If veganism is supposedly going mainstream, why are activists still losing their jobs and facing raw meat thrown in their faces? It points to a deeper conflict at the heart of Britain’s culture wars.
“I was fired for being vegan. So that is a very direct attack to my livelihood, on everything.”
The words hang in the air of Jordi Casamitjana’s London home office. But behind it lies a story that changed British law forever, and revealed just how hostile the world has become for people who choose not to eat animals.
The 61-year-old zoologist from Catalonia has lived in the UK for over thirty years, working in animal protection his entire adult life. But nothing prepared him for what he’d face when his ethical beliefs collided with his employer’s pension fund in 2018.
We’re living through a peculiar moment in British culture. Despite Veganuary’s annual popularity and plant-based products flooding every major supermarket, the actual number of vegans has plateaued at around 4% of the population, while other studies suggest between 2.5-4.7% depending on methodology. Yet somehow, this tiny minority has become one of the most vilified groups in the country’s increasingly fractured culture wars.
But for those who actually live as vegans, the reality is far more hostile.
“Sometimes I will be with a group of people doing vegan outreach, we use the term vegan outreach, meaning talking to strangers about veganism. And somebody approached with a raw piece of meat, eating it in front of our faces in order to provoke us and insult us and do things like that. We were just talking to people about veganism if they wanted to learn things about it, and they were just aggressively trying to provoke a disturbance,” Jordi says.
On television, prominent figures have made attacking vegans into performance art. Piers Morgan has built an entire brand around confronting vegan activists on his show, deliberately eating steaks and Big Macs in front of his guests while calling them “pasty-faced” and “annoying little squits.”
When Animal Rebellion activist Nathan McGovern appeared on Morgan’s show to discuss protests at Nusr-Et, a high-end steakhouse where steaks sell for up to £1,450, instead of discussing anything, Morgan had a steak dinner brought out mid-interview. “Here’s my point. I love eating steak. I’m not gonna stop eating steak,” Morgan declared while cutting into his meal. “And the very last thing on earth that will stop me from eating steak is people like you with your pasty-faces running into our restaurants, telling us to stop eating steak.”
The stunt generated over 100 Ofcom complaints from viewers, but Morgan continues the routine with different activists.
For these media figures, veganism isn’t just a dietary choice, it’s become shorthand for everything they see as wrong with modern Britain.
The tensions aren’t limited to media studios. In January 2025, shoppers at a Southampton Sainsbury’s found themselves confronting Animal Rising activists who had formed a human blockade around the chicken products, according to GB News reports. “Who do you think you are?” one frustrated shopper demanded as he tried to push past. Another warned, “You move-well, I’ll just knock you out of the way.”
But for Jordi, the culture war became devastatingly personal long before it reached the supermarket aisles. In 2018, his employer, an animal welfare organization, asked him to enroll in the company pension scheme. Standard HR procedure. Except Jordi did something most of us never will even think of. He actually tracked down where his money would go.
“And I checked where the money was going to the pension fund, the autonomy. And I discovered that it was going to companies that would be completely incompatible with veganism, pharmaceutical companies that test on animals. Tobacco companies, petrol companies.”
For most people, this would be mildly annoying. For Jordi, it was impossible to accept. “And when I complained, they said, well, yeah, we’ll change it. But because I kept complaining, they fired me.”
The legal system initially offered little hope, Jordi says.
“And then I went to a lawyer and they said, yeah, they fired you because of what you believe. But veganism is not protected yet legally, but it can be because the Equality Act allows for new protections to be added, especially for philosophical beliefs that are non-religious. There is a process you have to go through. There is a judge that has to check the belief and against a series of conditions.”
What followed was two years of financial and emotional strain. “So after two years the judge said, yeah, it fulfills all the conditions. And then I was successful in my legal case,” Jordi says. “but that was a direct case where my veganism caused me to lose my job and directly my livelihood. And for a long time nobody would hire me because they would know why I was fired until I won the legal case.”
The ruling was groundbreaking. Veganism became protected under the Equality Act 2010, joining categories like gender, sexual orientation, and disability. “And the UK is the only country in the world where there is such a level of protection,” Jordi says.
The legal victory allowed Jordi to clarify what veganism actually means. “Although veganism existed, Vegan Society was the first one in the UK to define veganism. The essence is so therefore anybody that follows that definition is what we call now an ethical vegan.”
This comprehensive definition explains why Jordi uses the term “ethical vegan.”
“Anybody that follows that definition is what we call now an ethical vegan. And we have to use this word ‘ethical’ before, because after veganism was defined and the society was created, some people only adopted the diet and that’s the only thing they adapted to, but they still wear animals. They still did entertainment with animals, and they call themselves vegans.”
