ProVeg Nederland

ProVeg Nederland, also known as Viva Las Vega's (VLV) from 2011 to 2017,[1] is a Dutch foundation that aims to accelerate the transition towards a plant-based food system. The foundation's stated goal is to make it easier for consumers to eat plant-based more often and also to help companies address the growing demand in plant-based products.[2] ProVeg Nederland is a member of the international ProVeg International.[1]

ProVeg Nederland
Logo of the ProVeg International umbrella;
ProVeg Nederland doesn't have its own logo.
MottoDe toekomst is vega!
Founded19 October 2011 (19 October 2011)
FounderVeerle Vrindts, Pablo Moleman, Alex Romijn et al.
TypeNon-governmental organisation
FocusNutrition, health, ecology and animal ethics
Location
OriginsStichting Viva Las Vega's
Area served
Netherlands
MethodInformation, support, campaigns
Director
Veerle Vrindts
President
Pablo Moleman
Secretary
Nicoll Peracha
AffiliationsProVeg International
ProVeg Deutschland
Websiteproveg.com/nl

History

ProVeg Nederland started as an initiative in 2011 under the name Viva Las Vega's, when a group of students (including cofounders Veerle Vrindts, Pablo Moleman and Alex Romijn) organised a vegan festival, the Viva Las Vega's Festival, at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.[3] A foundation was formally established and the group started to develop other activities.

In 2017, Viva Las Vega's decided to commence cooperation with the new umbrella organisation ProVeg International, which also has national offices in Germany (ProVeg Deutschland, known as the Vegetarierbund Deutschland (VEBU) from 1892 to 22 April 2017[4][5]), Poland (ProVeg Polska), Spain (ProVeg España), the United Kingdom (ProVeg UK), South Africa (ProVeg South Africa), China (ProVeg China) and the United States (ProVeg US).[6] For better recognisability, the foundation therefore rebranded itself to ProVeg Nederland from 1 January 2018.[1]

Activities

Effective altruism

The foundation operates according to the principles of effective altruism, meaning that its campaigns are based on research and real impact. The foundation performs is own research and cooperates with other organisations around The Netherlands to increase the effectiveness of vegan campaigning and explore new effective methods.[7]

Festivals and fairs
ProVeg's Vegxperience at the City Gardens Festival Almere 2017.

The Viva Las Vega's Food Festival was relocated in 2012 to the De Hallen in downtown Amsterdam and became an annually recurring event.[8][9] There were also one time events held in Nijmegen and Rotterdam. Since 2016, ProVeg Nederland has been hosting the annual Dutch festival of VeggieWorld in Utrecht, replacing the earlier VLV Food Festivals. The first edition attracted over 7,600 visitors, making it the largest vegan fair in the Netherlands.[10] The 2020 VeggieWorld edition attracted 9,000 visitors.[11] With the travelling exhibition Vegxperience, ProVeg Nederland also participates in other fairs and events. In December 2015, ProVeg organised the first vegan Christmas market in the Netherlands in Rotterdam-Noord[12] under the name "Viva Las Vega's Food Festival, Christmas Edition",[13] succeeded by the "VeggieWorld WinterFair" in Expo Haarlemmermeer in December 2017.[14]

VeggieChallenge

During the first festival in 2011, the VeggieChallenge was launched, a challenge to eat less meat for 30 days. Since its inception, over 20,000 people have taken part.[15] In 2013, the foundation and the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Veganisme (NVV) jointly initiated the VeganChallenge, whereby participants try to reduce their consumption of all animal products over the course of a month. The VeganChallenge was organised twice a year; the October 2015 edition had 2,700 participants. Every day people taking part received tips and recipes to cook and eat plant-based meals.[16] Since June 2014, the NVV has continued the VeganChallenge on its own, while VLV and later ProVeg focused on growing the VeggieChallenge. In early 2019, ProVeg Nederland launched a crowdfunding campaign that garnered 15,000 euros develop a free app that allowed people to take up the VeggieChallenge, individually and internationally in any month, using their phones.[17] Before the app's launch on World Vegan Day (1 November 2019), 100,000 people had participated in the VeggieChallenge over the course of 8 years;[17] after the launch by all branches of ProVeg International, its website claimed over 250,000 people had internationally taken part in it as of June 2020.[18] The spike in participants was mostly attributed to a sudden interest in avoiding meat after 1.2 million people watched popular satirical news television programme Zondag met Lubach on 24 November 2019, which featured an exposé about mistreatment of animals in slaughterhouses that shocked many spectators.[19][20] Vrindts stated that the challenge normally attracted about 2,000 people a month, which increased by 342% in the first three days after the show.[20]

Public campaigns
De Vegarevolutie for sale at a stand at the Veggie Food Fair 2017.

