Cycling UK Forum

Ru88ell wrote:

bigphil wrote:How did they push veganism?

By poviding a vegan only lunch and then telling everyone to give up meat and dairy to help reduce carbon footprints.

So while attending a lecture you were told by the speaker to give up meat and dairy? That's well out of order.

But as the conference is about cycling I don't see how you can object about the lunch - you have already said you liked it!

Bigphil
Its the being told "this is how you should be eating" rather than having the choice.
But worse than that being told this is the only acceptable way to eat as everything outside that narrow perameter is somehow wrong.
And even worse still it was,I believe,a cycling conference!

Ru88ell wrote:... She's 44 years old, very wealthy and drives a Jaguar XK8 Cabriolet 4.2. ...

Hmmm, well... a good thing about cycling: my bike is a "Jag." That's how it feels, anyway.

bigphil wrote:But as the conference is about cycling I don't see how you can object about the lunch - you have already said you liked it!

I didn't object to the lunch. It was food, it was lunchtime and I ate it as we had little time to do otherwise anyway. As I said previously I'm not fussy with food. I would have eaten pretty much anything; indian; chineese; thai; fish and chips; beans on toast. I woundn't have eaten liver, as I really don't like it.

Looking back, I seem to remember there being a space on the application form to write any dietary prefererances. I didn't write anything. Perhaps some wrote veggie / vegan so they decided to give that to everyone. Perhaps they could have promoted a vegan lunch with meat and dairy options for non-vegans.

Ru88ell wrote:

bigphil wrote:But as the conference is about cycling I don't see how you can object about the lunch - you have already said you liked it!

I didn't object to the lunch. It was food, it was lunchtime and I ate it as we had little time to do otherwise anyway. As I said previously I'm not fussy with food. I would have eaten pretty much anything; indian; chineese; thai; fish and chips; beans on toast. I woundn't have eaten liver, as I really don't like it.

Looking back, I seem to remember there being a space on the application form to write any dietary prefererances. I didn't write anything. Perhaps some wrote veggie / vegan so they decided to give that to everyone. Perhaps they could have promoted a vegan lunch with meat and dairy options for non-vegans.

The point I was making was that just because the lunch was vegan it does not necessary mean that they were promoting veganism. Seems a perfectly reasonable way to feed lots of people. I also don't see any problem with an event highlighting positive things about catering they provide. Typically food supplied at conference is rubbish so if presented with quality food I'd be delighted!

But I do agree with you, telling an audience what their diet should be a cycling event is out of order.

Well, I 'spose having the default meal type as vegan makes a nice change to all you pro-flesh evangelists trying to force your dead animals on me, and telling me when I ask if there is a vegi option: "yeah, there's a vegi option, you've the option to ^$&*£-off".

reohn2 wrote:Bigphil
Its the being told "this is how you should be eating" rather than having the choice.
But worse than that being told this is the only acceptable way to eat as everything outside that narrow perameter is somehow wrong.
And even worse still it was,I believe,a cycling conference!

There is a big difference between giving someone food and telling them what they should be eating. I'm not vegan and have no agenda here, but vegan food seems like a good way to give people healthy food at a low cost -regardless of what the event is.

Vegan food sounds much better than your typical thoughtless buffet with generic low grade meat finger food with battery eggs sandwiches as your veggie option. However either way I would not feel the need to complain as the point is the conference - not the food.

You would have to be a pretty extreme green to give up a car for a cycle.

Probably all of my "green" friends do far more car miles than bike miles and most have no bike at all.
Most of my cycling friends are not "greens" and many (myself included on a few occasions ) turn up at cycling events in a car.

However most people will end up reducing their carbon footprint by accident if they get the cycling bug. In my case I may still use the car occasionally to get to an early Audax start but I used a lot more fuel pursuing my other hobbies before becoming a cyclist.

So if they are such an extreme green that they have given up a car it is hardly surprising that they start preaching. The sad fact that someone who gives up a car IS an extremist means that we have little chance of reaching sustainable levels.

