Difficult to be vegan in France

As a Frenchman, I would like to share to you how difficult is to be vegan in France. Excuse me for my English, I do not practice it very well.

There are here strong resistances to vegan way of life because of its incompatibility with a national economy focused on milks, cheeses, meats and other products which involves animal torture (“foie gras”). Hunters and animal products workers represent a very important lobby : they receive lots of subsides and they put pressure on vegans by the law (by forbidding use of words “milk”, “steak” etc. for vegetal products). I live near Calais, in northern France, where a vegan festival has been forbidden by the municipality because of hunters threats. These last months, some butcheries have been sacked by “vegan activists” (even though nobody had been caught). So, they wanted to revenge. Fortunately, administrative court ruled against the municipality and permitted to the festival to take place on September 8th. But hunters will organize a demonstration against it.

Hunter lobby is very powerful here and president Emmanuel Macron is the most hunting-friendly president who has been elected these last decades. Hunting with hounds is still legal in France, although many Western European banned it.

I travelled a bit in Europe and I find it is much easier to supply vegan food aboard. For instance, chocolate is often made with milk in France in order to support producers. German “Nutella” (brand hazelnut cocoa spread) has a higher concentration on cocoa than the French one. Moreover, there are less vegans in France than in any other Western European country.

You may confront a similar situation in your country but if you have travelled in France, let me know about your experience !