When his case reached court, it was ethical veganism that gained protection. “So when it was protected in the UK and my legislation and my litigation was ethical vegan, so only those that follow the definition to the whole, not those that just have a diet like the one of vegans.”
Jordi’s transformation hadn’t been sudden. ” I’m a zoologist for animals and it has always been my interest. I went to an island in isolation for twenty three days to reflect on all these things, and I came back as a vegan. So after having thought that, it makes no sense. There’s no possible justification to this. To wear ones and not the others. You need to exclude all animals for all purposes, not just food.”
He describes five pathways into veganism: “One is animal rights. They did it because of animals. That’s the one I chose was animal rights. Then the environment is another gateway into health is another one, then spirituality or religion is another one, and then social justice is another one. Perhaps the most modern one.”
After decades of activism, Jordi has developed a sophisticated understanding of why veganism provokes such intense reactions. “And there are vegan phobes now, like homophobes and people that hate vegans and the people that the moment that they hear the word vegan, they become violent and aggressive and things like that. They do exist. I think they are carnies. We use the word carnies. Many people use it meaning carnism, meaning the opposite philosophy of veganism.”
The majority, Jordi says, have been indoctrinated into what he calls “carnism.” “So they’ve all been indoctrinated into carnism and that indoctrination has decided for them what’s right, what’s not right, which animals can be eaten, which animals cannot beat.”
Such conflicts occur regularly across Britain. In March 2023, pig farmer Sylvia Hook was enjoying a quiet Saturday morning when she spotted dozens of cars across from her Lincolnshire farm. “I thought the hunt must be out somewhere,” she recalled to Farmers Weekly. “But I went to have a closer look and saw people wearing Meat the Victims T-shirts, then I realised it must be us.” According to the Farmers Weekly report, activists stormed across the fields to the back of Sandilands Farm, a 600-650 breeding sow unit.
For Jordi, the current political climate around veganism reflects deeper social tensions about identity and change. “The culture war period we live in now is an identity war. In the past, the indoctrination of Carnism had told very clearly that there are two genders. You only get married to limit the options that people will have.”
Veganism fits naturally into this pattern. “Now, Veganism is just part of this because veganism is an identity. So when you say I’m a vegan, it’s a word, as you might say, I am gay, I am vegan, has the same identity power and is a philosophy that affects every aspect of your life.”
This makes vegans a natural target, says Jordi.
Jordi has witnessed first-hand how media coverage shapes public perception. “The media often is paid by companies, and these companies are often animal, uh, exploitation companies, food companies, meat companies, cheese companies. So they are not independent. Most media objects, media outlets have some links with donors that might dictate which direction should go.”
The impact extends beyond simple bias. “Only good journalists that are able to detach themselves from the pressure of their bosses or good small outlets that define themselves as independent. And they didn’t. They try not to get involved. They are the ones that can report about these things properly,” says Jordi.
Jordi highlights the explosion of vegan products in supermarkets. While many see this as progress, he views it as potentially harmful to veganism’s core message. His concerns appear to be validated by recent market trends, major brands including Heinz, Greggs, and Oatly have quietly withdrawn vegan products from shelves, citing “changing culinary trends and tastes” according to industry reports.
His position is uncompromising, “for instance, I don’t eat anything. And not just that it’s framing itself, but anything that has the name of an animal even with an asterisk like chicken or if it has the name of the animal, I don’t eat it because I think the name already, even regardless of the product, is linked to the understanding that this animal is an edible thing for a human.”
This critique extends beyond products to the vegan movement’s tactics. When Animal Rising activists staged their supermarket protests, dairy farmer Kelly Seaton pushed back against claims about industry practices, “Shooting boy calves is not a practice that goes on. The idea that we are shooting them is a myth.” Her comments highlight the factual disputes that underpin the broader cultural conflict.
Jordi’s commitment extends to every aspect of his life, creating challenges most people never consider. “Yeah, well I don’t even go and sit at a table with anyone eating a non-vegan product anymore. So I would only eat at a table or in a vegan restaurant one hundred percent. I can’t just be sitting relaxing in the same place where somebody at another table is eating a bit of cheese.”
Jordi reflects on the psychological challenges that comes with being a vegan.
“When you learn about the reality of the world and how animals suffer and you realize, okay, veganism really works, it’s healthier. And now everybody, I want to tell everyone and they will obviously follow it because they will use logic and common sense as I did. And they don’t follow it.”
His vision transcends current consumer culture and the work continues through fundamental questions. “When you ask them the question, do you think it’s, you know, a good thing to treat animals? Well? Most people in civilized societies will say, “Yes, of course it is.”
He draws parallels that are hard to ignore: “But then when you look into veganism and you look into the way that animals are treated, even free range cows who are bred for their milk and then have their calves taken away after a few months.”
In a country where food has become the newest battlefield in our deepest cultural divisions, perhaps that protection has never been more necessary.