A Food Editor Is Facing Serious Backlash After His Comment About Vegans

As kids, we’re taught that if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all. As adults, we… forget that. Often. But aside from being mean, sometimes our words can also be misconstrued. One former food editor in the U.K. learned the hard way that words should always be taken seriously, especially in a professional environment.

The comment was about vegans. By now, you’re probably well aware that vegans abstain from eating meat or any sort of product that comes from an animal. That means eggs, milk, and (gasp!) cheese are off the table. While it’s a very hard lifestyle to maintain, a lot of people have managed to transform their diets and feel healthier in the process.

As the vegan diet has been popular for years, a freelance writer named Selene Nelson thought veganism would be a great topic to write about.

She pitched the topic to William Sitwell, editor at Waitrose Food, but it didn’t go very well.

“How about a series on killing vegans one by one?” Sitwell said, according to The New York Times. “Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? Expose their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat? Make them eat steak and drink red wine?”

The response back wasn’t witty, even though, according to Sitwell after the fact, that was the intent. While plenty of people have opinions on vegans and veganism, his thoughts were downright cruel. A simple “I’m going to pass on that idea, but thank you” would have sufficed.

Sitwell actually stepped down from his position as editor based on the amount of outrage he received. He also wrote an apology on Instagram.

In his response, he apologized “to any food-and life-loving vegan who was genuinely offended by remarks written by me as an ill-judged joke in a private email and now widely reported.” He also made sure to thank his staff.

Hopefully, Sitwell learned an important lesson. Sometimes, jokes don’t translate over email. And anything involving harm to another human is most definitely not a joke.