if they were developing their own idea, but the direct and flagrant attempt to cancel Veganuary is not only disingenuous but counterproductive.
“They claim to want to help the environment. Cutting animal products out of our diet is the best way to do this.”
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Finally we have an admission by the vegan lobby that they have no concern or understanding of the environment or agriculture but only a narrow animal rights agenda and seem prepared to jump on any bandwagon that suits their purpose.
With only 60 harvests left on major croplands and a world population of 7.7 billion and rising, the issue of soil regeneration and maintenance has never been of greater importance ( it’s not a meat v non meat argument ) we are simply running out of resources. Why would you want to attack a group of people that want to rid the world of industrial agriculture. Why attack people who are opposed to the factory farming of all animals. It’s not all about livestock, it also incorporates traditional systems which have been dubbed “veganistic”. Would you not prefer to eat grains, pulses, oilseeds etc. that are not responsible for the death of trillions of insects, soil erosion, carbon and nitrous oxide emissions and have been doused in herbicides, fungicides and insecticides and the displacement of wildlife ( for monoculture read desert ).
If Regenuary could influence more people to eat real food, ( vegan or otherwise ) it could be an excellent thing.
And why is the soil so degraded? Because we have cleared so much natural habitat to graze and grow food and bedding for the 80 BILLION animals slaughtered each year. Over-grazing has ruined the soil as well. I don’t know why you think all vegans have no concern or understanding of the environment, many vegans including myself are also environmentalists. In the article, it states “Without meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% – an area equivalent to the US, China, EU and Australia combined – and still feed the world”. So how possibly could this have a negative impact? Plenty of land to return to nature and plenty of land to rotate crops, leave fields fallow, use companion planting, leave cover crops over winter. The fact that the so-called ethical butcher hijacked veganuary, says all I need to know about him and you, for defending him. And maybe you should look into how much food and bedding is imported for fharmed animals and the fact that the majority of soya is grown SPECIFICALLY for fharmed animal feed. https://chainreactionresearch.com/report/feed-and-livestock-in-brazil-china-eu-consume-most-cerrado-soy/?fbclid=IwAR153v6AcWtBDbmsolqrmyGW6CcxQTReBbqbbADhruEf7xNdyD1fLhTQG6w
Hey Rowland, whilst the vegan movement is often driven by an ethical ‘animal rights’, motive as you say, this is just one of many causes for action against the animal ag industry. The 4 main ones being; environmental, ethical, dietary health and disease prevention.
In many of my discussions with the ‘real’ ethical butcher, I’ve said I support their drive for a ‘better’ form of livestock farming (although, that’s a little bit like saying ‘a better form of slavery or genocide’)… but honestly, I do think they provide a better option for people who are determined to keep eating animals.
However, I take 3 objections to the content their posting (which was the reason for creating the parody account):
1- They are spreading false information. Whilst regen farming is environmentally better than industrial farming, it is not carbon neutral and it is not sustainable on a global scale as they are advocating. This has been concluded in a 2017 metastudy of 44,000 farms worldwide by the FCRN.
2- They are scapegoating and smearing veganuary. I agree, it would be nice to work with more conscientious animal farmers, but they are intent on smearing and “provoking” vegans to “grow their business” (direct quotes from the ethical butcher). You called this an attack on them, but it is at best just a defence against their smear campaign, and at worst a counter attack on their misinformation.
3- cutting meat and dairy is *the single best way* to reduce your individual carbon footprint, so for the sake of our planet’s health and our own survival, it’s imperative that we reduce animal protein consumption, and rebuke misinformation than encourages us to do otherwise.
I hope to work with companies like ethical butcher to promote a more sustainable way of living, but whilst they continue to scapegoat veganism and push misinformation, it makes that a challenging prospect.