5 Signs That Veganism Is Taking Over The World

1. Environmental Awareness Is Increasing

Animal agriculture is an extremely inefficient and resource-intensive way to produce food for the growing human population. It pollutes our environment while consuming huge quantities of water, grain, petroleum, pesticides, and drugs.

Thanks to life-changing films like Cowspiracy and big-name environmentalists like Al Gore and James Cameron, more people are becoming aware of the serious environmental consequences of factory farming.

2. Millions Are Being Invested

Private investors are putting millions into food startups like Beyond Meat, which had Microsoft mogul Bill Gates singing its praises, or Hampton Creek Foods, which garnered the attention of Asia’s richest businessman, Li Ka-Shing, along with a $23 million investment.

3. Market for Vegan Foods Is Growing

In the past decade, the retail market for vegetarian foods has doubled to $1.6 billion!

Earlier this year, Marketwired showcased the growing market for alternative protein sources, including meat alternatives, which it claims are “poised to accelerate, potentially claiming up to a third of the protein market by 2054.”

4. More Millennials Are Vegetarian
  • 1% of baby boomers are vegetarian
  • 4% of Gen X’ers are vegetarian
  • 12% of millennials are vegetarian

More millennials are vegetarian than members of any previous generation. According to The New York Times, “An estimated 12 percent of millennials say they are ‘faithful vegetarians,’ compared with 4 percent of Gen X’ers and 1 percent of baby boomers.”

Even the Associated Press highlighted millennials as the driving force behind the growing number of veg options at fast-casual restaurants!

5. Meat Consumption Is Declining
  • 400 million fewer animals were killed in 2014 because people were eating less meat.

More and more people are eating less meat or ditching it altogether in favor of plant-based foods. In fact, over the past 10 years, American meat consumption has declined by 10 percent!

The USDA reports that 400 million fewer animals were slaughtered in 2014 than in 2007. That’s 400 million individuals who were spared a lifetime of unimaginable suffering.

Via