Why people in rich countries are eating more vegan food

[demmiblue]

IT IS lunchtime and a queue is forming for the burgers at Krowarzywa, voted the city’s best in an online poll: students, families, businessmen in suits. This is Warsaw, where (you might think) lunch is usually a slab of meat with a side order of sausage. But at Krowarzywa—which means “cow alive” and contains the word warzywa, meaning vegetables—no animals were harmed in the making of the food. The burgers are made of millet, tofu or chickpeas. The bestselling “vegan pastrami” is made of seitan, a wheat-based meat substitute.

Warsaw has almost 50 vegan restaurants. That does not mean it has all that many vegans. Kassia, a 20-something professional in the queue, says she has no ethical objection to eating meat. She comes to Krowarzywa because she likes the food. Kornel Kisala, the head chef, thinks that most of Krowarzywa’s clientele eat meat, but it does not worry him. “Animals don’t care whether you eat a vegan burger because it is fashionable or because it is tasty.” Altogether, 60% of Poles say they plan to cut back on meat this year. Eating vegetarian and vegan meals now and then is one of the ways some choose to do so.
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Interest in vegan food has been booming across the rich world. Celebrity claims of veganism are everywhere: Bill Clinton and Al Gore, Serena and Venus Williams, Lewis Hamilton, Mike Tyson, Beyoncé, take your pick. In America sales of “plant-based” foods—a term for foods that contain no meat, eggs or dairy that reliably says “vegan” to vegans but doesn’t say “weird” to the less committed—rose 20% in the year to June 2018, according to Nielsen, a market-research group. That was ten times the growth in food as a whole that year and two and a half times faster than vegan foods grew in the year before.

McDonald’s is offering McVegan burgers in Scandinavia. The American restaurants in the TGI Fridays chain sell soyabean burgers that ooze blood made of beetroot juice. Tyson Foods, one of the world’s largest meat producers, recently bought 5% of Beyond Meat, the company which makes them. Waitrose, a posh British grocery chain, introduced a range of vegan food in 2017, expanded the selection by 60% in mid-2018 and says sales of vegan and vegetarian foods in July 2018 were 70% above the level in July 2017.

https://www.economist.com/briefing/2018/10/13/why-people-in-rich-countries-are-eating-more-vegan-food?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/whypeopleinrichcountriesareeatingmoreveganfoodtheretreatfrommeat

[Quemado]

1. I went vegan 2 years ago

Lost 32 lbs.

I won't go back to my old diet.

[lagomorph777]

6. I went vegan one year ago

Lost 40 lbs and a lot of health problems (headaches, allergies, back pain, sleep apnea, etc).

I won't go back to my old diet.

[Paka]

9. If I went full on vegan and lost 32 lbs.,

I would end up in hospital, since I only weigh ninety pounds eating occasionally vegetarian. As much as I love vegetables, I can't eat enough without some meat to maintain my weight. I skip a meal and I'm down five pounds almost immediately. Some of us do need small quantities of meat to sustain health. All metabolisms are not equal.

[byronius]

2. This is good news, 'cause I'm never going back.

Just went to my 40th high school reunion, and you could spot the vegans a mile away. For the over-50, it's the best possible lifestyle change one could make.

Plus it's the equivalent of taking five Suburbans off the road.

[Nitram]

3. The exerpt doesn't answer the question "Why people in rich countries are eating more vegan food" and

the article is blocked by a paywall.

[demmiblue]

4. Strange, I am not a subscriber but I can see/read the whole article.

I posted the first four paragraphs assuming that one would be able to read the whole article if interested (it is fairly long).

[Nitram]

5. Maybe I have visited the Economist website lately, although I don't remember doing so.

It said I'd reached my limit of free views.

[lagomorph777]

7. So what's the bottom line? Why are they doing it?

[Nitram]

8. I registered for free to get 3 articles a week and read the article.

It really doesn't explain why. In fact, the article stated very clearly that if there is a trend towards veganism, it is very slight.

[lagomorph777]

10. Headline writers suck.

Thanks for doing the actual research.