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Vegan Twitter loses it over TV host’s ‘joke’ of an apology: ‘I’m really offended’ – Yahoo Lifestyle

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

The host of a British cooking show was pressured to apologize on live TV after he accidentally neglected to tell a vegan guest that the dish he was serving him was made with butter.

Simon Rimmer used ghee which is clarified butter while making Masoor dahl on his Sunday Brunch show. Jon Richardson, the guest, was willing to try anything as long as it fit within his vegan diet.

Viewers complained online immediately during the commercial break.

Most were upset that Rimmer, who runs a vegetarian restaurant, wouldnt take Richardsons dietary restrictions more seriously. Or, at least as a professional cook, should know that ghee is an animal by-product.

Upon returning from commercial break, Rimmer apologized to the audience.

Earlier on, in the previous cooking item, I may have informed guests that the dhal was in fact vegan. It was, of course, ghee used in the recipe, which isnt vegan, Rimmer said. I allowed Jon Richardson, who is indeed a vegan, to eat some of it.

Then to Richardson, Rimmer said, On behalf of myself and the Sunday Brunch team, I would like to sincerely apologize and hope I havent offended you and spoiled your life.

When Im sick during my interview, you can take responsibility for that, Richardson joked in reply.

The audience, again, was unimpressed. Now it seemed as though Rimmer was making light of a serious situation and a mockery of veganism.

Sunday Brunch co-host Tim Lovejoy reassured Rimmer on-air that he wouldnt be canceled over the incident. Vegans might disagree.

How brands are adapting to the expectations of an increasingly vegan generation – Digiday

Posted on March 25, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Millennials have flocked to veganism over the past 20 years. Gen Z is carrying on the plant-based baton, leaving brands selling non-animal products struggling to adapt to their expectations.

Studies suggest around 80% of Gen-Zers expect to consume fewer animal-related products in the coming year, over 30% intend to be on entirely meat-free diets by 2021 and 44% think being vegan is cooler than smoking. But Gen Zs culture and attitudes surrounding plant-based products are very different than those of their elders, and whats resonated with Millennials isnt going to cut it with a new generation of consumers for whom the availability of non-animal-based products is expected.

The most pronounced shift marketers are making to better appeal to Gen Z customers is a simple one: altering their branding and messaging from positioning their offerings as different from the norm, to presenting them instead as the new normal.

Research by the World Resources Institutes Better Buying Lab found that the label vegan can hinder sales of plant-based food items, for example, while vegetarian is often viewed as synonymous with unsatisfying. Younger consumers, it found, viewed plant-based a secondary concern versus a primary selling point.

Many vegan brands are now reorienting their marketing to emphasize what their products do contain, rather than what they dont. As plant-based options go mainstream, theyre increasingly competing with non-vegan brands for attention and purchase consideration, particularly among Gen Z audiences. Its increasingly about blending in with the mainstream market, rather than standing out from it.

Bruce Friedrich, executive director of the Good Food Institute argues that brands should avoid including references to vegan or vegetarian altogether to better appeal to evolving consumer tastes and a broader market, particularly among younger consumers for whom that distinction is less pronounced.

Brands are increasingly heeding that advice. Brazilian plant-based food startup Vegan Ja rebranded simply to Beleaf last year for, for example, in attempt to broaden its products appeal. Meanwhile in the U.S., brands such as Impossible have largely avoided describing their products as vegan, emphasizing instead language such as meat made from plants.

For Gen Z their motivations are different. Millennials needed to be educated and convinced, but with Gen Z they already know. The celebrities and the people they look up to are vegan, their parents and friends are vegan, its a part of their culture, says Lori Amos, founder and president of marketing agency Scout22, which specializes in working with plant-based products and conscious capitalist brands.

As a result, marketers are having to rethink the way they position plant-based brands and products. That includes newer upstarts attempting to capitalize on the plant-based boom, but also legacy brands hoping to recast their products for changed expectations and a more generally plant-based world.

While its clear that tastes and expectations of younger consumers are evolving, some argue that brands are behind the ball largely because of the partners theyve chosen to work with to market their products.

Unsurprisingly, the uptick in interest in plant-based products quickly gave rise to a raft of agencies and experts specializing in vegan marketing, often with their major selling point being that they themselves were vegan and knew how to speak to the target market. This model may have had its advantages early on as smaller brands attempted to gain traction with niche markets, but Amos argues this approach is and was shortsighted.

As the space gets more competitive, plant-based firms are now waking up to the fact that they have to hire people who know what theyre doing. People who have real experience in building brands, Amos says.

But as plant-based brands continue to get snapped up by legacy companies, go public, and are viewed along other mainstream brands by younger consumers, that shift is accelerating. For many younger consumers, vegan brands are just brands.

https://digiday.com/?p=361506

For a vegan diet to be healthy and complete, you really need to understand your food – ABC News

Posted on December 4, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

In a world where "meat-free meat" sits next to the beef sausages in the supermarket and ordering an almond milk latte brings nary a flicker to a barista's eye, the once-fringe vegan movement seems to have gone mainstream.

For the uninitiated, followers of a vegan diet eschew all animal products, including dairy, eggs, honey and, of course, meat.

So for an eating pattern that cuts out so many foods traditionally considered essential, is it possible for a vegan diet to meet all your nutritional needs?

Yes, says Clare Collins, professor of nutrition at the University of Newcastle but it requires you to understand food better than the average omnivore, or even vegetarian.

Here are four main nutrients to look out for.

Let's start with this one, because vitamin B12 is something we humans can really only get via animal foods such as meat, fish, dairy and eggs or in the form of supplements.

It's an important vitamin too, essential for making DNA, fatty acids, red blood cells and chemicals called neurotransmitters which help to pass signals around the brain.

"That's the really big one. You don't want to end up with a B12 deficiency," Professor Collins said.

B12 deficiency manifests at first as vague but unpleasant symptoms like heart palpitations, light-headedness, tiredness and bowel or bladder changes, so it's important to keep on top of it.

In severe cases, it can progress to mood changes like depression and paranoia, and nerve problems like numbness, pain and loss of taste and smell.

While trace amounts of B12 have been found in some plant foods such as mushrooms, fermented soybeans and things that have been contaminated by soil or insects, if you're following a vegan diet you should be looking to supplements or fortified foods to ensure you're getting enough.

It's often added to non-dairy milks, but not all, so check the label.

Most people know about the importance of calcium for your bones, but it also plays a role in other parts of your body, including your heart, muscles and nerves.

What's more, your bones actually act as a calcium bank, so if you're not getting enough from your diet, your body will make withdrawals from that bank, which can affect your bone health.

Almonds are a dairy-free source of calcium.

(Unsplash: Juan Jose Valencia Anta)

Almonds are a dairy-free source of calcium.

Unsplash: Juan Jose Valencia Anta

Dairy is often touted as being an important source of calcium, but it's by no means the only source. Plenty of plant-based foods contain it, including some tofu and some nuts, legumes and seeds.

But interestingly, vegans and vegetarians often need even more calcium than omnivores, because some plant foods have chemicals that make it harder for your body to access it.

For example, spinach and beans contain oxalic acid, and some grains, nuts and legumes contain phytic acid, which both interfere with calcium absorption.

You can bolster your calcium intake with fortified plant milks and fortified breakfast cereals again, check the label to make sure the product you are choosing is actually fortified, because not all are.

Iron is used inside your red blood cells to carry oxygen around the body, so a deficiency can leave you feeling lethargic and tired, as well as lowering your immunity.

While omnivores usually get their iron delivered ready-to-use, via red meat, plant-based sources of iron require your body to do a bit more work.

You can help your body absorb your plant-based iron, found in foods like legumes and beans, by eating it at the same time as vitamin C.

That can be as simple as putting veggies like red capsicum and broccoli next to the lentils on your dinner plate.

"The other thing you can do is not have any cups of tea straight after meals because the tannins and the phytates in the tea actually interfere with the absorption of the iron," Professor Collins said.

Combining plant-based iron sources like chickpeas with vitamin C-containing veggies like capsicum helps your body better absorb the iron.

