{"id":552,"date":"2019-01-17T14:14:37","date_gmt":"2019-01-17T14:14:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/?p=552"},"modified":"2019-01-17T14:14:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-17T14:14:37","slug":"doing-veganuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/2019\/01\/17\/doing-veganuary\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Veganuary? Here are the (unexpected) consequences it might have for your family"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does becoming a vegan affect other people in your household? With veganism on the rise, 300,000 people worldwide are expected to take part in Veganuary this year. There's abundant advice out there on how to go vegan, but the impact of such a dietary change on one\u2019s family is less discussed. In this post, Insa Wemheuer, a PhD student at the Centre for Business, Organisations and\u00a0Society<\/a> at the University of Bath School of Management, shares reflections from speaking to households which accommodate vegans and non-vegans alike.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why do Veganuary? The rise of veganism<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you or someone in your family \u201cdoing\u201d Veganuary<\/a>\u00a0this year? If so, you are in good company \u2013\u00a0300,000 people<\/a>\u00a0worldwide are expected to take part, a\u00a0tenfold increase since its start 2014<\/a>. This increase has been driven not only by concern for animal welfare, but also by a growing awareness of the impact of meat production on the environment, as well as a perception that a vegan diet is a healthier diet.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The central role of family food practices for dietary change<\/strong><\/h4>\n

However strong your moral or personal motivations, however, changing one\u2019s dietary habits can be very difficult, and particularly if the result is that you\u2019re eating differently from the people around you. Family support is a key factor for successfully maintaining dietary changes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 what happens within families where someone decides to go vegan? How does this impact existing food practices within households, and how do family members react to and handle the potential disruption of their existing food routines? This has been the focus of my research, and over the last 18 months I have interviewed more than 40 people who (try to) follow a vegan diet. I\u2019ve also followed around 15 families more closely by both observing them planning, shopping, preparing and eating food, as well as interviewing several family members.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reflections from the field<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Within families, food and eating is complex. It can play a central role in rituals and traditions<\/a>, convey\u00a0shared understandings of what \u201cproper food\u201d\u00a0<\/a>is and facilitate the construction and expression of a family\u2019s identity.\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0Eating together also means\u00a0spending time together<\/a>, expressing\u00a0care and love for each other\u00a0<\/a>and one\u2019s children<\/a>. Such social aspects are, of course, only part of the shared and often routinised\u00a0<\/a>food practices\u00a0<\/a>within families. Together with the materiality of the food itself, its embodied aspects of taste and digestion as well as the knowledge and practical skills of how to prepare it, there is a complex system of household food practices that most of us are unaware of as we just \u201cdo\u201d them every day.<\/p>\n

Consequently, changes in the way one family member eats may lead to unexpected consequences, emotional reactions and\u00a0conflicts throughout the whole system of food practices.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Practicalities and inconveniences<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Firstly, one person going vegan affects other family members by posing the practical issue of food provision - do we stop eating together, have separate meals side-by-side, some kind of patchwork meals, or eat all-vegan dinners? Who is willing to cook and eat what?\u00a0Feelings of annoyance, anger or fear of loss on the part of the non-vegan are thus not unusual, as the common first reaction of \u201cOkay, but don\u2019t expect me to go vegan\u201d <\/em>shows.<\/p>\n

The willingness of the non-vegan to prepare and\/or eat vegan food also proved crucial to overcome other disruptions of \u201cdoing family\u201d via food. Offering practical support\u00a0out of respect for their partner\u2019s choices proved thus one strategy to handle potential conflicts caused by disagreement on the ethical aspects of eating animal produce.<\/p>\n

Taste and preference can here be both a bridge if the non-vegan discovers that they enjoy vegan foods, but it can also be\u00a0another unexpected\u00a0obstacle for families who find it impossible to cook vegan meals that everyone enjoys. Non-vegans might be supportive in principle, but in reality dislike the vegan alternatives or be simply unwilling to give up certain non-vegan foods. If the result is then that different meals need to be prepared for different family members, or that the vegan has to take sole responsibility for preparing their food (potentially in addition to preparing food for the non-vegans), eating vegan at all mealtimes becomes practically \u2013 and potentially also emotionally \u2013 difficult.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Moral support<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Secondly, if someone has become vegan through moral concerns, this can lead to the non-vegan feeling uncomfortable as they are forced to actively think about, take a stance on and defend their meat-eating. However, thinking this through and respecting the viewpoint that eating animals \u2013 or at least their treatment in factory farming \u2013 is morally wrong, can help. Even if one is unable or unwilling to eat vegan food due to taste (see above) or nutrition issues, showing respect for others' values can ease the potential practical conflict, as can \u201cdefending\u201d the vegan when interacting with the wider family. In other words, providing moral support might be a substitute for practical support.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Communication and compromise<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Having to change a family\u2019s shared and routinised food practices due to one person deciding that they want to adopt a vegan diet can cause a range of unexpected consequences, emotional reactions and conflicts. However, the non-vegan\u2019s ability to provide either practical or moral support, and their general openness towards new tastes, moral considerations or scientific knowledge on the environmental and health aspects of meat-eating versus vegan appears to be crucial to working out collaborative and functioning food routines.<\/p>\n

Overall, the ability to communicate honestly and openly with each other, to not take things or oneself too seriously, as well as genuine acceptance and respect for each other\u2019 opinions, tastes and practical abilities might help to find a working compromise for everyone involved.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Header image by\u00a0Ivana Milakovic<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How does becoming a vegan affect other people in your household? With veganism on the rise, 300,000 people worldwide are expected to take part in Veganuary this year. There's abundant advice out there on how to go vegan, but the...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":943,"featured_media":554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,105,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-consumers","category-food","category-research"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2019\/01\/veganuary_2.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd4Pj1-8U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/943"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/business-and-society\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}