For reasons you can probably imagine, vegans and meat-eaters aren't exactly the best of bedfellows. In some cases, I actually mean that literally; I had a roommate who was a meat eater, who often brought his vegan girlfriend round. Dinner times were a clash of ideologies, with plenty guilt tripping and awkward silence to go with that steak or tofu.
They did not last.
While these two subsets of the food-loving community stand poles apart, they - in theory - both cite taste and vitality as part of their main selling points, but like dogs and cats, we're not going to get them to get along, are we? The latest blow in the never-ending war of words between meat eaters and vegans came at a butcher's in Derbyshire.
Let's head to Duffield in Derbyshire, where a post in the Spotted: Duffield Facebook page last week had a special message for an Anthony Griffiths, who happened to own the local butcher's named Anthony Andrews (yeah, I found that confusing too). Samantha Lawson's post is not the most complimentary about a sign outside the butcher's.
"Dear Anthony Andrews, when I saw the title of your board I was excited at what you might be offering; what a disappointment it was to then read this message and find you offering only hostility and bad grammar. Tip: don't alienate potential customers. You're welcome."
The sign in question? Well, let's take a look, shall we?
Now if you've spent much time on social media (or indeed on Food Envy), you'll know that vegans have a reputation for getting bent out of shape, and that meat eaters love trolling their plant-eating adversaries. So already, you know that Anthony Andrew's board isn't going to say something like "I like and respect your life choices".
"Dear vegans, we have the cow that’s been eating all your grass. Your welcome [sic]," says the board, and apart from the apostrophe, I think that's more funny than it is offensive. Of course, that's only my opinion - what did the rest of Facebook think?
"I suppose some people have to come out with these remarks to justify the suffering and abuse done to animals because they have no compassion any only care about their bellies. Happy to say nothing died for my plate," says one plant-eater. Another commenter makes a good point with her rebuttal.
"The board outside the butchers says something comical and funny every week. I don’t see how this is alienating vegans as why would a vegan be setting foot in a butchers anyway surely that is against what you believe in. I know a lot of vegans in the village and I am sure they will see this as the joke that it is."
For the record, Anthony Griffiths invited Samantha to have a free steak if she liked, adding that he tries to be as environmentally friendly with his steak-making. "I use local farmers and I’m quality assured, so all the meats come from RSPCA approved farms. I always say to my customers that I would be the worst farmer in the world," said Griffiths, and at least he, if nobody else, was willing to bury the hatchet and meet somewhere halfway.
