Disclaimer: This article may contain the personal views and opinions of the author.
Ah, the vegans. You have likely, dear reader, heard the joke “how do you know when someone is a vegan? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”. More truth than humor in that joke, one will find. Along with the insistence of every vegan to tell you they are such comes a rather ridiculous sense of superiority. That they are simply better than the wretched carnivores among us, of which this writer is a proud member. Well, karma seems to have flown in the face of one vegan restaurant that has now been, in effect , forced to sell meat. So much for that unearned sense of superiority.
It is now being reported that:
The Mango Tree, a vegan restaurant in the English town of Taunton, is adding meat to the menu to avoid going out of business.
A source reported that “those who loved the plant-based values have hit out saying ‘selling meat is worse than closing.’”
Owners of The Mango Tree feel like they have no choice.
A Facebook post read, “Our final day as The Mango Tree is approaching fast, before we close our doors for a little while, ready to open our new restaurant in the autumn — same location, same team and including some of our renowned plant-based dishes, alongside exciting new menu options and a brand new vibe!”
The Facebook post added that when the restaurant reopens, it “will be serving a variety of dishes to accommodate a wide variety of dietary needs and preferences.” The change includes meat.
“I’m very saddened to hear this; as someone who put so much energy into your restaurant, I understand entirely why you are doing this, but from a vegan standpoint, I would see this as an unethical practice,” one user commented on Facebook.
“Ethics extend to the jobs and welfare of our wonderful team, to whom we owe a great deal, and another chance,” the owners shared.
But for these vegans, the only life that matters is animal life.
To stay open, The Mango Tree needs customers to pay the bills, so diversifying the menu may help add more customers.
It was further reported by the Western Journal that:
“Veganism isn’t a business venture. It’s an ethical philosophy that does the best for the animals, the planet, and public health,” one user wrote.
“Introducing animal products to a menu in a town that has so many other restaurants makes no sense. It immediately increases the environmental footprint. It means that the restaurant immediately starts to support animals going through hell again.”
Not that one restaurant will change the environmental footprint — and it’s eminently clear that there aren’t enough actual humans willing to follow Bill Gates and the World Economic Forum down the primrose path to a plant-based diet.
“Despite lots of marketing, many special offers, offering dine in and takeaway, introducing the use of home delivery partners, and working incredibly hard to be as efficient as possible, not enough of the local population used us regularly enough to make continuing in the current format sustainable,” the restaurant stated.
“We must move on with positivity and are determined to do so.”
The free market is a beautiful thing. For all the empty talk about the sustainability of veganism, it turns out it wasn’t sustainable in the most important way of all: At the cash register.
In many ways, the lifestyle of being a vegan a bit of a myth. We actually reported last year that children, aged 5 to 10 years old, that are on a vegan diet will tend to be over an inch shorter than their meat-eating counterparts. Additionally, their bones will be less dense and smaller, thereby putting the children at risk fractures or even osteoporosis. PETA is hardly any help. We went on to report last year that PETA opened up an online satirical store, Urban Outraged, to take aim at popular shops like Urban Outfitters. The new store was to feature items made to look like they were crafted from “human parts.” Way to miss the mark, PETA.
