Oy Vey It's A Food Newsletter - Vol 2, Issue 12
A newsletter that is definitely a killjoy and proud of it!
Hi,
Wow it’s been a while…I took an unexpected summer vacation from your inbox. Be honest, would you have even noticed if I hadn’t pointed it out? I’m slowly chipping away at a very crowded inbox (I’m typically an inbox > 20 unreads kind of person) so I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t me.
Anyway, a lot has happened! I moved apartments (there are still so many boxes to unpack??) and am now living deeeep in SF’s summer fog and also within walking distance to a Grocery Outlet, Futurama came back (baby!), the earth went from warming to boiling, I attended my first vegan/animal advocacy conference with a client (you’ll learn more in the Kvetch Sesh), Elon killed Twitter, I finished The Bear’s new season (check out my recap as told through vegan memes), a former U.S. president received more indictments!
-K
What I’ve Read
Dairy farmers urge FDA to crackd own on animal-free dairy milk labels: ‘It is prepsterous and absurd to call this milk’ - Do animal dairy stans really think that if they keep raising the same points and using the same logic they’ll get a different result? This is so unoriginal, tiresome, and a complete waste of time and resources. A reminder the FDA has already acknowledged that plant-based labeling of products that traditional come from animals, with a qualifier (like plant-based, vegan, soy, etc) does not confuse consumers. As this article points out, it would be confusing to consumers with a whey allergen if a product containing synthetic whey was NOT labeled as milk. Also, we already have to buy “non-dairy frozen dessert” instead of “ice cream” so let’s call it in the middle and we’ll accept the labeling of animal-free milk as “synthetic whey beverage” if cow dairy milk is labeled with the more accurate “lacteal secretion practically free from colostrum…”
Friday Thread: Where is Our Fat Liberation Barbie? - I have not seen the Barbie movie (yet) but I sure have seen enough marketing, movie clips, and general discourse about it to feel like I have! I appreciate the analysis by
, and other people she highlighted in this post, about what was lacking from the movie (fat politics, addressing white supremacy, etc) and some of the movie’s unintended consequences (Google searches spiking for Margot Robbie’s diet) that are starting to emerge.How Fake Science Sells Welness - New favorite word of the month, “scienceploitation.” Coined by Timothy Caulifield to, “describer how brands borrow language from emerging areas of science to market unproven products.” I have a go-to phrase that plays of scienceploitation, “trust science but don’t trust all science-y sounding things!” Some very interesting information in this article, including a 2021 study that found, “people who trust science were more likely to share false claims taht contained scientific references than claims that didn’t” AKA the marketing works best on people like you and me. The marketing schemes to be aware of described in the article are definitely helpful: jam-packed ingredient lists, vague terminology, and questionable studies (which is only helpful if you actually click the links on blogs, company websites, social media, etc). I did LOL that the article referenced advice from the FTC that includes the tip, “Do your research. Search for the name of the treatment or product online, plus the words ‘review,’ ‘complaint,’ or ‘scam.’” I would love to see the industry hire qualified professionals and scientific communication experts (hi I am available for consulting!) who can put together engaging, evidence-based and truthful copy instead of marketing teams with little-to-no scientific training who slap science-y sounding meaningless phrases on labeling. I think this also true for the influencer marketing space, which can be scummier even if it’s just by accident or lack of companies providing education to their partners.
Activists call it rescue. Farms call it stealing. What is ‘open rescue’? - There is so much to dig into here with the justifications made by animal rights activists compared to the justifications by spokespeople for the animal ag and processing conglomerates. As the title states one side is rescuing living creatures, the other side is whining about a few sick and mistreated (though they won’t even recognize those conditions) animals, ahem I mean their property, not being slaughtered and contributing to their dozens of billions of dollars in revenue. This is a long piece but an excellent read, which shines a light on the reasons open rescues happen, why people feel sympathetic towards rescuers, and the clear double standards of animals kept as pets and animals used and killed for consumption. It also exposes the ultimate root of why the animal ag conglomerates are so scared of animal activism, they call it anti-meat propaganda, I’ll call it fear over the undeniable evidence of the conditions they unnecessarily subject animals to causing people to shift their food choices in a way that makes a slight dent in their preposterous profits.