(Unsplash: Edgar Castrejon)

Combining plant-based iron sources like chickpeas with vitamin C-containing veggies like capsicum helps your body better absorb the iron.

Unsplash: Edgar Castrejon

Iodine helps your thyroid to function that little gland in your neck that controls your metabolism, among other things.

Seafood is a source of iodine, and it's also found in some dairy products in Australia, but the main source of iodine for people who avoid animal products is via iodised salt, which is used in commercial breads and some breakfast cereals.

As for some of the other essential nutrients, the symptoms of deficiency can be vague but hint at something serious, Professor Collins said.

"How do you know if you're iodine deficient? It's things like tiredness, weakness, lethargy, and then other things like constipation, heartbeat [changes], facial puffiness and so on."

Iodine deficiency is a particularly big deal for women of childbearing age, as it can affect the brain development of babies during pregnancy and increase the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.

Pregnant women have other specific nutritional needs beyond the four mentioned here, and so do children. So talk to your doctor if your kids are on a vegan diet or you're planning to become pregnant.

And for people who follow vegan diets for a very long time, there are other nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids, that can become an issue.

If you're following a vegan diet, its worth mentioning it to your doctor so they can check for deficiencies.

Meals based around plant-based whole foods aren't just for vegans.

(Unsplash: Maddi Bazzocco)

Meals based around plant-based whole foods aren't just for vegans.

While most people who choose vegan diets do so because they want to minimise harm to animals or cut down on their environmental impact, others talk about the potential health benefits of being entirely plant-based.

The recent documentary The Game Changers promotes a diet free of animal products as performance-enhancing and implies it might even be the optimal diet for humans.

So ... could a vegan diet be even better for you than a healthy omnivorous one?

It's not as simple as that, Professor Collins explained.

There are plenty of animal-free products that are highly processed, high in salt and fat and low in other essential nutrients.

"People are getting a message that, hey, you're supposed to be a little bit vegan now, and they're just buying these products that are appearing without thinking through what it has really taken to manufacture those things.

"The lazy way to be a vegan is to just leave the meat out and leave the dairy products out and make no effort to bring back in the foods that you need to replace the nutrients that you're missing out on."

So while it's certainly possible to have a healthy, complete vegan diet, it's not the only healthy way to eat, Professor Collins said.

If you're looking for a guide, she recommends the Australian Government's Eat For Health website.

"I know it's boring but it actually does outline how many serves of the five food groups you need, based on age and sex, to meet your nutrient requirements.

"You do not have to be a vegan to eat healthy.

"You can have a normal, healthy vegetarian pattern and unhealthy vegan eating pattern and you can have an unhealthy omnivore eating pattern."

There are definitely things that most of us could learn from veganism though, especially when it comes to plant-based "whole foods".

Many vegan protein sources, such as pulses and nuts, do double time by also being rich sources of fibre and healthy fats.

Do you have a burning health question?

(ABC South West WA: Anthony Pancia)

Do you have a burning question about health or sustainable living you have always wanted to know the answer to? Get in touch via burningquestion@abc.net.au and we can take your question to the experts.

"One of the movements that I think can benefit everyone is what's called flexitarian, which is like being a part-time vegetarian or even a part-time vegan," Professor Collins said.

"So a few days a week, you are consciously trying to boost your intake of vegetable sources of nutrients."

Swapping out a few meals a week with whole-food vegan protein sources is not going to do you harm and will probably do you good.

"It's really about stepping back and saying, hey, what are the things I'm eating? Am I eating nutrient rich foods? And am I not going overboard on ultra-processed junk food?"

Plus, if your impact on animals and the environment is important to you goals that motivate many people to go vegan in the first place then going some of the way is arguably better than going none of the way.

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For a vegan diet to be healthy and complete, you really need to understand your food - ABC News

Veganism Is the Most Popular Topic Among Two Billion Online Interactions, Artificial Intelligence-Driven Report Finds – VegNews

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Veganism is the most popular topic of conversation among two billion social interactions, according to an artificial intelligence-driven report from food intelligence startup Tastewise. For the reportwhich aims to predict sustainability trends in the food and beverage industryTastewise analyzed more than two billion social interactions, more than three million online recipes, and a menu database of 247 restaurants. The report reveals that 23 percent more consumers are prioritizing sustainable food choiceswith the plant-based diet being the most common diet for sustainable eating todaythan one year ago, and Tastewise experts anticipate that trend will continue. Additionally, 39 percent of consumers sustainable conversations focus on health benefits more than environmental concerns. And though there is a rise in awareness of the broader impacts of a sustainability-focused lifestyle, consumers are not fully making the connection between climate change and the animal agriculture industry, which is a leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions, water contamination, deforestation, and a host of other environmental calamities. In conversations about both sustainability and veganism together, 50 percent are related to health concerns.

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Veganism Is the Most Popular Topic Among Two Billion Online Interactions, Artificial Intelligence-Driven Report Finds - VegNews

What Is Veganism, and What Do Vegans Eat?

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Veganism is becoming increasingly popular.

In the past few years, several celebrities have gone vegan, and a wealth of vegan products have appeared in stores.

However, you may still be curious about what this eating pattern involves and what you can and cant eat on a vegan diet.

This article tells you everything you need to know about veganism.

The term vegan was coined in 1944 by a small group of vegetarians who broke away from the Leicester Vegetarian Society in England to form the Vegan Society.

They chose not to consume dairy, eggs, or any other products of animal origin, in addition to refraining from meat, as do vegetarians.

The term vegan was chosen by combining the first and last letters of vegetarian.

Veganism is currently defined as a way of living that attempts to exclude all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty, be it from food, clothing, or any other purpose.

Vegans generally choose to avoid animal products for one or more of the following reasons.

Ethical vegans strongly believe that all creatures have the right to life and freedom.

Therefore, they oppose ending a conscious being's life simply to consume its flesh, drink its milk, or wear its skin especially because alternatives are available.

Ethical vegans are also opposed to the psychological and physical stress that animals may endure as a result of modern farming practices.

For instance, ethical vegans deplore the small pens and cages in which many livestock live and often rarely leave between birth and slaughter.

What's more, many vegans speak out against the farming industrys practices, such as the grinding of live male chicks by the egg industry or the force-feeding of ducks and geese for the foie gras market.

Ethical vegans may demonstrate their opposition by protesting, raising awareness, and choosing products that dont involve animal agriculture.

Some people choose veganism for its potential health effects.

For example, plant-based diets may reduce your risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and premature death (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Lowering your intake of animal products may likewise reduce your risk of Alzheimers disease or dying from cancer or heart disease (6, 7, 8, 9, 10).

Some also choose veganism to avoid the side effects linked to the antibiotics and hormones used in modern animal agriculture (11, 12, 13).

Finally, studies consistently link vegan diets to a lower body weight and body mass index (BMI). Some people may choose these diets to lose weight (14, 15, 16).

People may also choose to avoid animal products because of the environmental impact of animal agriculture.

A 2010 United Nations (UN) report argued that these products generally require more resources and cause higher greenhouse gas emissions than plant-based options (17).

For instance, animal agriculture contributes to 65% of global nitrous oxide emissions, 3540% of methane emissions, and 9% of carbon dioxide emissions (18).

These chemicals are considered the three principal greenhouse gasses involved in climate change.

Furthermore, animal agriculture tends to be a water-intensive process. For example, 5505,200 gallons (1,70019,550 liters) of water are needed to produce 1 pound (0.5 kg) of beef (19, 20).

Thats up to 43 times more water than is needed to produce the same amount of cereal grains (20).

Animal agriculture can also lead to deforestation when forested areas are burned for cropland or pasture. This habitat destruction is thought to contribute to the extinction of various animal species (18, 21).

Prominent types of this lifestyle include:

Vegans avoid all foods of animal origin. These include:

Moreover, vegans avoid any animal-derived ingredients, such as albumin, casein, carmine, gelatin, pepsin, shellac, isinglass, and whey.

Foods containing these ingredients include some types of beer and wine, marshmallows, breakfast cereals, gummy candies, and chewing gum.

Avoiding animal products doesnt consign you to veggies and tofu alone.

In fact, many common dishes are already vegan or can be adjusted easily.