I get the point that preaching green at a cycling event is taking a liberty and a move I would not do so blatantly myself as I am, it appears, a bit more sensitive (not usually the case) than the organiser. However I am not above more subtle forms of influencing like a visit to a windfarm rather than a nuclear power station, say.

On the other hand if the choice is between making an attempt to maintain a liveable planet or ruffling the feathers of a provider of LEISURE cycling services to the Jaguar driving gentry, I may have to think twice.

meic wrote:You would have to be a pretty extreme green to give up a car for a cycle.

I'm going a bit off topic but I have to disagree with you with this sentence. I'd say it's more extreme to lock yourself into a cycle of car dependency if it's not necessary. I gave up my car for using a bike and public transport around 5 years ago. Mostly for practical reasons but it also neatly sits with my ideals. Either way it was a rational decision which I don't think to be extreme in any way.

My uncle also gave up using his car - but his wife still drives I believe. His decision was driven more by ideals though - he works as a climate scientist and with the mass of scientific evidence linking man made carbon emmisions to the changing climate he morally felt he could not drive that commute any more. Again a perfectly ration decision.

I do agree with the OP though, I would object to being lectured at by a 'sactimonious, self righteousness' speaker. But we are in an age where sustainability must come into our daily decisions. Highlighting this may or may not get more people riding bikes - but it's a reality that everyone must face up to.

When it comes to love, women prefer cyclists - is perhaps a better line to take than carbon footprints in advocating cycling. "Get on your bike and the ladies will flock" says the article, but not if you're wearing lycra. But to women I'd say wear lycra and the gentlemen will flock.

bigphil wrote:

reohn2 wrote:Bigphil
Its the being told "this is how you should be eating" rather than having the choice.
But worse than that being told this is the only acceptable way to eat as everything outside that narrow perameter is somehow wrong.
And even worse still it was,I believe,a cycling conference!

There is a big difference between giving someone food and telling them what they should be eating. I'm not vegan and have no agenda here, but vegan food seems like a good way to give people healthy food at a low cost -regardless of what the event is.

Vegan food sounds much better than your typical thoughtless buffet with generic low grade meat finger food with battery eggs sandwiches as your veggie option. However either way I would not feel the need to complain as the point is the conference - not the food.

I would feel the need to complain, the point was the conference and not the food as it was a cycling conference and not a food conference.
Vegan evangelism has no place at a cycling conference,I can't put it any clearer!

Sounds to me like the speaker could have been a lot more sensitive. If he had made a big effort to produce the vegan food, he might have been better off in letting people try it and then saying that it was vegan and if they'd enjoyed eating it then maybe they'd consider eating other vegan recipes in the future. I cook some vegetarian dishes not because we're vegetarian but because they're nice recipes. Preaching to people is only going to put their backs up and you would have thought that message would have got through by now.

Jan

i wonder how many people who were there have contributed to this thread? I'm not saying they should, just wondering if most people weren't bothered?

Ru88ell wrote:It's about time people realised that the best way to grow cycling is to sell it for what it is. We must keep green politics out of it. What chance is there of getting the Daily Mail reader on a bike when we're spouting this at them?

Just a couple of points.

Preaching is generally a bad thing, but when you go to these events there are always evangelists about something or other. Hence I don't go. I simply don't want people telling me why I should be cycling.

If you are going to evangelise then I don't see that keeping green politics out of it is a good thing. You've got to evangelise about something otherwise what are you selling? The green bit may not be the main point, but at least it's garnish.

Finally. Why do we want Daily Mail readers riding bikes? Personally I'd sooner they stay in their comfy cars rather than wobbling all over the road or worse trying to filter then becoming scared of the big cars and stopping in the middle blocking my path. Fewer bikes suits me fine.

kwackers wrote:.............. You've got to evangelise about something otherwise what are you selling? ..............

I'm not selling nowt




PS The end is nigh