P.S. To those of you who have the means and ability to divest from the consumption of animals and choose not to, I definitely recommend you read this.AI is acting ‘pro-anorexia’ and tech companies aren’t stopping it - (CW: ED, explicit descriptions of disordered eating behaviors, anti-fatness, weight loss, calorie counting, and so much other bad shit please be mindful of your current capacity to engage with this content)
While I’ve definitely seen people sharing how AI responds to requests for weight-loss and meal planning prompts, this article was my jumping off point of going down a very deep, dark internet hole. I can’t even fathom how detrimental it would have been for my high-school-aged-self to have access to a chat bot that would so boldly enable and even advise (with a basic, easily ignored disclaimer) disordered eating behaviors. It was bad enough having access to MyFitnessPal and internet searches that quickly connected me to pro-ana message boards. I appreciate that this journalist shared highlights from their research and a recent study by the Center for Countering Digital Hate of 6 AI platforms on how the technology responds to harmful online content, as well as their outreach to the companies themselves and the company’s responses. Humans in general are already so biased and that bias is built into all of our systems causing very real harm and damage to the people who move within them. I feel like we are barely on the cusp of the healthcare, dietetics, and nutrition-science fields grappling with the biases they literally teach providers, scientists, and researchers. I have even less hope that for-profit technology companies will take the strong, preemtive anti-bias measures necessary to prevent contributions to sensitive issues, like eating disorders.
This Farm Bill Could Reshape the Food System. Here Are 10 Proposals at the Center of the Fight. - The current farm bill is set to expire on September 30th and pretty much every news outlet and food systems reporting I’ve seen is predicting the House and Senate Ag Committees will not be getting their shit together before then. This article from Civil Eats shares 10 marker bills, or smaller pieces of proposed legislation within the farm bill, that stand out in ways they could reshape the food system, and it is important to note that the title did not say reshape for the better. There are a few marker bills that I’m particularly interested in following. One is a proposal to track SNAP purchases, I understand the logic on both sides of this because data collection is typically not something that benefits the individuals who are tracked but the emergency food system researcher in me knows how helpful that information could be if it was strictly used for good. Next is the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, supported by the National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), which seeks to prevent states from regulating farm animal welfare. This a clear reaction to California’s Prop 12 opponents who wish to stifle animal welfare activism progress under the guise of state’s rights. In their words, the bill is, “To prevent States and local jurisdictions from interfering with the production and distribution of agricultural products in interstate commerce…” because both the food and the legislative system classify animals as an agricultural product rather than a sentient being who deserves their own rights. The next marker bill that feels like an attempt at progress is the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act, which wants to reform checkoff programs. I like that the bill claims to have a goal of bringing greater transparency to checkoff programs and specifically called out the disproportionate favoritism displayed towards the NCBA but the interests protected by this bill will still largely favor the animal ag industries. The Converting Our Waste Sustainable (COWS) ACT is also one to watch, while the title may seem like a charge to hold the animal agriculture industry accountable for its negative impact on the environment, it’s really to improve the profitability of the dairy and livestock industries.
3 ways going vegan helped my anti-racism advocacy | Christopher Sebastian | TEDxTUWein - Not something I’ve read but absolutely something I have watched! I learn so much from Christopher and this lecture was as insightful as the rest of his teachings and content. Here’s a preview from the YouTube description, “Christopher Sebastian explores how historical ideas around race and species influenced racial violence and animal violence and how the rejection of animal products challenges racial hierarchies and white supremacy.”
Q&Kay
Q: I’ve been grappling recently with how I engage with multicultural content that centers nonvegan food, and I was wondering if you had any advice. To be specific: I recent read the memoir “Crying in H-Mart” by Michelle Zauner, a Korean-American writer and performer. It’s important to me that I consume work created by people from cultures different from my own and particularly from women of color. I particularly enjoy memoirs, but I had a really hard time with “Crying in H Mart” due to the detailed descriptions of non-vegan Korean food. I felt so torn- on one hand, the author was describing her lived experience, one in which nonvegan food is a central theme. I wanted to witness this truth. But, on the other hand, I felt deeply unsettled by the loving way she wrote about what I view as murder and torture. I ended up finishing the book and finding connection points in the less food centered essays, but I was curious how you handle these types of cultural interactions.
Kay: Crying in H-Mart happens to be one of my favorite books from recent years. I was already a fan of Michelle Zauner and Japanese Breakfast’s music and I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Michelle. It was such a powerful and emotional book, especially told from her own voice. I also follow Michelle on Instagram and I see the foods she wrote about and more that she enjoys as someone who is not vegan. I do absolutely see where you’re coming from and how it can be difficult. Whenever I see people consuming animals, or smell people cooking them, I also feel, as you described, unsettled.
Veganism is the counter-culture. We are going to continue to be faced with the normative culture, which we find morally and ethically wrong, and the fact that we choose to practice veganism consistently is one of our forms of protest. Some days it’s harder to focus on myself and my choices than others but I try to remind myself that I take issue with the systems that have normalized industrialized animal agriculture and commodified animals, not the individuals within the system who are not in places of power to change them. I also try to focus on the passion, culture, experiences, lessons, and perspectives shared in non-vegan content, like Crying in H-Mart.