Some examples include bean burritos, veggie burgers, tomato pizzas, smoothies, nachos with salsa and guacamole, hummus wraps, sandwiches, and pasta dishes.

Meat-based entres are generally swapped for meals containing the following:

You can replace dairy products with plant milks, scrambled eggs with scrambled tofu, honey with plant-based sweeteners like molasses or maple syrup, and raw eggs with flax or chia seeds.

In addition, vegans tend to consume a variety of whole grains, as well as a wide array of fruits and vegetables (23, 24).

Finally, you can also choose from an ever-growing selection of ready-made vegan products, including vegan meats, fortified plant milks, vegan cheeses, and desserts.

However, these highly processed products may be loaded with additives, oils, and artificial ingredients.

Vegans are individuals who avoid animal products for ethical, health, or environmental reasons or a combination of the three.

Instead, they eat various plant foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, and products made from these foods.

If youre curious about this eating pattern, it can be easier to transition to veganism than you might think. However, you may want to consider supplements to ensure youre getting all the nutrients your body needs.

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What Is Veganism, and What Do Vegans Eat?

Henry Firth, Ian Theasby want to save the world by promoting vegan lifestyle with BOSH! series – Houston Chronicle

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Wildly popular across the pond, Henry Firth and Ian Theasby are steadily becoming the most recognizable faces of vegan cooking.

The British duo has published four books in less than two years on the importance of a plant-based diet. Five years ago, they adopted a vegan lifestyle and started experimenting with recipes on social media and YouTube.

In addition to being healthy and feeling better, Firth and Theasby believe that promoting a vegan lifestyle can help save the planet because the production of meat requires processes that release large amount of greenhouse gases.

In BOSH! How to Live Vegan, they write, We can literally save the world by eating more plants.

Their latest book, BOSH! Healthy Vegan, was released at the end of 2019. The cookbook incorporates recipes with less all-white, processed carbohydrates, a pitfall to many vegan dishes, they said in an interview with ReNew Houston.

Q: Why should people adopt a vegan lifestyle?

A: Plants are really good for you. Since adopting a plant-based diet, were both fitter, happier and healthier than weve ever been. Theres a reason so many of the worlds top athletes are doing the same. So whether you cut out meat three times a week or are entirely plant-based, were there for you if you need some good grub.

Q: Your vegan cooking empire started on social media. How did you make the transition to the publishing world?

A: We went vegan about five years ago, when lots of vegan recipes were pretty uninspiring. We relearned how to cook and started sharing our recipes on social media. After a month of uploading them, we had 100,000 followers and now have over 2 billion views.

During that first year of posting our recipes, the same comment kept cropping up over and over again: When are you bringing out a book? So we reached out to publishing houses in the U.K. and, fortunately, pretty much all of them were interested. After a six-way bidding war, we found a home with HQ, HarperCollins and here we are, four books later!

On HoustonChronicle.com: Kevin Curry fills void for young men cooking healthy recipes

Q: We get hundreds of cookbooks in our newsroom every year, many of them on the latest fad diets. What makes veganism and your products more than a fad diet?

A: The thing about a lot of diets is that the results can be short-lived. People end up crashing in and out of very different ways of eating potentially affecting your bodys metabolism.

We like to have a more flexible approach to nutrition, healthy eating and fitness. We always use the 80/20 rule: 80 percent healthy and 20 percent naughty. It means you can find a way of eating, rather than a fad diet, that really suits your lifestyle.

Q: The name of your latest book, BOSH! Healthy Vegan, is interesting. Is there an unhealthy way to be vegan?

A: Its really easy to think that being vegan means youre automatically healthy and getting your five-a-day. We fell into that trap a few years ago.

We were trying out several new recipes a day, eating loads of white, processed carbs plus there are so many vegan junk-food places available now. We were beginning to feel the effects of it all. So we started making a few changes to the way we eat. Thats what weve shared in BOSH! Healthy Vegan, which has over 80 healthy recipes, meal plans and guidance.

Q: What started you both on this lifestyle?

A: We became vegan around five years ago after watching Kip Andersens documentary, Cowspiracy. It showed us that eating a plant-based diet can change the planet and theres nothing more important than saving the world we live in.

Q: What is different in the new cookbook from your previous cookbook, BISH BASH BOSH!, which was released last year?

A: We want to show that healthy vegan food can definitely still be hearty and even decadent. Weve made our favorite recipes, but just with lower fat and sugar. Think hearty stews, pastas, warm pies, curries and theres definitely still desserts.

Q: Are there plans for a Netflix, Hulu, Apple+ series?

A: Were currently the faces of Living on the Veg, which is on ITV in the U.K. Its the first-ever mainstream plant-based cooking series in the U.K., so its been an honor to be part of it, as its a real marker for the vegan movement. Ultimately, wed love to reach as many people as possible to show them how tasty and accessible vegan food can be.

Q: Houston is considered a foodie city by most. But we still eat a lot of meat, especially beef. What would be the easiest way for native Texans to shuck those meat-eating instincts?

A: Explore the fruit and vegetable aisle and find out just how versatile they can be. Lots of people are surprised by how easy it is to re-create the texture and flavor of meat with vegetables alone. A great example is mushrooms, which can used to replace minced beef, or ground beef in the U.S. The mushrooms take on so much flavor and replicate the meaty consistency in dishes like spaghetti bolognese, lasagna and pies.

Jackfruit is also incredible for replicating chicken, lamb and fish. There are so many ways to be creative with food that we discovered after becoming vegan. Its easier than ever to be vegan, so try something new.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Cook outdoors creatively with "Wild: Adventure Cookbook"

Q: What are your favorite dishes to make?

A: We love the challenge of creating a dish thats usually centered around meat or dairy and remixing it with plants alone. Recipes like our Healthy Saag Paneer, Meaty Mushroom Pie and Salmon Tofu Steaks from BOSH! Healthy Vegan are great examples of how you can still get those amazing flavors and theyre healthy, too.

BOSH! Healthy Vegan , BISH BASH BOSH! , BOSH ! and

BOSH! How to Live Vegan are available wherever you buy books.

julie.garcia@chron.com

twitter.com/reporterjulie

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Henry Firth, Ian Theasby want to save the world by promoting vegan lifestyle with BOSH! series - Houston Chronicle

Burger King says it never promised Impossible Whoppers were vegan – Yahoo Finance

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) - Burger King, saying it never billed its "Impossible Whoppers" as vegan or promised to cook them a particular way, said a proposed class action by a vegan customer over the plant-based patties being cooked on the same grills as meat burgers should be thrown out.

In a court filing on Thursday, Burger King said plaintiff Phillip Williams should have asked how Impossible Whoppers were cooked before ordering one that he said was "coated in meat by-products" at an Atlanta drive-through.

Burger King said reasonable customers would ask about its cooking methods, and Williams would have known he could request an alternative method had he done even "the smallest amount of investigation" on its website or by reading media reports.

Williams "assumed that an Impossible Whopper would satisfy his own particularly strict form of veganism ... solely because he asked a Burger King restaurant employee to 'hold the mayo,'" Burger King said. "This claim has no basis."

Lawyers for Williams did not respond on Friday to requests for comment.

Williams claimed in his Nov. 18 lawsuit in Miami federal court that Burger King "duped" him into buying the Impossible Whopper at a premium price and is seeking damages on behalf of all U.S. consumers who bought it.

Burger King is a unit of Toronto-based Restaurant Brands International Inc , which also owns the Canadian coffee and restaurant chain Tim Hortons and is overseen by Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital.

Impossible Foods Inc, which helped create the Impossible Whopper, has said it was designed for meat eaters who want to consume less animal protein, not for vegans or vegetarians.

Burger King advertises the Impossible Whopper on its website at $4, down from its original suggested price of $5.59, and in mid-January added it to its two-for-$6 menu. In a statement, a spokesman said the product "continues to exceed expectations."

The case is Williams v Burger King Corp, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, No. 19-24755.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Matthew Lewis)

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Burger King says it never promised Impossible Whoppers were vegan - Yahoo Finance

What meat eaters really think about veganism new research – The Conversation UK

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Most people in the UK are committed meat eaters but for how long? My new research into the views of meat eaters found that most respondents viewed veganism as ethical in principle and good for the environment.

