Veganism certainly is not for everybody, but I have never personally seen it as something that could exclude someone for their class or social standing. I recently saw a tweet from a blogger I follow expressing her belief that veganism was only for certain classes…
This seemed a crazy idea to me as my own experiences of veganism worked out to be pretty cheap. I have seen a lot of discussions on twitter about how veganism is a privilege. Granted it is not a lifestyle that everybody can afford but their are adaptations for everybody. My vegan shops consist or raw and basic ingredients, fruit, veg, rice, pasta, tinned tomatoes etc. Then, of course come the more expensive and ‘luxurious’ ingredients such as cheese and vegan meat alternatives.
Cheese for example has always been by downfall, almost impossible to give up as I had it on basically every meal. Vegan cheese is undoubtedly more expensive than normal cheese. But I have found that I am using it less and less in my cooking as my tastes are changing. For milk and butter alternatives I have not even noticed the price difference. I would often buy a bottle of milk and it would go off when I was barely half way through. I think this is the main difference I have seen, there is much less waste which in turn reduces expense making up the difference for more expensive items.
From my own personal experience I just cannot make the connection between veganism being for the upper classes. Of course upper classes have the luxury of spending whatever they want on food, with no restrictions. But it is easy enough to be vegan on a budget, as a student I should know! It is a real task to go shopping as you have to check every single label for traces of milk or egg but for me it is worth it. I do not see this as a bad thing though as it makes you more aware of what you are exactly eating. It also helps to reduce waste as you have spent such a long time picking the food to buy that you do not want to waste it! Vegan meals also can literally be made by throwing random things together, those odd bits of food you would otherwise throw can now be put into a new creation.
It makes me question if disinterest in veganism is down to the assumption you must be of a higher class with more disposable income, or is it a stubbornness to try as veganism has an inherent snobbery around it? Ideas such as Vegunary or meat free Mondays are great ways to try veganism and see it is not as expensive as you might think!
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