Montreal Vegan Festival dispels myths, shares tips for cutting meat from diet
Posted October 9, 2022 5:10 pm.
Last Updated October 9, 2022 6:17 pm.
The Montreal Vegan Festival was back at Palais des Congrès this weekend — filled with food, products, conferences and cooking demonstrations.
The festival looked to debunk some of the myths about veganism, and encouraged Montrealers to learn more about the lifestyle.
For food writer Caroline “Loounie” Huard, the vegan festival is a great place to start.
“If you’re thinking about becoming a vegan, you need to learn the tools, like, what am I going to eat tomorrow?” said Huard. “Because you need to know what to do, and you also need to understand why you want to do it. So there are conferences about, for instance, animal rights and ethics and vegan nutrition.
“So it’s important to have a lot of resources to understand why you want to do it and to know what you can cook and what you can eat as a vegan.”
The three pillars of veganism are no eating, using or wearing animal products for animal rights, the environment and health.
Veganism has been popularized in the western world in the past few decades.
But many are working to decolonize what they call “white veganism.”
“Afro-veganism is a reclamation of your pre-enslaved ancestors’ diet and there’s this rich history of good food that we have not tapped into that a lot of us don’t even know about,” said Joe G. Thomas, the author and founder of Black Vegans of Toronto.
“Veganism to me is just a modern term for the rich and healthy lifestyle that my ancestors had.”
Showcasing origins of veganism
Many parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa have been eating vegan for centuries.
Many vendors and speakers showcased the origins of veganism during the two-day festival.
“My product is from Senegal. It is an Afro-vegan food,” said Ndiallo Aw Badji, the CEO of Mamy Kaya. “You have a lot of protein.”
“Veganism is just to promote plant-based eating and whole foods and obviously wellness and healthy foods,” said Cynthia Chackal from Les Filles Fattoush. “And I think in the Middle East we do have the Mediterranean diet that is very known for being super healthy. And so I think it was important to showcase the flavours of our country.”
Huard says one of the myths the Montreal Vegan Festival helps dispel is that vegan cuisine is by nature more expensive than a meat-eating diet.
“It’s basically veggies and legumes and beans and grains. So these are very inexpensive staples,” she said.
“I think it’s important to stay realistic. I don’t think that going vegan overnight is realistic for most people. I think it’s important to maybe make small incremental changes. And what I usually advise people to do is that instead of cutting anything from their diet to mostly have new things, learn how to master a legume recipe or lentil recipe that you love. And that’s going to come back every week on the menu.”
