Opinion: Veggigeddon – not quite the game it used to be

On the family WhatsApp group, we’re keen players of “Whamaggedon”.

This is, of course, the lighthearted game of trying to avoid hearing “Last Christmas” by Wham as December goes by.

Easier said than done if you’re permanently tuned (as I am) to Old Hits Radio/Dinosaur FM, or you’re spending time in shopping centres in the lead-up to Christmas.

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About the author

Charlie Flindt

Charlie Flindt is a National Trust tenant in Hampshire, now farming 40ha of recently “de-arabled” land with his wife Hazel – who still runs a livestock enterprise. He also writes books and plays in two local bands.

Read more articles by Charlie Flindt

As soon as you hear those distinctive opening bars with the cack-handed drum beat, you have to ’fess up, and you’re out of the game.

In recent years, I’ve developed a January version, just to keep the thrills going as the new year blues kick in.

It’s called “Veggigeddon”, and, as you will no doubt guess, the game is to see how far into the month you can get without hearing the word “Veganuary”.

Not many years ago, this was a real challenge. You could hardly open a paper or turn on the television without being confronted by the latest wave of recipes guaranteed to “save animal lives” (not actually true, of course) and, latterly – when that line of argument had been comprehensively shredded – save the planet from climate change.

I do wish the NFU hadn’t jumped on that nonsensical bandwagon, but that’s a piece for another day.

Loser mentality

Somehow, I was always the first to lose Veggigeddon. Mind you, I was also the last, as I am the only one in the family with such vehement anti-vegan/vegetarian views, and end up playing on my own. Story of my life.

The lovely Mrs Flindt has better things to worry about – despite being the cattle rearer of the house – and three children seem very relaxed about veggies.

Their voracious appetite for and knowledge of good meat of all sorts is something to behold, but they seem remarkably tolerant of those who won’t eat it.

But this year’s Veggigeddon has been quite different. I did worry that it was “game over” when one of Veganuary’s most prominent cheerleaders popped up in the press telling people to eat meat.

Luckily, her Damascene moment hit the news at the very end of December (during “Chrimbo Limbo”/ “Twixtmas”) and therefore didn’t count.

The new year finally arrived (in bed by 10 after watching half of Pretty Woman, thanks for asking) but Veganuary was conspicuous by its absence.

Yes, the BBC featured it heavily on its food pages, but it’s the loathsome BBC, and we expect nothing else. So that didn’t count either.

Veganuary tumbleweed

Much of the month passed without mention. And when a flurry of vegan-related stories did finally hit the headlines, it was mostly in the business pages, telling tales of high-street food outlets and restaurants quietly dropping vegan dishes.

Analysts queued up to point out that demand wasn’t quite what had been expected. My favourite quote came from the AHDB: only 1% of those who signed up for Veganuary made it to the end of the month having stuck to the diet.

Foundations are truly fragile up on the Moral High Ground.

And did I cheer when I read that Neat Burger, the vegan burger chain backed by sleb virtue-signallers Leonardo DiCaprio and Lewis Hamilton, shut all of its UK restaurants in April after suffering substantial losses? No – that would have been heartless.

But I ’fessed up to being “out” of Veggigeddon with a very broad smile.