A recent Wellington conference by Degrowth Aotearoa New Zealand had a catering arrangement where the only option was vegan and there was no waste.

Zero Waste champion Hannah Blumgardt had offered to do the catering because she was fed up with attending so-called “sustainability” events where the catering didn’t fit with the idea of sustainability.

In addition, she had a lot of people phoning her to ensure there were good vegan options available, so she decided to make it all vegan. “Oh, we did have cow’s milk and goat’s milk because we could get a local supply in glass bottles.”

And of course, there were gluten free options.

Nonetheless, people filling in the registration form, were not asked if they had “special dietary requirements”. Vegan was just normal at this event.

Blumgardt said that she also involved Simon Edmonds of Tuatara Café on the waterfront who provided morning and afternoon teas. So there were no throw away cups. People used crockery cups and washed them themselves on the spot.

“Simon provided a nasturtium dip where he had foraged 1kg of leave and added plants from his own garden.

She said, “A conference is such a good opportunity to model what the future is going to be like with degrowth. Vegan is cheaper, ethical and there are significantly lower greenhouse gases produced than serving meat and dairy. We used local food and local producers.”

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