Plant-based eating thankfully shows no sign of disappearing any time soon;
but what’s behind its meteoric rise in popularity? From Beyoncé to Netflix,
Veganuary to social media, we take a look at some of the factors that have
led to veganism well and truly hitting the mainstream...
T
here was a time when, if dining out as a vegan, you’d be
lucky to be served anything more than a soggy side salad or
a plate of overcooked veg. Thankfully, plant-based living is
no longer merely an oversight or an afterthought, and the numbers
speak for themselves. Veganuary 2019 has just celebrated its most
successful year since its launch in 2014, with 250,000 people
participating worldwide, compared to 3,000 just five years ago.
It’s thought that for every 10 people who took part in this month-
long challenge, six will remain vegan. And that’s not all. According
to recent research conducted by Waitrose, almost 13% of the
population now identify themselves as vegetarian or vegan, and
a further 21% follow a ‘flexitarian’ diet. With a whopping one-third
of us reducing or, altogether stopping, our intake of meat and
animal-related products, the question to be asked is: when did
veganism become so popular?
It certainly wasn’t always this way, as Louise Palmer-Masterton,
founder of award-winning restaurant Stem + Glory (stemandglory.
uk) and vegetarian of 35 years, recalls: “I began exploring raw foods
in the mid-eighties. The plant-based movement was already there,
albeit very fledgling. Raw food and vegetarianism were still very
fringe back then – think Neil from The Young Ones with his pot of
lentils cooking for hours on the stove!” The latter reference was
certainly an image that stuck, with the word veganism more often
than not conjuring up images of long-haired political activists, or
lentil-loving hippies. Fast-forward to the 21st century, and things
started to look a lot greener. “Maybe it was Instagram’s launch in2010, or the release of Deliciously Ella’s first book in 2015, or
Beyoncé’s announcement that she was vegan, but suddenly,
plant-based eating and living was cool,” Louise says.MODERN MEDIA
Nowadays, it seems there are hashtags and dedicated national days
for just about anything (#avotoast, anyone?), but whether you love
or shun social media, its contribution towards the growth of
veganism cannot be denied. The hashtag #meatfreeMonday is
often cited as one of the factors behind people trying veganism for
the first time, and this initiative is even being rolled out in schools
across the UK. A cursory glance on Instagram reveals there are
now more than 180,000 results for this hashtag, plus a jaw-
dropping 73.5 million and counting for #vegan.
It’s thought that one of the driving factors behind the meteoric
growth of veganism, and the dissemination of its messages across
social media, is down to millennials, of which an impressive 12%
are deemed to be vegan. In fact, so united are millennials in
championing veganism, they’re regarded as being the single biggest
threat to burger and chicken restaurants today (Mintel, 2018).
What’s more, ask any vegan their reasons for adopting a
plant-based diet and you’re bound to hear a number of powerful
documentaries, which detail the shocking realities of animal
welfare or environmental ramifications of eating meat, cited as
reasons for this shift in attitude and lifestyle. “The production of
independent films such as Cowspiracy, What the Health, andThe rise veganism
(and rise)
of
WORDS: KAYLEIGH RATTLE