It seems that practical matters of taste, price, and convenience are the main barriers preventing more people from adopting veganism not disagreement with the fundamental idea. This could have major implications for the future of the food industry as meat alternatives become tastier, cheaper and more widely available.

My survey of 1,000 UK adult men and women found that 73% of those surveyed considered veganism to be ethical, while 70% said it was good for the environment. But 61% said adopting a vegan diet was not enjoyable, 77% said it was inconvenient, and 83% said it was not easy.

Other possible barriers such as health concerns and social stigma seemed not to be as important, with 60% considering veganism to be socially acceptable, and over half saying it was healthy.

The idea that most meat eaters agree with the principles of veganism might seem surprising to some. But other research has led to similar conclusions. One study for example, found that almost half of Americans supported a ban on slaughterhouses.

The prevalence of taste, price, and convenience as barriers to change also mirrors previous findings. One British survey found that the most common reason by far people gave for not being vegetarian is simply: I like the taste of meat too much. The second and third most common reasons related to the high cost of meat substitutes and struggling for meal ideas.

These findings present climate and animal advocates with an interesting challenge. People are largely aware that there are good reasons to cut down their animal product consumption, but they are mostly not willing to bear the personal cost of doing so.

Decades of food behaviour research has shown us that price, taste and convenience are the three major factors driving food choices. For most people, ethics and environmental impact simply do not enter into it.

Experimental research has also shown that the act of eating meat can alter peoples views of the morality of eating animals. One study asked participants to rate their moral concern for cows. Before answering, participants were given either nuts or beef jerky to snack on.

The researchers found that eating beef jerky actually caused participants to care less about cows. People seem not to be choosing to eat meat because they think there are good reasons to do so they are choosing to think there are good reasons because they eat meat.

In this way, the default widespread (and, lets be honest, enjoyable) behaviour of meat eating can be a barrier to clear reasoning about our food systems. How can we be expected to discuss this honestly when we have such a strong interest in reaching the conclusion that eating meat is okay?

Fortunately, things are changing. The range, quality, and affordability of vegan options has exploded. My survey was conducted in September 2018, a few months before the tremendously successful release of Greggs vegan sausage roll.

Since then, we have seen an avalanche of high-quality affordable vegan options released in the British supermarkets, restaurants and even fast food outlets. These allow meat eaters to easily replace animal products one meal at a time. When Subway offers a version of its meatball marinara that is compatible with your views on ethics and the environment, why would you choose the one made from an animal if the alternative tastes the same?

The widespread availability of these options means that the growing number of vegans, vegetarians and flexitarians in the UK have more choice than ever. Not only will this entice more people to try vegan options, but it will make it far easier for aspiring vegetarians and vegans to stick to their diets.

With consumer choice comes producer competition, and here we will see the magic of the market. If you think those looking to cut down their meat consumption are spoilt for choice in 2020, just wait to see the effect of these food giants racing to make their vegan offerings better and cheaper as they compete for a rapidly growing customer segment.

We may be about to witness an explosion in research to perfect plant-based meat analogues. Meanwhile, the development of real animal meat grown from stem cells without the animals is gaining pace.

While these replacements get tastier, more nutritious and cheaper over the next ten years, meat from animals will largely stay the same. It is no wonder the animal farming industry is nervous. Demand for meat and dairy is falling drastically while the market for alternatives has skyrocketed.

In the US, two major dairy producers have filed for bankruptcy in recent months, while a recent report estimated that the meat and dairy industries will collapse in the next decade.

This leaves the average meat eater with a dilemma. Most agree with the reasons for being vegan but object to the price, taste, and convenience of the alternatives.

As these alternatives get cheaper, better and more widespread, meat eaters will have to ask themselves just how good the alternatives need to be before they decide to consume in line with their values. Being one of the last people to pay for needless animal slaughter because the alternative was only pretty good will not be a good look in the near future.

Patch infused with smell of bacon developed to help vegans and vegetarians with meat cravings – The Independent

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

A patch infused with the scent of bacon has been developed by a scientist with the aim of helping people who choose to adopt a plant-based diet curb their meat cravings.

The device was created by Charles Spence, a professor of experimental psychology at the University of Oxford.

Spence, who specialises in sensory perception and the way in which the mind is connected to our senses of taste and smell, collaborated with plant-based food company Strong Roots to create the patch.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

When a person who is wearing the patch scratches it, it produces a smell similar to that of cooked bacon.

Professor Spence explained that this may help those who wish to refrain from eating meat to imagine that they are eating bacon, which should supposedly sate their appetite.

Studies have shown that scent can reduce food cravings, said the author of Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating.

Our sense of smell is strongly connected to our ability to taste therefore experiencing food related cues such as smelling a bacon aroma, can lead us to imagine the act of eating that food. Imagine eating enough bacon and you might find yourself sated.

This week, the patches are being trialled in Reading, Leeds and Liverpool.

Strong Roots stated that the company hopes the product will become more widely-available to consumers in the future.

The patch is being promoted by former Love Island contestant and boxer Tommy Fury, who said on his Instagram Story: Ive been hearing a lot about Veganuary, and I really wanted to try it. One of my new years resolutions was to cut back on meat.

While some may think the productis innovative, described by Strong Roots founder Samuel Dennigan as the worlds first ever meat patch, others have expressed their cynicism.

The pop singer is a passionate animal rights advocate, telling Vanity Fair in 2019 that her diet also reflects her fashion choices: "Im challenging the system more than ever. Choosing to live as a sustainable vegan activist means wearing more vintage (less waste; loving pieces for longer), playing with the newest eco-materials and technology, and making custom vegan pieces with some of my favorite designers."

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The Clueless star went vegan shortly after wrapping the hit 1990s film and has been a passionate campaigner for animal rights since. Speaking in a video for Compassionate Meals in 2017, she said: "Knowing the truth about where our food comes from is just so disturbing to me. Once you see it, theres no way to go back from that for me."

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The music mogul revealed in a recent interview with The Sun that he decided to give up animal products earlier this year "on a whim", adding that he feels much better as a result.

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"I started for health reasons," Williams told Health in 2019. "I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and I wanted to maintain my performance on the court. Once I started I fell in love with the concept of fueling your body in the best way possible. Not only does it help me on the court, but I feel like Im doing the right thing for me."

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The American-Israeli actor decided to go vegan eight years ago after learning more about the environmental consequences of eating animal products. Speaking at an Environmental Media Awards benefit, 2017, she said: "Factory farming is responsible for most of the air, water, and land pollution - that disproportionately affects our poor communities as well. So we get to make decisions three times a day, what we do with our planet, and you can make a difference by even once a day or once a week choosing not to eat animals or animal products."

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While she chooses to refer to herself as plant-based as opposed to vegan, the 'Halo' singer underwent a 22-day vegan challenge with husband Jay-Z in 2013 and is believed to have maintained the diet ever since. Writing in the foreword of The Greenprint: Plant-Based Diet, Best Body, Better World by Marco Borges, the couple say: "We used to think of health as a diet some worked for us, some didnt. Once we looked at health as the truth, instead of a diet, it became a mission for us to share that truth and lifestyle with as many people as possible."

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The British boxer extolled the virtues of veganism in an interview with The Daily Telegraph in 2016: "A lot of the meat that people eat has been genetically modified, or if it hasnt then the food the animals been fed has been. Thats tough for a human being to process, so cutting it out made me feel immediately better and stronger than ever."

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The 'Dangerous Woman' singer announced she was going vegan in November 2018. Speaking to The Daily Mirror in a recent interview, she explained: "A lot of the meat that people eat has been genetically modified, or if it hasnt then the food the animals been fed has been. Thats tough for a human being to process, so cutting it out made me feel immediately better and stronger than ever."

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The British singer has been toying with veganism for a while, having been a vegetarian for seven years. Speaking to The Cut in 2018, she revealed that she will "never eat fish or meat again" and eats a predominantly vegan diet.

