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First Caribbean Vegan Conference

First Caribbean Vegan Conference Focuses on Legal Rights Courtyard Marriott, Bridgetown, Barbados 9am to 5pm, Saturday 25 October 2025

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First Caribbean Vegan Conference Focuses on Legal Rights

Courtyard Marriott, Bridgetown, Barbados, 9AM to 5

Members of The Vegan Society’s International Rights Network (IRN) are set to meet in the Caribbean in order to attend a court case and participate in a conference co-hosted by The Vegan Society and the Caribbean Vegetarian and Vegan Community.

The conference is the first in the Caribbean to focus on veganism and the legal protection of vegans.

IRN members from Germany, Peru, Brazil, Canada and the UK will join Barbados-based lawyer, Lalu Hanuman, to discuss the legal protection of vegans and offer their support by attending a court hearing in Barbados involving a vegan client who was denied a vegan diet while in detention on the island.

Lalu is the founder and trustee of the Caribbean Vegetarian-Vegan Charity and is bringing a constitutional motion on behalf of the vegan. The court hearing takes place in Barbados on 27 and 28 October 2025. 

Portrait of a man with white hair and a beard, wearing a black shirt and a formal collar, set against a plain background.
Lalu Hanuman

“This case is the first of its kind in the Caribbean, so it is historic and jurisprudentially groundbreaking,” says Mr Hanuman. 

“If successful it will not only benefit vegans, but also people in governmental institutions in the region who are on a special diet for ethical reasons.”

Chair of the IRN, Dr Jeanette Rowley, who has provided information and support for the hearing and who will speak at the conference, adds:

“The human right to adequate and acceptable food recognises ethical convictions and there is a well-established and implemented international legal principle that a person’s chosen diet can be a direct expression of their beliefs and conscience. These principles are particularly important in contexts where individuals are in the care and control of state bodies.”

Conference speakers also include dietitians from Barbados and The Vegan Society. Emily Angus, one of The Vegan Society’s registered dietitians, will share information about the society’s vital collaboration with the UK’s National Prison Catering service, which led to the roll out of a vegan menu for prisoners and access to vitamin supplementation.

A woman with long light hair and glasses smiling at the camera, wearing a navy blue top and a floral scarf.
Chair Dr Jeanette Rowley

The conference on 25 October will be closed by Qian Zephaniah, the widow of the much-missed writer, poet and vegan campaigner, Benjamin Zephaniah, whose father was from Barbados. Qian will speak of the connection between Benjamin’s Rastafari faith, his Caribbean heritage and his ethical beliefs and offer a message of support for the rights of detained vegans.

The event will raise the profile of veganism in the Caribbean and provide a platform for discussion among the vegan community, lawyers and policymakers.

The Vegan Society would like to invite you to attend the conference. For more information, please respond to jeanette.rowley@vegansociety.com or caribbeanvvcom@gmail.com.

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5 responses to “First Caribbean Vegan Conference”

  1. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Well, this writer is always defensive when these kinds of organizations turn up. An issue of trust, scepticism, we suppose.

    The rationalist may argue that systems should be dynamic enough to accommodate a range of dietary preferences.

    More generally, people who spend their whole lives with an established dietary culture tend to have an engrained mindset that if that is good enough for them it should be for everyone else.

    However, the dietary standards of strict vegans are much more difficult than might be imagined.

    For example, a restaurant may attempt to change a menú ítem for a vegan but stir fry some chopped vegetables on a griddle where animal products are also being cooked.

    For the average cook there’s no problem but to a strict vegan it’s no different than all the other things being prepared there, in the kitchen more generally, by the people involved.

    Even a raw-foodist will have similar problems.

    Strict vegans often have to go on hunger strikes to recieve meals prepared in different or dedicated establishments by people similarly minded.

    As a result of an arrest around the January 06, 2019 attempted government takeover in Washington a Trump supporter and professed vegan went on such a hunger strike to get access to organic meals.

    Such is the nature of things that others go to extraordinary lengths to impose their dietary standards. A friend who’s a Rastafarian tells tales about the lengths her mother went to to imposed animal products in her diet.

    Veganisn is best practiced when total control is established over everything one eats, drinks – from farm to mouth. These would cover the quality of seeds and plants – genetically modified or not, the nature of the soil, whether chemical controls were applied, the types of fertilizers applied, and so on.

    To the uninitiated, this may seem like a tall order. However, when neasured by health outcomes, we contend that vegans are way ahead of the other brassbowls.

    Maybe, vegans should find their own planet!

  2. TheOG Avatar
    TheOG

    It is amazing how an article can generate different responses in people… Pacha was correctly thoughtful, serious and added depth to the discussiom

    Her comes the fool
    Me! Moi! All I could think was “I would like to see that menu”
    To be honest, I can eat at any establishment but what I do not like is when they attempt to mimic meat dishes… Hold the veggie sandwiches and veggie burgers. No! They do not taste like chicken.

    _*-
    Have a great day and enjoy your meals. Take full control of your easting utensils. Only you should decide what goes in your mouth.

  3. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Theo

    Me too! There’s no need to copy any of that stuff made with seitan, or gluten, or tofu. These are to be considered as junk foods too. Tofu, for example, is only one step away for being plastic. And soy, from which it comes, is a transgenic organism.

    However, as someone trained in the preparation of vegan foods, it must be said that true vegans eat the best, healthiest, foods. This seems to be a well-guarded secret.

    Of course, others are likely to make this argument too!

  4. BAJE Avatar
    BAJE

    I WPULD LIKE TO BE THE FIRST TO ORDER AND EAT VEGAN PORK.

    THE FEMALE KIND THAT GETS UP, BATHE AND WALK AROUND DAILY WITH PLAITED OR GROOMED HAIR.

  5. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Genuinely curios:

    If animal manure has been used to fertilize a field can a vegan eat food grown there? And if not how much time needs to pass before the field reaches vegan standards?

    I expect that most of our fields, most fields anywhere have been fertilized by animal manure before the days of chemical fertilizers.

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