We make hundreds of choices every single day whether they’re conscious or not. What we eat, what we listen to, what we read, and who we interact with are all decisions made in a matter of seconds by the millions of factors flying through our heads. It’s easy to believe that we have full control, but the intricacies of these influencing factors are something that can never fully be unpacked. Why do we make the decision to pick up a piece of fake bacon rather than the real thing? What turned that choice into an entire switch in diet? What made the number of vegans in Canada increase by 84% between 2018 and 2020?
In recent years, the vegan food industry has become one of the fastest growing industries across North America. Growing up vegetarian, I’ve always noticed the gap in the market for vegan and vegetarian food. I grew up in a culture where vegetarianism was encouraged so the variety of foods available was never an issue, but I still developed a passionate hatred for salads as that’s all that was ever offered in most restaurant chains. However, the rapid popularization of fake meat brands such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods has begun to bridge this distance, as well as making it much easier for more people to partake in sustainable diets. The increasing normalization of vegan and vegetarian diets led to 40% of Canadian adults in 2020 saying they were ready to cut back on meat consumption, which is disproportionately different to the view on vegetarianism that I grew up with.
So, what triggered the switch? The change can be attributed to multiple factors; the rising awareness of climate change, celebrity fads or even humanity’s ever-growing sense of curiosity about the controversial lifestyle. All these ideas are likely influencing the trend, but I’m pointing the finger at the most likely culprit – business. On an average day in 2018, a corporate employee went to grab a bite for lunch at one of the numerous fast-food franchises in the western world, and they realized their options were either meat or raw leaves. They noticed the gap in the market; they communicated this gap eagerly to their associates after the lunch break – and then the ball was rolling.
Beyond Meat, one of the biggest players in the business, reported a 141% increase in net revenue in the first quarter of 2020, due to their ability to capitalize off the growing demand of the industry. From there, vegan meat became a common menu item in nearly every large fast-food restaurant in North America, and the results speak for themselves. Between 2020 and 2021, vegan and vegetarian food sales both increased by over a whopping 150%, while the vegan market across the world in 2021 was estimated at 16 billion USD. Corporations took the vegan trends and tripled them, pushing the countless health benefits in advertisement campaigns across nations. The demand for the vegan food industry is only growing with time and access to information, certainly making it one to watch in coming years.
Society is quickly realizing the impact of our day-to-day choices on the environment, and the positive impact of the little changes we can make in our lifestyles. While the vegan food industry may have begun with a trend, it’s safe to say businesses have made it snowball into a goliath industry that can make a fundamental difference in humanity's relationship with the environment – for the better.