When did eating venison become woke?

What’s a more iconic duo than strawberries and Wimbledon?

Max Anderson | Head of Communications

Because eating venison is now woke. 

The backlash stemmed from venison being served instead of beef as Wimbledon’s latest carbon cutting attempt. 

Most people would agree that the government has no business banning our favourite foods in the name of climate change. Businesses however are a different story. If they want to stop or keep selling a product, that is entirely their prerogative.

This saga speaks to a wider phenomenon that is becoming all too common: every time a firm does something bold or new with any hint of cutting emissions, there is a wave of backlash, with some people even calling on the government to intervene. 

But the anger over Wimbledon’s switch to venison is bizarre. It flies in the face of nature restoration, patriotism, and even consumer choice. Not to mention, most importantly to me, if we keep getting angry about serving up venison, this delicious, low calorie, high protein dish will remain further away from my dinner table! 

Firms are just doing what they think is best for their profit margin, including Wimbledon. 

This is the market in action. Ironically, it is usually the most ardent of free-marketeers who make the most noise when a saga like this breaks out, and often end up calling on big daddy state to fix what they see as an injustice. 

I believe in a small state, so I don’t want bans and I don’t want the government to tell companies what to do.

Not to mention, Wimbledon has actually made a clever business decision. Not only can buying venison be a cheaper alternative in the long term, but by cutting their emissions and supporting nature restoration efforts, they hope this will encourage their environmentally-conscious customers to stuff themselves, guilt-free, with venison as well as strawberries, and thereby hand over more money. 

If you are that unhappy that venison is now the default choice, don’t buy it. There are several other food stands for you to enjoy, with even a sushi bar recently opening. If the lack of beef is as disgraceful as you claim, consumers will punish them with a decrease in catering profits, before they embarrassingly return to selling beef. 

Frustratingly, this outrage is now no longer unique. Sainsbury’s recently decided to stop selling brown eggs in a bid to cut emissions. Other than the fact that there is no taste difference between brown and white eggs, some people were outraged and called for the government to take action. 

Do people realise there are other shops out there? Not to mention, I personally think Sainsbury’s is one of the worst options going, as the wasp recently found in my frozen raspberries can attest. 

Alas, I never thought I would see the day when free-marketeers discovered their inner-veganism and became squeamish about serving up a nice leg of Bambi. But here we are. 

Even for those not of a free market persuasion, there is a real, environmental, and economic case for welcoming Wimbledon’s switch to venison that is getting overlooked.

Rising deer numbers - often non-native invasive species - have overrun the countryside, which has led to nature restoration efforts being devastated. 

A major reason for this increase is because venison has slowly become unfashionable. With fewer hunters taking to the field and no apex predators in sight, numbers have boomed. Which is also a reason for increased deaths from road collision with deer. 

This has had wider implications for the cost of venison. As this traditional British dish has declined in popularity, so has the processing infrastructure that ensured venison went from the wild, to the back of the hunter’s truck, to being prepared, to your butcher, to your plate. 

And this is perhaps the greatest tragedy. A staple of British dining has slowly crept up in cost, with the expensive processing turning an affordable meat into a luxury. The supply of venison is overwhelming, but the lack of demand has actually driven up the overall cost.

Not to mention rural communities have also suffered, as jobs have disappeared from processing factories. 

Therefore Wimbledon has been very canny here; by trying to revive British venison, they are helping nature restoration efforts, bringing back British jobs, and creating new processing infrastructure that could lead to much cheaper meat than beef in the long run. 

This is good business and good news for the British countryside, and they deserve to be praised for it.

Finally, and perhaps the most important for me, venison is extremely healthy! It is low calorie, high protein, but it remains expensive when it really shouldn’t be.

And so I praise Wimbledon for putting venison back on the menu. If they can raise awareness of this brilliant meat and help revive processing infrastructure, demand could grow and the cost of venison could drop significantly. Nature restoration efforts will be protected. A great British dish will be revived. And I can hit my protein goals. 

Perhaps Wimbledon’s only fault was not to point this out enough, doubling down on the carbon savings instead.  

I am not anti-beef, or British beef farmers. But I am pro-choice and pro-business, and recognise the value serving venison can have. 

So don’t think of venison as the woke option. Don’t buy venison at Wimbledon because of your carbon emissions. Think of it as the patriotic option. For backing rural communities, protecting the natural environment in its broadest sense, and hitting your protein goals. And if you still feel guilty, then buy some British steaks on the way home.

First published by LBC. Max Anderson is Head of Communications for the Conservative Environment Network.