James Cromwell is a well-known movie star. He played the farmer in the film Babe and and he starred in the family drama Succession which has been a mega-success. In Succession he played and anti-capitalist and environmentalist who disapproves of his brother’s career as a megalomaniac tycoon.
Offscreen, James Cromwell is a vegan. He became a vegetarian in 1975 and converted to veganism in 1995 during the filming of Babe.
He was videoed protesting in Starbucks in Manhattan, New York, USA. He had glued his right hand to the counter. He carried a sign saying STARBUCKS: END THE VEGAN UPCHARGE. He was protesting personally and on behalf of PETA, the equally well-known animal rights and advocate charity. He read out a PETA-prepared statement about plant-based milk.
He’s protesting against the way Starbucks place a surcharge on plant-based milk if a customer elects to have that kind of milk in their coffee or other Starbucks product. He strongly objects to this and explained why in a statement to supporters from PETA:
“Starbucks has admitted that cows’ milk is the company’s biggest contributor to its carbon footprint and Starbucks agrees that vegan milks are a big part of the solution. But it still charges for them.”
That’s a reference to the up-charge on vegan milk.
In defence, Starbucks said that it varied the charge according to the market price. Cromwell removed himself from the counter using a knife in order to avoid arrest by the police when they arrived. We don’t know whether he was subsequently arrested or charged for some minor misdemeanour but I doubt it.
Below are some more articles on vegan and vegetarian issues:
