Why So Many Black Americans Are Adopting Plant Life

Prioritize health, while being anchored in culture

After watching What The Health and Food Choices documentaries on Netflix four years ago, Desiree Daniels, who runs the food blog I can you can vegan, lost appetite for animal foods and decided to go completely vegan.

What struck me the most is that many of the common illnesses you see in America are also linked to food choices, Daniels recalled, saying that this made her wonder if a diet based plants could have helped his deceased mother. cancer. When one family member is sick, the whole family is sick. The family is still in and out of the hospital. How can I give myself and my family the best chance to live a happy and fulfilled life where I am not in the hospital or I am not sick? It meant switching to a vegan diet.

The North Carolina native said learning about the environmental and health impact of pig farming is also taking a toll on her, especially because North Carolina is one of the top pig farming states and black people are disproportionately affected by what results. toxic waste.

I couldn’t continue buying in this industry knowing how it affected the lives of people, maybe even my family, Daniels said.

It sent Daniels on a journey of discovery, and rather than feeling limited by it, veganism opened up a whole new world of food. What surprised me was the abundance of food I was missing because I was stuck in this standard American diet mindset, she said. For the first time, she was using ingredients like lentils and jackfruit, and learning the incredible versatility of cauliflower and avocado to make creamy, dairy-free dishes. She started veganizing the southern foods she ate growing up. She asked her family and friends, people who would never have looked for vegan food, to try what she’s cooking and open their minds to eating more plant-based foods.

I don’t know if my dad ever ate cauliflower before he went vegan, she laughed.

That’s when she started her blog to share what she had learned with other black women curious about veganism. The most popular recipes on his blog are reinvented soul food classics like fried chicken (tofu), macaroni and cheese made with a plant-based cheese sauce, and collard greens flavored with liquid smoke and paprika rather than ham shanks or turkey thigh.

I had this image of white, hippie people hugging trees, and I just couldn’t relate to that. I thought vegans were crazy. I think to myself, who in their own right would give up cheese? Daniels said. Before diving, I did not see myself represented in these spaces. So I thought it was important for me to be that person for someone else.

Pioneers of veganism

The art of vegan cooking is nothing new to communities of color, with Indian, Middle Eastern, and African cuisines featuring vegan dishes without the label. Even most Southern dishes have herbal roots, as blacks who were slaves to the cultivated and cooked ingredients with which they were familiar, such as rice, sorghum, okra, yams and black-eyed peas. , were brought from Africa.

There has always been this river of black people who pioneered veganism alongside the wider ocean of people who are omnivorous, said Tracye McQuirter, nutritionist and author of Ageless vegan and by all the necessary greens. In West Africa, for generations food was mostly plant-based.

During the civil rights movement, many black activists chose veganism, linking animal rights to the broader liberation struggle. McQuirter went vegan 34 years ago after watching comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory talk about veganism.

He traced the journey of a burger from a cow on an industrial farm through the process of the slaughterhouse, a fast food restaurant, a blocked artery, to a heart attack, McQuirter recalled. And for me, that sealed the deal.

As a student at Howard University in Washington DC in the late 1980s, McQuirter said the transition was not difficult because even back then she was surrounded by a black vegan community that mattered. at least 13 vegan restaurants owned by blacks. Vegan food vendors were always present at protests and other gatherings, she said. People in the community have chosen to become vegans for all kinds of reasons, liberation reasons, spiritual reasons, health reasons, but they all go together.

An adventurous dining experience

In 2020, McQuirter aimed to help 10,000 black women go vegan, providing them with a 14-day meal plan, a 54-page guide and workshops to celebrate the 10th anniversary of his book By Any Greens Necessaire, which has been hailed for promoting veganism in the black community. The program has welcomed nearly 15,000 women.

His biggest tip? Do not approach veganism with a feeling of lack and deprivation; approach it with a sense of abundance.

It’s clear there is a thirst for vegan flavors and cooking techniques that satisfy various palates and don’t skimp on seasoning.

You go to a lot of restaurants and are looking for that vegan option. There will always be a salad and it will always be some sort of vegetarian mix that lacks flavor. It’s so lazy and uninspired, said Exavier Pope, a Chicago-based media personality, entrepreneur and lawyer. Pope became a strict vegan in 2017 after developing a yoga and mindfulness practice. More in tune with his body, he removed animal ingredients as well as gluten to feel healthier and have more mental clarity.

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He started cooking a lot of his dishes from scratch, learning to layer the flavor and add umami with mushroom broth and nutritional yeast. He experimented with making various vegan cheeses using sunflower seeds, oats and potatoes. He began to use aquafaba, or chickpea brine, as a binder for baked goods. And there’s no shortage of vegan tacos for Taco Tuesday. He publishes the delicious meals from his Popes Vegan Kitchen series on his social media channels.

You can have a connection with food that doesn’t invite guilt. It invites exploration and adventure, excitement and joy, and my body always feels great the next day. It’s something I want to share with others, said Pope, who is looking to open up a restaurant concept and possibly write a cookbook. People always ask me if I’m cheating. Well, there’s no reason to cheat because it’s a great relationship.

Pinky Cole wants people to reinvent the role food can play in revitalizing their health and communities. In May, she opened a Slutty Vegan restaurant in Birmingham, Alabama, a city that isn’t the priority when it comes to vegan cuisine. But that’s exactly her take: Just because the community has been ignored in the past doesn’t mean she doesn’t want vegan options. Slutty Vegan made a pop-up in town that was incredibly successful, attracting a thousand people, Cole said. That’s when she decided she needed to open a location there.

We’re almost three years old and we still have lines in the block, which just shows we’re doing something right, Cole said. People see a successful women-owned, black-owned business disrupting the industry in the most unconventional way, and people can’t help but be proud of it.