It seems that growing awareness of the dairy industry and all of its problems is affecting not just consumers, but – excitingly – business owners too.
Back in May of this year, owners of London café The Fields Beneath placed a prominent notice in their window explaining that they are opting to ditch the dairy.
Hinting at the reason behind the owners’ decision to use only plant-milks, their displayed poster advises “search on YouTube for the following five minute video: ‘Dairy is Scary’. We didn’t think it was either.”
(If you haven’t seen the video, you can watch it here.)
On the café’s website you can find a humorous and endearing account of the café’s transition from animal product serving to veganism: “The Fields Beneath opened in 2012. We used coffee from people we loved, got cakes from mum (still do!) and focused on creating a little haven. It worked. Life was good, lunch was delicious, the team grew, the food kept getting better… and then one of us went vegan. This wasn’t any dietary requirement kind of veganism, and the one that went vegan first is so untrendy it certainly wasn’t that – he fell head first into the ethics behind it and realised it was do or die – for the animals and for the business. So we started switching the menu. We ‘ran out of ham’ for weeks before we decided to become more vocal about it. On Mother’s Day 2017 we stopped pouring cow’s milk into our espresso, signalling the end of animal products in our cafe”
Instead, the café offers oat, almond, and soy milk – the range of alternatives provides those new to plant milks an opportunity to find what suits them best.
Now, The Fields Beneath is focusing on two goals. Firstly, to “make coffee, make food, make it tasty.” And secondly, and most excitingly, “to make veganism normal.”
The café hoped to make vegan “delicious… easy… [and] convenient.” Judging by their Instagram they’ve done just that! The café, found in Kentish Town, is ranked among the best London cafés according to londonsbestcoffees.com and continues to thrive with this decision to ditch dairy.
In fact, the owners hope to open more shops, because “in doing so will make it easy to be vegan in more places.”
Image Credit: The Fields Beneath
