Today we’d like to introduce you to Val and Mani Latifi.
Hi Val and Mani, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We are Val and Mani Latifi–married digital nomad attorneys/vegan food and travel bloggers. We live in the Montrose area with our crazy rescue pug Mango. Val is of Filipino descent, and Mani is of Iranian descent. As BIPOC creators who have traveled to 33 countries and 5 continents, we aim to showcase vegan versions of foods we’ve sampled during our travels, as well as dishes we grew up eating.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
We didn’t initially feel like we had a place in the vegan community. To us, the face of veganism was a white one. There was, and remains, a glaring lack of non-white food representation in mainstream veganism. Vegan food media, which is an extension of mainstream food media at large, exacerbates this problem. The racial reckoning in food media underscores the central problem: The exclusion and undervaluing of voices of color by predominantly white gatekeepers.
So we created a space for ourselves in the form of Plant-Based Passport—our Instagram account—which eventually expanded to our website, YouTube, and TikTok. Aside from cooking, travel is our other passion. Plant-Based Passport began as a virtual food diary of sorts in which we veganized food we’ve tasted all over the world, along with our respective cultural cuisines.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We’re vegan food and travel bloggers. We do food photography, videography, recipe development, and content creation for food and travel brands that align with our values.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
The vegan and plant-based movement is exploding, and economists don’t see any end in sight. This is an incredibly exciting time to be vegan, and we’re thrilled to play a role in encouraging others to reduce their reliance on animal products for health, environmental and humane reasons.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://plantbased-passport.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantbased.passport/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/plantbasedpassport
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@plantbased.passport
Image Credits
Val and Mani Latifi