In 2014, the foundation published a handbook for beginning vegans, titled De Vegarevolutie. De onmisbare gids voor veganistisch eten ('The Veggie Revolution. The Unmissable Guide to Vegan Food'). The book was written by Lisa Steltenpool,[21] a dietitian and then-president of the foundation, together with Veerle Vrindts and Pablo Moleman.[22]

After the European agricultural commission adopted a proposal to prohibit meat and dairy names for plant-based alternatives (such as 'vegetarian sausage' and 'soy schnitzel', as these were allegedly 'confusing') in April 2019, ProVeg launched a petition to prevent this intended 'veggie burger ban'. According to Moleman, consumers want to know what they buy, and references to products they are already familiar with give customers 'relevant information about taste, texture and application that they can expect from a plant-based product'. Within three days, the petition received over 16,000 signatures.[23][24] In December 2019, Medical Care Minister Bruno Bruins, as part of the 'Food Labelling Action Plan', decided that these 'meat names' would remain permissible as long as it is clear to consumers that it is a vegetarian product; this meant that the meat industry was not given a monopoly on words such as 'burger, schnitzel and smoked sausage'.[25]

Influencing the market

The foundation stimulates the development of a vegan market through an investment fund for startups,[26] in November 2018 replaced by the international ProVeg Incubator.[27] Furthermore, it cooperates with companies and advises food retailers on how to expand their plant-based options.[28][10]

Together with the Platform Eiwitinnovatie ('Protein Innovation Platform'), the foundation contributes to enlarging the number of vegan options and the replacement of animal ingredients. For example, ProVeg cooperates with meat analogue manufacturers to replace the use of chicken egg protein, and helped manufacturer GoodBite launch several new vegan meat substitutes.[29] A large number of snackbars, including the Smullers chain, introduced vegan mayonnaise in response to the "Met Zonder Ei" campaign.[30][31] Moreover, the foundation also introduced vegan cheesecake at several CoffeeCompany branches.[32]

gollark: ddg!eso FALSE
gollark: 🐝❗
gollark: Yes, I'm trying to cut down on it because of the maintenence burden.
gollark: Macron will not exist until advancing technology of some form allows you to translate your vague ideas of a language into a fully specified working implementation with near-zero effort on your part.
gollark: No support for anything because it isn't real.

References
  1. "Viva Las Vega's wordt ProVeg Nederland". ProVeg Nederland. 7 November 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  2. "Over Viva Las Vega's". ProVeg Nederland. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  3. Ad Valvas, 10 March 2011, photo without title, page 2.
  4. "International erfolgreich: Der VEBU wird zu ProVeg" (in German). ProVeg Deutschland. 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  5. "Vegetarierbund wird zu Pro Veg". Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung (in German). 28 August 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  6. Jimmy Pierson (15 May 2017). "I'm sick of hearing lies about vegan diets – I'm raising my child vegan because I have her best interests at heart". The Independent. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  7. "Dutch Raw Food & Lifestyle Festival 2016!". ProVeg Nederland. 3 June 2016. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  8. "De Hallen worden vegetarisch tijdens Viva Las Vega's!". AmsterdamFM. 21 July 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  9. Esther Villerius (21 July 2016). "10 x dit moet je doen dit weekend. 6. Vier het vegetarisme". Het Parool. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  10. Martje Schoemaker (4 March 2016). "Media Monks, Veggie World en startup pitches". Zakendoen met... BNR Nieuwsradio. Retrieved 5 January 2018.(52:30)
  11. Steffen van Beek (2 March 2020). "Bruisend vegan beurs VeggieWorld trekt veel aanhangers". Food Clicks. Retrieved 14 June 2020.
  12. "Eerste vega-kerstmarkt strijkt neer in Rotterdam". RTV Rijnmond. 18 December 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  13. "Viva Las Vega´s Food Festival - Christmas Edition". Evenementenkalender. 2015. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  14. Mac van Dinther (11 December 2017). "Op bezoek bij de eerste veganistische kerstmarkt van Nederland". de Volkskrant. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  15. "VeggieChallenge". ProVeg Nederland. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  16. "Gaat het nieuwe vlees het oude vlees verslaan?". NOS op 3. Nederlandse Omroep Stichting. 5 March 2016. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  17. "Nieuwe gratis app helpt vleesminderaars". Breda Nieuws (in Dutch). 1 October 2019. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  18. "VeggieChallenge - Eet 30 dagen minder vlees - ProVeg Nederland". ProVeg International website (in Dutch). ProVeg Nederland. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  19. Ellen den Hollander (25 November 2019). "Lubach hekelt misstanden slachterijen, kijkers geraakt: 'Leed niet meer goed te praten'". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  20. Ellen den Hollander (27 November 2019). "Na item Lubach over mishandeling dieren melden meer mensen zich aan voor vleesloze maand". Algemeen Dagblad (in Dutch). Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  21. Lene Kemps (18 March 2017). "Viva Las Vegans. 3 vegans getuigen: het is makkelijker dan je denkt". De Morgen. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  22. "De vegarevolutie". Prometheus publishing. 5 April 2014. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  23. Sanne Schelfaut (16 May 2019). "Actie tegen ban op namen vleesvervangers: 'Slavink net zo misleidend als kipstuckjes'". Algemeen Dagblad. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  24. Jon Stone (13 May 2019). "Campaigners rally against EU 'veggie burger' name ban". The Independent. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  25. Merel Knoth (22 December 2019). "De vegetarische burger mag in Nederland gewoon burger heten". Trouw. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  26. "Vegan startup". ProVeg Nederland. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  27. "ProVeg Incubator". ProVeg International. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  28. "Zakelijk". ProVeg Nederland. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  29. Jael Lambers (28 April 2017). "Bedrijven lanceren eerste veganistische kaasschnitzel". VMT. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  30. Dennis van Asselt (28 December 2016). "Nu ook veganistische mayonaise voor treinreizigers". Snackkoerier. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  31. Floor Gijsbertse (1 December 2016). "Manneken Pis komt met vegan mayonaise". Metro. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
  32. "Coffee Company breidt vegan assortiment uit". ProVeg Nederland. 28 November 2017. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
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