Leaked email from VegNews editor: we’re "unable to cover" No Evil Foods layoffs

Instagram (07/17/2022)

VegNews was being repeatedly asked by their readers and the vegan community as a whole to provide coverage of No Evil Foods abruptly firing their production team without severance. For weeks, these requests were ignored, even as some on the VegNews team privately sympathized with NEF workers who had been laid off a mere year after the company busted up their union efforts.

Finally, VegNews responded and said they weren't able to write about the story.

This isn't the first time VegNews has covered for bad brands. For years they ignored backlash against cultural appropriation and racism from "Thug Kitchen" before their name change. In an article about Nestle's vegan meat production, VegNews briefly referred to the company's "problematic business practices" before moving on. When mentioning Blackstone, the investor behind Oatly, VegNews has repeatedly titled them an "equity giant" while ignoring their connections to deforestation in the Amazon.

Because VegNews never covered the layoffs at No Evil Foods, millions of their readers remain in the dark about a union busting vegan meat producer who is now working with a beef jerky manufacturer to make their products.

But at least the VegNews audience knows about Ariana Grande's perfume & Nike's pineapple leather shoes.

VegNews should aim to do better.