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The former heavyweight boxing champion revealed he had become vegan in 2010. "I wish I was born this way," he told Fox News in 2011. "When you find out about the processed stuff you have been eating. I wonder why I was crazy all those years."

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The Zero Dark Thirty star decided to go vegan roughly 13 years ago because of low energy. Speaking to W Magazine in 2017, she clarified: "being vegan was not anything I ever wanted to be. I just really was listening to what my body was telling me."

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Mara has been vegan for eight years, telling Harper's Bazaar in 2018 "its better for your health and the environment.

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Reality star Kim Kardashian West revealed that she has started eating a plant-based diet on Instagram in April 2019. Sharing two photographs of vegan dishes on her Instagram story, the 38-year-old wrote: I am eating all plant-based when I am at home.

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The music mogul revealed in a recent interview with The Sun that he decided to give up animal products earlier this year "on a whim", adding that he feels much better as a result.

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AFP/Getty

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Mara has been vegan for eight years, telling Harper's Bazaar in 2018 "its better for your health and the environment.

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This surely cant be an actual thing, one person tweeted.

April Fools Day has come early this year? another remarked.

Over the past few years, the vegan market has become saturated with new products, with an increasing number of food manufacturers jumping on the plant-based bandwagon.

It was recently reported that Leons vegan burgers have become more popular than its meat versions, while earlier this month restaurant Wagamama announced it was to start serving vegan tunamade from watermelon.

However, not all vegan food launches have been smooth-sailing.

Joaquin Phoenix urges people to go vegan to help fight climate change

Earlier this year, KFC launched its new vegan Quorn chicken burger.

Shortly afterwards, several customers complained that they had been served the meat version in error.

A KFCspokesperson issued an apology with regards to the wrong orders, stating: Were only human.

Were really pleased so many fans have come in to try the vegan burger this week, that said, we know theres been a handful of instances where weve made mistakes its not great and were really sorry thats happened, the spokesperson told The Independent.

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Patch infused with smell of bacon developed to help vegans and vegetarians with meat cravings - The Independent

Vegan influencer is now a hunter-gatherer teaching people to kill animals – New York Post

Posted on December 28, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

A zealous vegan who became an influencer in the raw-food movement has made a drastic change to his lifestyle becoming an internet-famous hunter-gatherer teaching people to kill animals for food.

Daniel Vitalis, 42, gave up meat as a teenager and was vegan for 10 years, becoming a popular speaker espousing the extreme diet.

He dumped veganism five years ago, however, after reading a book that convinced him animal foods were crucial for a healthy diet telling The Boston Globe that the switch came in the middle of a vegan speaking tour.

I would get up on stage and unravel the problems with the vegan diet, he told the paper of his new belief-system. Pretty soon I got kicked out of the nest.

Vitalis soon became equally as zealous about the hunter-gatherer lifestyle, driving with the license plate HNTGTHR, starting a podcast and becoming an online influencer for a completely new crowd.

Instead of raw-foods, his Instagram now showcases carefully curated images of animals and fish he has killed as well as how he preps them for meals at home in Maine.

His most recent post even celebrated how he personally caught the lobsters and halibut used to feed guests at his wedding to wife Avani, a French-Canadian teacher.

Vitalis house in Bridgton is full of skulls and weapons and has freezers packed full of meat from his kills in what the Globe called a vegans nightmare.

He is now hoping to become an even bigger star with an online video series called Wild Fed that promises to teach people the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.

There needs to be somebody who gathers this into the modern world, and I care more about getting this message to soccer moms than I do about living in a teepee, he told the Globe of his carefully packaged product.

What people miss about all this is that Im not into eating bad-tasting food, he told the paper.

People assume that the reason we stopped eating wild food is because it doesnt taste as good, but thats simply not true. It tastes better and its more nutritious.

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Vegan influencer is now a hunter-gatherer teaching people to kill animals - New York Post

Neon Tiger, a vegan cocktail bar set in the year 2048, is coming to King Street this spring – Charleston City Paper

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

The flickering outline of a roaring tiger stares out from a black screen. The neon orange and pink pulsates, like a power line is fighting to fuel the light. "It's a glitch in the Matrix," says John Adamson of his new vegan cocktail concept Neon Tiger. "It doesn't adhere to the rules of the Matrix."

Adamson explains that his new restaurant will be set in the year 2048 when it opens at 654 King St. (formerly Juliet) in early spring. Less whimsy and more end times, this is the world Adamson believes we will have to grapple with if humans continue to kill, consume, and imprison animals.

The restaurant will be entirely plant-based, with locally sourced booze, no cans or bottles, and as little waste as possible. Prolific Toronoto-based activist and vegan chef Doug McNish serves as Neon Tiger's consultant.

"We have pretty grand plans," says Adamson. Neon Tiger will be a B Corp, an entity that functions as a business while also meeting standards for social responsibility and sustainability. "It's all about education, for me as an activist, you have to play to your strengths and my strength is creating and designing restaurant concepts."

Adamson has a been a vegan for two-and-a-half years. The day he decided to change his way of life, Adamson says he was ready to turn his restaurant, The Rarebit, into a vegan-only eatery. "There would be no greater statement for the movement," he says. But it wasn't practical, so the restaurateur decided to sell his popular King Street joint and put money toward a new venture. Serendipitously, Neon Tiger's landlord is also a vegan.

"Designing those spaces [Rarebit and The Americano] from my head, it's just what I enjoy. This one happens to be more important than any I've ever done."

Adamson is ready for keyboard warriors to attack his animal-free restaurant the outspoken activist is used to getting flack from meat eaters. "The funny thing, well it's not funny, but the interesting thing about veganism is you have so many people who want to fight you on it, but you are fighting for them. Animal liberation is human liberation."

He says his goal since becoming vegan was to "create a space for people to have a cruelty free meal." The response from fellow vegans in the hospitality industry has been great, says Adamson. Turns out there are plenty of front and back of house workers who desire an animal-free work place, but haven't been able to pursue this goal and still keep a roof over their heads.

If you don't buy into the whole "veganism will save the world" thing, that's OK says Adamson. "You only need about 10 or 15 percent of the population think about any movement in history. We're just racing for that 10 percent."

According to a Forbes analysis in 2018 based on a Science mag report, "Since livestock production is the single largest contributor of emissions around the globe (more than planes, trains and cars combined), removing it from out food system could allow the planet to regenerate. Raising animals for food is also the largest contributor to wildlife extinction around the world."

Whether you're a vegan, on the fence, or an adamant consumer of animal products, Adamson hopes you'll check out Neon Tiger. It will be open nightly until 2 a.m. with a "sexy, lounge-y feel" that also happens to be mid apocalypse themed.

"The idea is in 2048 the only tiger youll have will be representations of these animals. It also brings that human element it's like a slight to humanity of course we'd only be left with neon ... It's a responsibility we had that we completely neglected and failed."

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Neon Tiger, a vegan cocktail bar set in the year 2048, is coming to King Street this spring - Charleston City Paper

Joaquin Phoenixs Oscar Speech Was About Animal Rights and Veganism – Eater

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Phoenixs impassioned speech about animal rights got mixed reactions

In the most tWisTeD win at the Oscars last night, Joaquin Phoneix won for Best Actor for Joker, a movie about a sad clown. He began his acceptance speech speaking on the many injustices in the world, be they gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights.

Phoenix, whos been a vegan since he was a child and has campaigned for PETA, spoke of how we feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakeable. Then we take her milk thats intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal, and that humans should create change beneficial to all sentient beings. Hes used his platform to advocate for vegan causes before, whether its pushing the Golden Globes to serve a vegan menu, or attending a pig vigil in LA. PETA tweeted support of his message, and Kelsey Piper at Vox wrote that his speech elevated the moral worth of animals.

While Phoenix has used other speeches this awards season to call out social injustices, some people expressed frustration at language that equates drinking diary with injustices like racism or transphobia. PETA has been criticized in the past for co-opting the language of social justice in its work, and for doing things like comparing the Holocaust to factory farming. Vice said that, while his heart was in the right place, more than anything the speech was unhinged. Thats Arthur for you.

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Veganism won’t save the world from environmental ruin, researchers warn – New York Post

Posted on December 3, 2019 by Prof Baldwin

Heres a red-hot take on red meat: Going vegan wont save the environment.

