Food magazine editor steps down after sarcastic comment about vegans

He made it TOO clear that he didn't like vegans

The editor of Waitrose Food magazine has stepped down over comments he made in an email to a freelance in which he proposed a series on “killing vegans” and force-feeding them meat.

Editor William Sitwell’s resignation comes a day after supermarket chain Waitrose said it would be “taking up” the comments with him.

Freelance food and travel writer Selene Nelson contacted Sitwell on 23 October with a pitch for a series on vegan cooking. Waitrose has recently expanded its range of vegan and vegetarian products.

Sitwell’s reply the same day, first reported by Buzzfeed News, read: “How about a series on killing vegans, one by one. Ways to trap them? How to interrogate them properly? “Exposing their hypocrisy? Force-feed them meat? Make them eat steak and drink red wine?”

Waitrose Food is a free monthly magazine with a distribution of just under 700,000 copies, according to ABC figures for the six months to the end of June this year. It is published by John Brown Media.

In a statement announcing Sitwell’s resignation, Waitrose said it had been informed by John Brown Media that he was “stepping down as editor of Waitrose and Partners Food magazine with immediate effect”.  

It added: “In the light of William’s recent email remarks, we’ve told John Brown Media that we believe this is the right and proper move – we will be working with them to appoint a new editor for the magazine.

SOURCE