I think it’s okay to get enjoyment or entertainment from other people’s stories. Enjoyment doesn’t necessarily mean you are in wholehearted agreement or validating the choices of others. Listening to someone’s experiences feels very different, to me, than paying to go to a zoo or buying leather shoes or eating a cow burger. While there are some wonderful Korean and Korean-American vegan content creators and writers, I gained so much from engaging with Michelle’s book, as I do with the majority of the food content I consume that is definitely not vegan. Vegan or not, other perspectives deepen my empathy, cultural awareness, and knowledge of the world.
Maybe I’m also just used to navigating the world this way, at least to an extent. I have been vegetarian or vegan for more than half of my life, I’ve worked in restaurants that served animals and products made from them, and I got a degree in food policy and nutrition that required me to study all foods, nutrients, and types of farming. If you’ve read this newsletter you know how much content I consume that is not vegan and how I typically respond to or analyze it. I am likely more committed to my vegan practice because of these experiences, but I actually have no way to know what my practice would look like without them.
I also firmly believe that respecting the autonomy of other beings is a vegan value, even if a being’s autonomous choices are in conflict with my own. Again, engaging from a place of respect does not require me to change my own beliefs. Choosing our battles and protecting our energy when we can is how we maintain a sustainable practice.
As always, you can submit a question for a future Q&Kay here!
Kvetch Sesh
Looking around the room, a strange feeling arose in my chest. It wasn't strange in a bad way, more like a strangeness on the side of awe or the feeling you have when you have an out-of-body awareness that you’re in the midst of an important, transformative moment. It felt like I was the Grinch at the end of the movie where his heart grows three sizes. In that room, at that moment, I was in awe of how creating space for people to partake in the rituals of Shabbat, in the midst of the Animal & Vegan Advocacy (AVA) Summit, felt so radical.
I usually feel like the odd one out in the spaces in which I participate. This is likely a result of being neurodivergent and extremely anxious, but also because I usually am the odd one out in some way. Feeling like an outsider doesn't mean I have felt or been physically unsafe; I hold many privileges, like my skin color, education, and body size, that absolutely give me advantages in navigating most spaces. My oddness usually stems from my beliefs, identity, and ethics, which tend to challenge the affective demographic of the group present within a space.
I went to public schools for 11 years. If I wasn't the only Jew in my classes I was definitely one of few and one of the even fewer Jewish kids who kept kosher and missed class to observe our holidays. Being vegetarian from a young age meant being the odd one out in both Jewish and non-Jewish spaces, the same applied when I made the leap from vegetarian to vegan. In the big public Midwestern university I went to for undergrad I was acutely aware of being a Jewish vegan from out-of-state who wasn't in Greek life and worked when most of my peers were partying. My circles of identity within each of my communities tend to be distinct from one another contributing to my feeling an overall lack of true belonging. I'm sure you can relate as we all have our own identity politics and privileges that dictate where and how we do or don't fit in.
Despite feeling like an oddball, I tend to be, ahem, vocal and a bit stubborn. A killjoy, if you will. Not a killjoy in the sense that I take pleasure in spoiling other people's enjoyment but the type of killjoy described by feminist scholar Sara Ahmed. A killjoy by default as a person who threatens the normative activities or happiness of the community around me. The alienation that comes along with going against the dominant social order doesn't really bother me because that's who and how I have always been. Being unabashedly a killjoy and existing in some type of out-group is my normative existence. I'm fairly comfortable with this, though being comfortable doesn't mean I am complacent. I am continuously working to carve out sub-spaces of belonging within larger spaces. Which, is why I ended up in a room full of Jewish vegans at a secular vegan conference feeling like the Grinch at the end of his character arc.
I attended the summit with Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA), an organization that also tends to act as a killjoy in both the Jewish and animal advocacy worlds. This summit was scheduled over Tisha B'Av and Shabbat, which meant the JIFA team and other Jewish attendees had to choose between the animal advocacy space or the traditional observance of our holidays. Historically, Jews are used to getting creative with our observance when necessary, either for our safety or simply because we simply live in a non-Jewish world. So that's what we did. We got creative and established our own sub-space within the larger space of the summit. Our creativity took the form of a Shabbat meetup, once we got permission from the event organizers, of course. We bought a lot (like a lot a lot) of egg-free challah, tea light candles, and grape juice and set it all up in our assigned conference room early Friday evening. Our event invite welcomed anyone who wanted to participate in lighting Shabbat candles, making kiddush (blessing over wine or grape juice), and saying motzi (blessing over bread).