Livestock farmers are being unfairly demonized by vegans and environmental advocates, experts from the University of Edinburgh and Scotlands Rural College told their peers at a panel in London, the Telegraph reports.

The shocking stance comes despite the urging of hoards of climate scientists who say eating a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to curtail our current environmental crisis.

According to the Scottish scientists, meat production isnt the culprit of global warming in fact, breeders are producing cattle that are less harmful to the environment. Also, they argue, meat is critical for the development of children worldwide, and fewer livestock farms wouldnt necessarily mean more sustainable land use.

Often the argument is made that going vegan would minimize land use, and the modeling studies that have been done demonstrate that thats not the case, said Geoff Simm, director of Global Academy Agriculture and Food Security at Edinburgh. We feel that while livestock production has a range of economic, social and environmental costs and benefits, the costs have perhaps been receiving far more attention recently than some of the benefits.

A primary benefit of livestock production, according to Simm, is that even small amounts of animal-sourced food have a really important effect on the [cognitive and physical] development of children, thanks to the high concentration of protein and bioavailable micronutrients in meat.

Mike Coffey of Rural College slammed veganism as completely unnecessary.

If everybody went vegan, it would be devastating for the UK environment, he said. Animals bred for food help boost biodiversity.

Coffey points to research being done to develop genetically modified cows that would grow faster and eat less, and emit 30 percent less methane than conventional cows.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the cultivation of animals such as cattle produces almost 1/3 of [all] emissions from the agriculture economic sector, which is responsible for 9% of the planets overall greenhouse gas output. Furthermore, they add that manure management on these farms accounts for nearly a fifth of the farm sectors greenhouse gas footprint.

Coffey hopes that farmers in the UK and around the world will soon have the option to invest in more efficient cattle.

By next year farmers will be able to select bulls whose [offspring] consume less feed for the amount of milk they produce, said Coffey. Where we go next is can we actually measure methane emissions from groups of animals?

Edinburgh University professor Andrea Wilson added that the environmental impact of veganism has not been scrutinized to the same degree.

We know a lot about the livestock sector because people have looked at it. We actually know very little about the vegan sector, she said. The danger is we demonize one and jump too quickly to the other.

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Veganism won't save the world from environmental ruin, researchers warn - New York Post

Vegan Burgers Will Conquer the World in 2020 and Here’s Why – vegconomist – the vegan business magazine

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Credit: Greg Williams photography / AUGUST

In a much publicised image, vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix celebrates his Oscar win by enjoying a vegan burger with fiance Rooney Mara. The implications of this, in addition to his beautifully crafted acceptance speech, could be immeasurable for veganism as a whole.

Vegan burger chains, plantbased fast food restaurants, and vegan options in mainstream foodservice, are beyond a doubt exploding all over the planet, as consumers wake up to the fact that its time to look towards cruelty-free and more sustainable options, and respond to the heightened availability of delicious and innovative plantbased alternatives to animal flesh.

Phoenix quoted to Veganuary organisers this January: If you look at the climate crisis or the violence of our food system and feel helpless, thinking I wish there was something I could do- you can. And now in 2020, almost everyone can as the plantbased burger becomes omnipresent on the international stage and is taking a giant chunk of the market.

Without even mentioning the enormous range of options available in retail outlets, such as the Beyond Burger and Impossible Burger and all of their peers, this article is to demonstrate the recent influx of vegan burgers in food service around the world, namely from vegan brands who have released news of expansion in the past months.

This is just a sample, and the point is, burgers and fast food are an access point, popular in every corner of the globe. And now that the vegan burger is being endorsed by international celebrities such as Phoenix and Hamilton, this is set to really change the industry as we know it.

However you feel about vegan options at McDonalds or Burger King; the movement is evolving. Vegan industry is at a time of unprecedented growth, and with more options available that any point in history, coupled with a growing awareness of health and sustainability, 2020 is going to see the vegan burger absolutely dominate in 2020. And that is a phenomenal thing not only for vegan industry, but more importantly, for the countless millions of animals it could potentially save.

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Vegan Burgers Will Conquer the World in 2020 and Here's Why - vegconomist - the vegan business magazine

Vegan-ish: Welcome To The Era Of The Part-Time Vegan – Green Queen Media

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

While the concept of being a part-time vegetarian has been around for decades, the idea of dabbling in the 100% plant-based diet and vegan lifestyle is becoming more widespread than ever before. Dubbed by some as the vegan-ish trend, we are now seeing more everyday consumers, especially the eco-conscious younger generation, as well as high-profile celebrities adopt plant-based eating and vegan habits for a portion of the time but stopping short of full-time commitment to veganism. So, how did this trend come about?

Similar to the concept of being a flexitarian, which doesnt bind those who practice it to a stringent plant-based diet and instead encourages adopting several meat-free or dairy-free days in a week, being vegan-ish refers to following veganism just sometimes. While some have shunned it as the latest trend to come and go, it appears as though the part-time vegan is well becoming a permanent fixture across the world.

Its likely that youll have noticed multiple family members and friends around you choose to try veganism for a month or pledge to stick to meat and dairy-free for several days of the week, thanks to the growing popularity of a number of vegan campaigns. This new decade, for instance, kicked off with Veganuary, which attracted over 400,000 participants this year, almost doubling the figure in 2019.

Social media has been flooded with celebrity endorsements of being vegan-ish too, most famously by idolised pop and R&B singer Beyonce and her rapper husband Jay-Z who followed a vegan diet for 22 days as a part of their so-called spiritual and physical cleanse. While the Golden Globes decided to present a 100% vegan 3-course menu, the Academy of Motion Pictures took a more part-time vegan approach by offering 70% plant-based dishes alongside salmon, wagyu beef and caviar at the Oscars afterparty. The Grammys took a similar vegan-ish approach, with attendees choosing between a Mtley Cre-inspired Dr. FeelGood superfood platter and a 64-ounce steak.

But the concept of kind of ditching meat and dairy isnt new, and had always lingered around in the background for decades. Since the mid-1990s, the idea of being a part-time vegetarian became increasingly popular, and really started to take off in the 2000s when Stella, Mary and Paul McCartney decided to launch Meat-Free Mondays. Although the McCartneys managed to attract hundreds of thousands of followers around the world who would eat vegetarian every Monday, the campaign didnt exactly manage to rebrand plant-based food as cool.

Then as 2010s rolled around, startups began their innovative work to create meat that looked and tasted just like the real deal, but was made entirely from plant ingredients. With their biomimicking technology, we saw the rise in popularity of plant-based meat iterations created by pioneering brands such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Backed by the growing awareness amongst consumers about the detrimental environmental impact of animal agriculture, and not to mention the scientific evidence showcasing the adverse health effects of meat consumption, eating vegan no longer became associated with only animal welfare and ethical concerns.

The two Silicon Valley companies arguably changed the landscape of the plant-based movement, and the word plant quickly became very much vogue. From the largest fast food chains such as Burger King, Triple Os and McDonalds, to independent restaurants all over the world, vegan beef patties became widely rolled out across thousands of locations, catering to pure vegans, but also the enlarging demographic of consumers who want to occasionally indulge in a cruelty-free, low-carbon meal. According to the Good Food Institute (GFI), the total value of the plant-based food market now stands at a whopping US$4.5 billion.

In general, the rising vegan-ish trend will be a positive for the planet. While of course, cutting out meat and dairy from our diets would be the most impactful individual choice, the popular preference to go part-time vegan, especially if adopted en masse, would significantly drive down the demand for a global industry that is unsustainable, offer a boost to our health, and bring about the motivation to change the world for the better.

Looking for more vegan news? Follow the latest in the plant-based world on Green Queen here.

Lead image courtesy of Vegan Society.

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Vegan-ish: Welcome To The Era Of The Part-Time Vegan - Green Queen Media

Taco Bell Is Adding Vegan Meat to Its Menu Nationwide – LIVEKINDLY

Posted on March 2, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Taco Bell announced it will add plant-based meat to its menu in the next year.

