What is Weganism?
Weganism is veganism with a game twist.
Wegans only eat wild meat and fish that they have shot or caught themselves.
There are several famous wegans around. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, set a personal challenge for himself in 2011 to only eat meat from animals he had killed. These included goats, pigs, chickens and lobsters.
Factory farms are a sin against nature. If you want to eat meat, kill it yourself. If you can’t, guess what, you’re meant to be a vegan. #wegan #wildvegan
— TheRealMuskokaWitch (@MuskokaWitch) January 9, 2023
New York Times best selling author Tim Ferriss is often credited as having brought the term Weganism into mainstream parlance when he included it in his Five Bullet Friday newsletter. He defines it as: “Wegan /ˈwēɡən/ noun. Someone who follows a vegan diet, omitting all animal products except for wild-harvested meats. Put another way, a wegan diet is a vegan diet modified to include only wild-harvested meats.”
A wegan diet was naturally followed by American Indians who ate a variety of cultivated and wild foods eaten before contact with Europeans. As much as 90 percent of the Southwestern Pueblo diet consisted of calories consumed from agricultural products, with wild fruits, greens, nuts and small game making up the balance. Because large game was scarce in some areas, textiles and corn were traded with the Plains people for bison meat.
Weganism at Scottish Game Fair
Weganism is going to be a highlight at The Scottish Game Fair, which will be shining a light on the benefits of wild-harvested meats, including the sustainability and conservation involved in the sourcing, the nutrition gained from lean game meat choices, and the incredible flavour released.
Photography Paul Astley
Getting the best from wild game
Well known chefs and cookery experts, including MasterChef 2022 finalist Sarah Rankin, head chef at The Gleneagles Hotel Stavros Bampatsikos, chef and hotelier at Mhor Tom Lewis and chef restaurateur Harris McNeill will be heating up the Kitchen Theatre at The Scottish Game Fair, showing a variety of Scottish produce and how to get the best from wild game through innovative recipe demonstrations. and chef at The Fodderation, Lucy Pattinson, will also share their expertise. Pro forager and fermentation expert, Amy Rankine, will educate attendees on wild produce and how vegetables, fruits and herbs can be utilised and fermented in the ‘kitchen’.
Open-fire and game cooking enthusiast Keith Greig (@keithcooks_ on Instagram) is a Scottish Game Fair Ambassador and will be demonstrating cooking with wild food at the Fair. He says: “I think weganism presents a series of options for individuals who are concerned about the welfare of animals but can’t quite commit to a full vegan lifestyle. Whilst it could be considered no different to that of a pescatarian diet, a wegan diet allows people to consume meat that has been ethically sourced and the animal has lived a truly free range life.”
Lucy Pattinson, of @thefodderation is a private chef who specialises in open-fire and game cooking. Lucy has cheffed all over the country – from fine dining in Edinburgh to lodges and estates all over the Highlands. She says: “I am all for championing any inclusion of sustainable British wild-harvested meats to a diet. Long has eating game been shrouded with a cloud of stuffy privilege, and perhaps something like weganism might help make game more accessible (and hopefully more understood) to new – previously alienated- demographics. What would be even better to see is a push for both a local and a seasonal approach to diets in general across the board. It feels a little ironic to make a song and dance about eating a roe haunch from up the road if you’re serving it with re-hashed palm oil and soya produce from halfway across the world.”
Dr Al Gabriel, stalker, Shooting Times columnist and ambassador for The National Shooting Show, says: “Weganism – it is definitely the right way to go. Although I don’t think it is sustainable at a population level. We need animal farms for that exact reason. However, those who can source wild meats should definitely take advantage of it whenever possible.”
The timetable for the Kitchen Theatre is shown below and correct at the time of writing.
