Last Friday, shortly before the World Vegan Day ( World Vegan Day ), UK football club Forest Green Rovers announced that they had become the first fully vegan team in the football world.
The Forest Green Rovers club was founded in 1890 and is based in the small (6,000th) town of Nailsworth in the west of England (Gloucestershire). To date, the team plays in the National Conference - the fifth most important football league in England - leading it after 19 rounds of the current season. The official start of the veganism of all Forest Green Rovers players was a home match against Chester on Saturday, in which a 2-1 victory was won.
A special diet at Forest Green Rovers was adopted back in 2011, when the club refused meat. Now the leadership has decided to exclude fish and dairy products from the food of their wards. Such changes were adopted at the suggestion of Dale Vince, the owner of the club, who is also a strong supporter of "green energy". Back in 1995, Dale founded the British company Ecotricity, specializing in the sale of energy generated by 70-megawatt wind turbines. Since then, Ecotricity has expanded its energy sources by adding solar installations and becoming the first company in the UK to supply green gas (produced in the Netherlands from sugar beets by methane fermentation).
Dale Vince, owner of Forest Green Rovers: “We stopped serving meat to our players, fans and employees about four years ago. Since then, we have strived to show our fans such a new world. When you stop eating meat, you really open up a new world of diversity in food. The difference between vegetarian and vegan food is not so big: to overcome it is not a jump, but rather a simple step. A lot of our food has been vegan lately, and this season we've taken the final step."
In a press release on the club's website for the event, Dale noted the detrimental impact of animal products on the environment: the world combined. It leads to incredible animal cruelty and shocking statistics: in the UK alone, over 1 billion animals are eaten every year - 3 million a day - and that doesn't even count fish. Each of these animals lives a short and terrible life, and each of them consumes more food than their bodies can subsequently provide us with.
See also anekdotig:
- News: " November 1 is World Vegan Day " (November 1, 2015)
- Article: “ Why and how does animal husbandry harm the environment? ".
According to The London Economic , the vegan football club Forest Green Rovers has won the Menu of the Year award from the British Sport & Leisure Catering (SLC Awards).