Chas Newkey-Burden

Are vegetarians really hungry for power?

Credit: iStock

The secret is out: vegetarians are ‘tougher’ and more ‘power-hungry’ than meat eaters, according to a study in the Times this morning. Well, as a vegan I suppose I must be even tougher and more megalomaniacal. I’m surprised, then, to not find myself doing a whole lot of street brawling or holding any subterranean meetings to discuss how I’ll overthrow Keir Starmer with my bare hands.

I was actually as surprised as anyone by the findings. Not because I subscribe to the caricature of veggies as gentle, pathetic creatures, but because my experience of vegetarians and vegans is that we are a bit less impressed with clout and power than most people. We’ve seen the horrors that mankind’s dominion over animals has led to in factory farms, slaughterhouseslaboratories and on racing tracks, and we’ve understood viscerally that might is often not right.

Ironically, the meat eaters who lash out at vegans and vegetarians might be the most similar to us

But one of the study’s findings today did ring true.

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Written by
Chas Newkey-Burden

Chas Newkey-Burden is co-author, with Julie Burchill, of Not In My Name: A Compendium of Modern Hypocrisy. He also wrote Running: Cheaper Than Therapy and The Runner's Code (Bloomsbury)

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