Last fall, the Mexican-inspired fast-food chain debuted a dedicated vegetarian menu. It featured two new menu items: a Vegetarian Crunchwrap Supreme and a Vegetarian Quesarito.

At the start of 2020, the chain vowed to continue providing the most vegetarian choices and to make it even easier for customers to order them.

Now, the company is embracing veganism as consumer demand for plant-based products grows, especially in the fast-food sector.

We definitely see that plant-based protein has a place on the menu, Taco Bell CEO Mark King told Bloomberg Green.

The fast-food chain is still deciding which plant-based options to add to the menu.King says the company met with Beyond Meat Inc. and Impossible Foods Inc. in recent months

King sampled Beyond Meats items just last week and says hes a fan. I tried all the food which was really exciting, and way beyond my expectation.

According to Fast Company, monthly average searches for the word vegan along with names of major fast-food chains rose 12 percent from 2018 to 2019.

The words vegan Taco Bell ranked number one, yielding 456,500 total searches from January 2018 to August 2019.

By comparison, vegan Starbucks came in second with 216,500 total searches, and vegan Burger King came in third with 127,700.

The arrival of vegan meat to Taco Bells in the US comes on the heels of a shift towards veganism in chains overseas.

Last fall, Taco Bell China added OmniPork, vegan pork that looks and tastes like animal-derived pork, to its menu for a limited time.

The vegan pork is made from shiitake mushrooms, pea protein, soy protein, and rice protein.

Taco Bell Spain also added plant-based meat to its menu last year.

The meat-free meat is made from oats and beans and is marinated in a sauce with secret Taco Bell spices.

Customers can substitute the new oat meat in place of animal-based meats in any of Taco Bells menu options.

Taco Bell launched a limited-time menu featuring the oat-based meat in London locations last May.

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Taco Bell Is Adding Vegan Meat to Its Menu Nationwide

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Mexican-inspired fast-food chain Taco Bell announced it will add vegan meat to its menu in the next year; it is still deciding on plant-based options.

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Audrey Enjoli

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Is your wine vegan? – The Press

Posted on January 30, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Photo: Erick Madrid / Special to The Chronicle

This may seem as silly a question as asking, Are grapes vegan? Of course, they are, but some argue that the answer for wine enters gray territory. Dont fret that bacon-y character flavor you taste in your favorite Syrah isnt actually bacon. But to be vegan or vegetarian, a wine must meet certain requirements during the production process just like wines with official labels like organic, biodynamic or kosher. Unlike organic wines, however, vegan and vegetarian wines are not governed by a certifying body.

So what would make a wine non-vegan or -vegetarian? It has to do with a winemaking procedure called fining.

One of the final winemaking steps before bottling, fining requires the use of various agents to help clarify to a wine. The brilliant luminosity youll observe in a glass of golden Chardonnay or the polish you might admire in the deep ruby hue of a Merlot that precision of color is thanks to fining. Beyond clearing any haziness, fining can also soften harsh tannins. The processing aids are often compared to a magnet: Various particles stick to the fining agents like Velcro and can then be easily removed.

The majority of common fining agents are animal-derived, which is where the vegan question comes in. The most traditionally common fining agent is egg whites, often used for more tannic red wines like Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties. Wines fined with egg whites would be considered vegetarian, but not vegan, as would those that see casein a milk-derived protein employed in some whites to remove oxidative characters. Conversely, fining agents like gelatin (derived from pigs) or isinglass (coming from sturgeon bladders) would render a wine neither vegetarian or vegan but would get it crystal clear.

If a winemaker wants to fine a wine but doesnt want to use an animal product, one common solution is bentonite clay. Nonetheless, many vegan and vegetarian wines may just simply forgo fining altogether. Some winemakers criticize the practice of fining, arguing that it values color over flavor that it scrapes off some of the good along with the bad. While vegan and vegetarian wine is unrelated to the natural wine movement, most natural wine nonetheless defaults to being vegan and vegetarian as theyre typically bottled unfined (and unfiltered).

While some wineries might advertise vegan or vegetarian on their back labels, many dont. When in doubt, you can ask the tasting room staff, or check Barnivore, a directory of vegan and vegetarian beverages.

But its important to know that fining agents are not ingredients, and no one consumes egg whites or fish bladders in a wine that was fined with them. The fining agents are removed by the time of bottling. Its a completely different effect than having a cocktail with Clamato (clam juice) or a shot of pechuga, a type of mezcal distilled with chicken or other meats. Still, its not impossible to imagine that trace residue might make it into the final product.

Then again, true skeptics might even point out the insects that inevitably make their way into a grape destemmer which get cleaned out during fermentation positing no wine can be truly vegetarian.

Ultimately, as with all food choices, whether or not to consume wines fined with animal products is a personal decision. Luckily there is no shortage of excellent wines around the globe that meet most criteria of being vegan or vegetarian. Here are six from California worth visiting.

Domaine Carneros

One of Californias pioneering producers of traditional-method sparkling wine, Domaine Carneros is partly owned by Taittinger, a pedigreed Champagne name. While the classic combination of bubbles and caviar is an option for visitors, so is a flight of Asian-influenced bites an experience that can accommodate other dietary restrictions, such as veganism and vegetarianism.

Foursight

Foursight Wines, in Mendocinos Anderson Valley, was one of the first American wineries to label its bottles as suitable for vegans and vegetarians. While best known for its Pinot Noirs, its also one of the few Anderson Valley producers to bottle Sauvignon Blanc. The Boonville tasting room offers a casual, leisurely visit, and guests staying the night can also rent out one of the guesthouses.

Frogs Leap

Perhaps the most obvious companion to Napa Valley Cabernet is a big hunk of red meat. While creative pairings abound, one option for vegetarian dishes might be to choose a Napa Cab with a lighter touch as is consistently the case with the ones coming from Frogs Leap, as well as the rest of their portfolio, which happens to be vegetarian and largely vegan-friendly. Its also difficult not to be charmed by the setting a bucolic red barn more in line with a Winslow Homer painting than Napas palatial tasting locales.

Stolpman

Syrah can smell like bacon. Sangiovese might give the impression of dried meats. Stolpman makes some of the best of each in Santa Barbara, but their wines are purely vegan. Their Ballard Canyon tasting room offers a glimpse into the countys impressive diversity of wine beyond their signatures Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Make sure to ask about their mother block, an experimental project that replicates the historic vineyard planting techniques of pre-19th century Europe.

Big Basin

One of the most dynamic producers in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Big Basin bottles its wines unfined and unfiltered and thus vegan. Their Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays are among the regions very best, but perhaps their most distinctive contribution is their suite of Syrah and Rhone-style wines. Guests can either visit the tasting room in downtown Saratoga, or drive out to the more remote winery after a morning hike at the neighboring Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

Broc

An early spirit leader for the American natural wine movement, Broc Cellars appropriately bottles all of its wines vegan. Its in Berkeley, so it wont be hard to find a vegan meal nearby either. The lineup is ever-changing, filled with idiosyncratic bottles that offer an entirely different perspective to California wine. Make sure to try their Angelica, a dessert style mimicking the Golden States very first wines made from the Franciscan monks that climbed the West Coast.

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Is your wine vegan? - The Press

After 10 years, going vegan continues to be a fun adventure – OregonLive

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

It all started out as a journalistic stunt.

Ten years ago, I received a dare from a co-worker: Could I go vegan for a month? I accepted the challenge, ditching meat, cheese and dairy on Feb. 1, 2010. It was supposed to last a brisk 28 days or so I thought.

Cynically, I chose the shortest month of the year, because I wasnt sure that eating vegan would agree with me. I grew up in Kansas City, where steakhouses and barbecue joints are as common as coffee shops and Thai restaurants are in Portland. Burgers and smoky ribs felt like part of my DNA.

Around this time, I had been thinking seriously about ways to reduce my carbon footprint, and I got a chance to interview James McWilliams, the author of the controversial book "Just Food."

McWilliams had some ideas that were sure to rub the farmers market crowd the wrong way, such as his contention that a tomato grown by a local farmer doesn't necessarily have a lower carbon footprint than one grown in Southern California that's trucked to your neighborhood grocery store.

