In his book Bishop-Weston claims that even if you are vegan 50% of the time it can make a difference to our planet. He says “The greatest danger to our world is apathy, the Governments of the world sit back and watch companies undermine the health of the nation, rape the planet and sell weapons of mass destruction to dictators because they think we don’t care enough.”
“There’s a good reason why the world is such a mess” he warns “we encourage companies to behave badly by buying their products”
He argues that people can easily make a difference by voting with their shopping bill.
“Be choosy about who you give you money to. If you don’t buy certain products the companies and their shareholders will soon sit up and listen. They are in it for the money – if you stop giving them your money for products that harm health and the environment you remove their power.”
He challenges the world’s consumers claiming that they can choose to buy normal tea, coffee and sugar that maintains the status quo of poverty or choose fair trade products where more money goes straight to the farmers and helps them build a future.
He claims animal products cause unnecessary suffering to millions of animals, spread preventable diseases, cause havoc with the environment, waste precious resources such as food and water and burn up billions of dollars of Government subsidies - unlike delicious vegan products.
Bishop-Westons’ solutions are not to take up politics full time or start lobbying government – “Just shop and eat more ethically” he says.
Whether his cookbook will help make poverty history is questionable but certainly world veganism is growing and the timing for an innovative vegan cookbook such as this one couldn’t have been better.