Veganism in the world

Veganism is a rapidly expanding movement: a growing number of people who choose to follow this lifestyle and food choices multiply vegetable. Being vegan is no longer so rare and even some mainstream media are beginning to get serious about it. Is veganism here to stay? What situation are you in?

Veganism officially existed since 1944 when Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson created a group of vegetarians who also not consumes or milk or eggs and wrote a newsletter called The Vegan News. It was the origin of the Vegan Society, the oldest vegan organization in the world.

Interest in this movement has grown continuously, especially during the last decade, to such an extent that the British magazine The Economist christened 2019 the year of veganism.

The vegan food share hashtag is one of the most popular on Instagram

Why are more and more people joining veganism?

Currently, society has at its disposal more information about the negative effects that our way of life has on our health, the rest of the animals, and the planet. And this information spreads much faster thanks to social networks. The vegan food share hashtag is one of the most popular on Instagram where it is easy to find how to make an omelet without eggs or weekly menus free of animal products.

The less cheerful face can be seen in documentaries available on the most popular streaming platforms or on the Internet. Highlights Earthlings  (2005), directed

by  Shaun Monson  and narrated by an activist for the rights of animals

Joaquin Phoenix, revealing how humans treat other animal species and are divided into five parts: pets, food, fur, entertainment, and experimentation, and shows very harsh images obtained with hidden cameras.

Veganism is also beginning to enter the public and political agenda, as well as the population is beginning to be more aware of what the livestock industry hides, despite being so deeply rooted in our culture and have significant economic power. Thanks to the incessant work of animal rights organizations, in recent years we have been able to see in the traditional media, reports that uncover the terrible living conditions of animals destined for human consumption.

Also, in general, stereotypes about the word 'vegan' are changing and are more positive. And it is difficult to infinitely vilify a constantly growing and heterogeneous group.

At the same time, the voices that warn of the negative impacts of meat consumption on health and for the planet are increasing. In 2015, the FAO included industrially processed meats on the list of potentially carcinogenic products. And certain environmental organizations are finally talking about the consequences of livestock farming for the environment and climate change, an issue they have been tiptoeing through. Faced with the current climate emergency and irrefutable evidence, they have had to focus on the relationship between meat consumption and climate change, which until now was ignored. Already at the beginning of the century, FAO published the report The Long Shadow of Livestock in which it exposes how Meat production contributes to climate change, air pollution, land, soil and water degradation, and loss of biodiversity.

"A strategy with more plant-based diets, halving food loss and improving agricultural technology can sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050," concludes academic Marco Springmann in the study Options for keeping the food system within environmental limits (Options to keep the food system within environmental limits, in Spanish) published in the journal Nature.

A rising market

Most vegans are young people between the ages of 15 and 35 living in developed countries. In Spain, 0.5% of the population is vegan. If we add vegetarians and flexitarians, it represents 9.9%, according to 2019 data from The Green Revolution study, prepared by the consulting firm Lantern. The veggie segment (vegetarians, vegans, and flexitarians) has increased by 27% overall in the last two years. And, according to the same report, 35% of the Spanish population has reduced or eliminated their consumption of red meat in the last year.

According to the same study, in the United Kingdom, 12% of adults, that is, 7.7 million people, and 20% between 16 and 24 years old are vegetarians or vegans. In Germany, there has been a growth of vegetarian products by 633% and vegan by 1800% in the period 2011-2015. One of the reasons is the incipient change in attitudes in young people aged 16 to 24 in this country, of which 16% declare themselves vegetarian and 31% claim to have increased their intake of vegetarian products in the last year. Italy has more than six million vegetarians, that is, 10% of the population, which makes them the EU country with the highest rate of vegetarians. And in Portugal, the Vegetarian Society estimates that 200,000 Portuguese (1.9% of the population) are vegetarians. In the United States, the number of vegans has increased 600% - from 1% to 6% - between 2014 and 2017, according to a report by the research firm Global Data.

Most vegan people are young people between the ages of 15 and 35 living in developed countries

Demand increases and so does supply. The large multinationals are betting on this type of product to take a slice of this constantly growing market niche: currently, you can buy vegan products in large supermarkets and taste vegan products in fast food chains. According to data from the study The Green Revolution, the global market for meat substitutes reached 4.63 billion dollars in 2018, a sum that experts believe will reach 6.43 billion dollars in 2023.

Also, new companies are revolutionizing the field of food. The American startup Impossible Foods has created a burger with vegetable protein equal, in taste and texture, to meat, which is sold in more than 150 restaurants in the United States, and the company Beyond Meat, whose investors include Bill Gates and Leonardo DiCaprio, produces the Beyond Burger, based on a vegetable protein that is already marketed in large stores and on selected restaurant menus such as the Veggie Grill chain.

The unstoppable rise of the movement crosses the border of food. There are vegan fashion and cosmetics and even travel. It's getting easier to be vegan. Yet as veganism spreads and begins to normalize, its traditional association with anti-capitalism is fading. Because veganism tries to overcome the current model, not to live with it.