One of his ideas really resonated with me. In our quest to eat more sustainably, McWilliams believed our efforts were irrelevant if we didnt drastically reduce the amount of meat we eat, given the amount of natural resources the livestock industry consumes, and how it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.

McWilliams challenged me that if I was serious in my concern about the environment, I needed to look seriously at the amount of meat I was eating. That forced me to confront the way I shopped and ate. I was one of those zealots about using reusable grocery bags years before Oregon forced everyone to get in on the act. Yet I wasn't paying any attention to what was going into those green bags. All the beef and chicken I was buying had a huge carbon footprint.

After 10 years, food writer Grant Butler is continuing his exploration of plant-based cooking and eating. (Beth Nakamura | The Oregonian/OregonLive)LC-

Then came the dare. I went to my editor with the idea of eating vegan for a month and writing about the experience. Unlike other food writers who had dabbled with short-term veganism, I didnt want to focus on what I couldnt eat. I wanted it to be a month of adventurous eating, a chance to try new foods, and to learn the upsides of vegan eating.

To my surprise, my editor said yes.

And that first month was crazy fun. I'd known about foods like quinoa, tofu and tempeh, but I'd never really given them a fair shake as a home cook. I wasnt just eating good food at home. I was blown away by Portlands vegan dining scene, which I had never explored.

When my month of vegan eating ended, I felt like Id had a physical and mental cleanse. My blood pressure and cholesterol levels had dropped significantly, and I felt more rested because I was sleeping better. So I decided to keep it going. To celebrate, I threw a dinner party for friends who had been rooting for me.

Vegan Dark Chocolate Cupcakes With Creamy Chocolate Frosting, a recipe from Everything Chocolate by the editors of Americas Test Kitchen, 2020.Keller + Keller

Recipes included with this story: Vegan Dark Chocolate Cupcakes; Creamy Vegan Chocolate Frosting.

Ten years later, its easier to eat a plant-based diet than ever before. A decade ago, you had to go to food co-ops and specialty markets to find many vegan products and ingredients. Now theyre in every grocery store. At mainstream restaurants, vegan options used to be bowls of blah pasta primavera. Now, serious chefs show vegetables plenty of respect, and you can score vegan options at Burger King.

Burger Kings menu changes are keeping up with public demand. During the last 10 years, more people have embraced the idea of eating less meat, even if they arent ditching it altogether. Every meatless meal presents an opportunity to take a step toward a better environment, better health, and compassion for all living beings. Even if you switch to vegan meals only a few days a week, you're making a powerful choice and helping change the world.

For me, going completely vegan has been a gift beyond imagination. Now its time to celebrate with chocolate cupcakes.

-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

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After 10 years, going vegan continues to be a fun adventure - OregonLive

Vegan claims on the upswing as plant-based innovation accelerates – Food Business News

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

KANSAS CITY While the number of consumers who claim to lead a vegan lifestyle has remained small and steady, the number of food and beverage products making a vegan claim has risen. The difference highlights the changes taking place in the market for plant-based products and demonstrates how manufacturers are trying to develop points of differentiation in the market as it achieves mainstream status.

The number of consumers identifying as vegan is less than 1% of the total U.S. population, according to The NPD Group, Chicago. In its The future of plant-based snapshot report, NPD said consumers identifying as vegetarian or vegan represent less than 3% of the population, with 2% identifying as vegetarian and 0.7% identifying as vegan.

Yet data from Mintels Global New Products Database show the number of food and beverage products making vegan claims from 2015 to 2019 has risen 105% (the research firm does not disclose specific numbers as a matter of policy). The top three product categories making vegan claims were meat substitutes, meal replacement and other beverages, and snack, cereal and energy bars.

The International Food Information Council Foundation (IFIC), Washington, predicted that in 2020 environmental concerns will continue to drive adoption of plant-based diets. However, consumers conceptions of plant-based diets vary, reflecting a fragmentation of the market, according to IFIC. In a survey, 32% of consumers said a plant-based diet is a vegan diet, while 30% define it as a diet that emphasizes minimally processed foods that come from plants, with limited consumption of animal meat, eggs and dairy. Twenty per cent said a plant-based diet is vegetarian and one that avoids animal meat while 8% said it is a diet in which you try to get as many fruits and vegetables as possible, with no limit on consuming animal meat, eggs and dairy.

The food service market research company Technomic, Inc. identified veganism as one of its leading global trends for 2020. Aaron Jourden, senior research manager for Technomic, said, The no-animal-products diet has never exerted more influence on the food and beverage industry. But, he added, it does not mean consumers are going animal-free. They see animal-free as a way to eat healthier, do their part for the environment or be a part of the latest eating trend.

At the beginning of the year, McDonalds Corp.s United Kingdom business unit rolled out its first vegan meal. The Veggie Dippers are made with red pepper, rice, sundried tomatoes, pesto and split peas surrounded by breadcrumbs and launched Jan. 2 in McDonalds U.K. and Ireland restaurants. Customers are now able to order the chains first vegan meal by pairing Veggie Dippers with vegan accredited french fries and any soft drink or sauce.

In the last 12 months weve seen an 80% uplift in customers ordering vegetarian options at McDonalds, so it is time for the brand famous for the dippable McNugget to launch a dippable option for our vegetarian, vegan and flexitarian customers, said Thomas ONeill, head of food marketing at McDonalds U.K. and Ireland.

In 2019, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., Newport Beach, Calif., introduced its Lifestyle Bowl platform. Among the products available are a vegan and a vegetarian option. The vegan option features brown rice, black beans, plant-based Sofritas, tomato salsa, roasted chili-corn salsa and shredded romaine lettuce while the vegetarian option includes supergreens, brown rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, tomato salsa, sour cream and guacamole.

The efforts by both McDonalds U.K. and Chipotle Mexican Grill underscore how fragmentation of the plant-based category is pushing product developers to formulate plant-based options to fit a variety of consumer preferences

The hidden biases that drive anti-vegan hatred – BBC News

Posted on February 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

In July 2019, a bare-chested, pony-tailed man turned up at a vegan market in London, and began snacking on a raw squirrel. In video footage of the bizarre incident, the pro-meat protester can be seen clutching the animals limp, furry body sans head while a stunned crowd waits for him to be arrested. His mouth is encrusted with blood. At one point, a passing onlooker asks Why are you doing this?

This, it turns out, is a deceptively tricky question to answer.

As the popularity of vegan life continues to gather pace, a tide of vitriol has risen. To eat meat, or not to eat meat: the question has become a battleground, with passionate carnivores and vegan activists deploying some deliciously headline-grabbing tactics. There have been pig robberies. There have been defiant public carvings of deer legs. There have been nude protesters smothered with fake blood. There have been provocative sandwiches.

Though its natural for people to disagree, the passionate rage and even mild irritation that veganism stirs up seems to defy rational sense. Research has shown that only drug addicts face the same degree of stigma and the least popular vegans of all are those who cite animal cruelty as their reason. Given that most of us would probably like to see less suffering in the world, why is there such resentment towards those who do something about it?

Read more from The Vegan Factor on BBC Good Food

If you dare to ask, veganophobes have plenty of reasonable (and not-so-reasonable) sounding explanations at the ready. First up theres the hypocrisy argument the idea that vegans have blood on their hands, too in the form of plant massacres, the environmental cost of avocadoes, and all the field mice killed while harvesting crops.

But even when vegans are consistent, this also seems to fuel their bad publicity. In the UK, a campaigner recently caused a stir when he revealed that he wont use public transport, in case it runs down any unfortunate insects.

Other popular arguments include the perception of vegans as over-smug as the joke goes, How do you recognise a vegan at a dinner party? Dont worry! Theyll tell you! and over-zealous; a rapper recently cancelled a gig after the singer Morrissey insisted on an all-out meat ban at the venue. On forums, vegans face bizarre accusations like only psychopaths like vegans enjoy tofu bacon.

But are these really the reasons that people hate vegans? Not everyone is convinced. Some psychologists take another view that far from being driven by factors within our conscious awareness, the widespread resentment we have for vegans is down to deep-seated psychological biases.

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The hidden biases that drive anti-vegan hatred - BBC News

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