Once we were set up, a few people trickled in and then a few minutes past the official start time, we had an actual crowd. Looking around at the faces in the group, most of whom were complete strangers to me before this moment, singing shalom aleichem and welcoming Shabbat I felt the embodiment of belonging. I felt the bonds of community where I normally feel, well, like a killjoy. Just writing this and reflecting upon the event calls forth the wonderfully visceral feeling of being present in that moment. This is the power of community, a power that grows stronger every time we create the space for it.
It isn't lost upon me that such a powerful reaction from feeling in community at AVA comes from scarcity. It is rare to have a safe, dedicated Jewish presence in a vegan space or a strong vegan presence in a Jewish space, if there is any presence at all. In my head, Judaism and veganism are inseparable, I am vegan because I am Jewish. But the reality, for now, is that vegan spaces are not Jewish and Jewish spaces are not vegan. The disappointment in such a reality has been repeated by countless other Jewish vegans, people who, like me, are so used to moving through spaces as a killjoy.
Mainstream veganism is, unfortunately and unnecessarily, unwelcoming to many out-groups and marginalized people due to the stranglehold white supremacy has on the movement, reflective of our broader world. White veganism, as many vegan advocates and scholars have discussed, is veganism that actively ignores the intersectional issues which impede our collective liberation in favor of a militant, myopic focus on animal liberation. White veganism simultaneously claims to be the voice of the voiceless while ignoring the human voices that discuss the ways in which this type of activism is actively causing harm and stifling progress. White veganism is veganism practiced through a colonialist, imperialist, supremacist, evangelist framework that further marginalizes disabled people, fat people, queer people, non-white people, people of lower socioeconomic status, and so many more. It is because of white veganism that an act as seemingly mundane as observing Shabbat rituals felt so radical.
Creating the space for a positive experience with the other Jewish vegan attendees doesn't negate the antisemitism and harassment that is so normalized in the vegan movement. Along with the very public and violent antisemitism online from militant vegans that has been and will continue to be directed at me personally, I have seen countless vegan lectures, statements by public individuals, activism campaigns, and other media that make it very clear mainstream veganism, and activists with large platforms who uphold white veganism, do not want to welcome, or even tolerate, Jews. Or at least Jews who refuse to minimize our Jewishness.
The most obvious examples of anti-Jewish sentiments within veganism are campaigns hyper-focused on ending religious (this is true for both kosher and halal) slaughter or sacrificial animal rituals performed by a very small part of the religious Jewish community, like kapparot (live animals can easily be replaced in this ritual) . These campaigns are usually led by non-Jews who either ignore the Jewish vegans who try to engage the campaign organizers or the organizers listen and refuse to acknowledge the ways in which the visibility brought by their work puts our community at risk. It also manifests in the language used in vegan activism, like those who invoke the trauma and imagery of the Holocaust in an attempt to convey the magnitude of animal agriculture despite the availability of a more accurate term, theriocide. There is also frequent use of antisemitic tropes and dogwhistles in vegan spaces and references to the work of blatantly antisemitic people, like Louis Farrakhan. To be honest, antisemitism is common in most spaces, both progressive and conservative. Rather than extending the empathy they clearly have for animals to make the movement more inclusive and welcoming to marginalized groups, these militant vegans tend to double down and whine about cancel culture and label those holding them accountable as fake vegans.
When asking my Instagram audience, "do you feel comfortable to exist fully in your Jewishness in vegan spaces" and giving people the opportunity to share why or why not I received a range of messages. While this is certainly not the most scientific, unbiased qualitative research our experiences are valid and these responses aren't insignificant. There were respondents who said the acceptance of their Jewish identity was conditional in vegan spaces. One person said they have seen vegans call out systems of oppression and acknowledge that industrialized animal agriculture is a result of the “hegemonic culture of white, straight, men” but completely overlook or willfully ignore Christianity's role in those same systems of oppression. Some people said that their vegan spaces tend to be more accepting of their Jewishness than the more rural or conservative areas in which they live. A few responses echoed my own desire, and the work of JIFA and other Jewish vegan or animal rights organizations, to have our ethos reflected in Jewish spaces. It feels crucial to note that none of the responses indicated that any exclusion or discrimination faced has deterred Jewish vegans from maintaining their veganism.
As a Jew who has been vegan for almost a decade, I can undoubtedly say that while we may be a minority within a minority group we are fiercely committed, active, hopeful, and steadfast in our beliefs. We will cherish the moments in which we feel community and funnel the moments of feeling like an outsider into the motivation necessary to create future sub-spaces for Jewish rituals and joy. We will continue to lean into the role of the killjoy as we call both of our communities into the fact that our collective liberation is intertwined.
P.S. This newsletter contains a Bookshop affiliate link that helps support my work. Check out more of my book recommendations here!
I really appreciate all the examples of vegan-related antisemitism that you mentioned. Thank you.