21st Century Vegan
Humour us for a moment; vegans are strong, resilient, tolerant, patient, empathetic, caring powerhouses who are passionate about many things including our animal kingdom and nature’s playground.
Now in reality vegans are strong, resilient, tolerant, patient, empathetic, caring powerhouses who are passionate about many things including our animal kingdom and nature’s playground.
Time to change the narrative about how we view vegans in the 21st Century.
Fastest Growing
Today, veganism is one of the fastest growing food movements in the world and better yet, Australia is leading as one of the fastest growing vegan markets in the world; Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.
Gone are the days where a vegan is associated as being a lacklustre hippy smelling like lentil curries with incense burning the in background. We no longer wear tie dye clothing and birkenstocks (OK so we still wear these but doesn’t everyone?) and there are a few of us who wax our armpits and wash our hair!!
The stereotypical description of a vegan is outdated and frankly offensive. Not all of us hug a tree to promote our diet. We hug trees to earth ourselves and to help spread a message to stop the deforestation of our landscape by money hungry developers who are out of touch with the benefits of the natural environment around us in which they choose to detach themselves.
Don’t have a cow (wo)man….
You can drink coca cola, eat oreos and cook with Massel chicken stock cubes, they are all vegan. If you look at a supermarkets chilled section there is a huge range of meat-free burgers, sausages, “chicken” nuggets and pies for sale.
You’ve got Hungry Jacks selling different kinds of vegan burgers, Dominos selling vegan pizza & garlic bread and Ben and Jerry selling non-dairy ice-cream. The demand for vegan food is obviously there, oh and let’s not forget about mainstream restaurants offering vegan-friendly options such as Nandos, Schnitz and Grill’d.
Anything but extreme
Veganism is no longer an extreme lifestyle, much like endurance running as its now becoming easy and accessible. However, the mainstream media will keep telling us that:
- “As more young Aussies particularly women are jumping on the vegan bandwagon they need to know the potential dangers of this ‘trendy’ diet”
- “Vegans need to work hard to ensure that nutrients such as protein, zinc, iron, omega-3’s, calcium and vitamin B12 are in food”
- “Cutting meat out of a diet completely shouldn’t be done without planning and medical consultation”
A trendy diet it is not, it’s a lifestyle and one that doesn’t have an expiry date or the lack of success most trendy diets seem to have. Diets don’t work but a vegan lifestyle diet does. Adopting a more vegan way of life is more than losing weight and counting calories, it’s about ethics, the environment and most importantly our health.
In 2017–18, an estimated 2 in 3 (67%) Australians aged 18 and over were overweight or obese (36% were overweight and 31% were obese). That’s around 12.5 million adults. Our estimated population in 2019 was 25.36 million.
Unfortunately, the data for vegans isn’t so readily available however according to the recent statistics about the number of vegans in Australia based on early data from the National Nutrition Survey and other studies it is estimated that about 2% of Australians are vegan. This is approximately 500,000 people.
We are not a threat
In 2018, a class action was filed in America claiming almond milk didn’t meet the standard US Food and Drug Administration definition for milk; “the lacteal secretion … obtained by milking one or more healthy cows.” There were no such concerns against those who produce goat or sheep’s milk. Apparently because almonds don’t lactate, it should not be called milk and calling almond, even soy milk, milk is misleading consumers.
We are not a stupid society, well I at least believe we are not and if we were to see a product labelled soy, cashew or almond milk we would expect this is what the product was made from. It begs belief that an organisation could believe any consumer reasonably could be confused.
Labelling issues will continue to evolve as the meat-based food alternatives take up a bigger portion of the market. Whilst we believe we are in a transition period, words such as plant-based ground beef or chicken are necessary now but we are believers in creating a new food category for plant-based meat alternatives limiting the meat vocabulary on food products. We must see this as a stand-alone product just not an alternative.
No need to fake it
Fake steaks have a rubbery texture and have been marinated to death. The fake dairy cheese looks somewhat radioactive and these days a beetroot burger bleeds something that looks like blood, welcome to the vegan revolution.
Based on this you would say the carnivorous glory days are over….the vegan revolution has well and truly landed. But it’s not all about being fake; it’s equally about consuming more fresh fruit and vegetables today than you did yesterday. It is about being disgusted by foods that are so colourful that only a lab could have produced these not nature.
The rise of beautifully presented vegan meals bursting with colour plastered on social media are only benefiting the vegan movement; this is a positive step. This is progress.
We are about embracing all things green; eco-green living and eco-green eating. Now more than ever is your time to step up and change how you see a vegan plant-based diet; time to be part of the ever growing vegolution.
Time to get social
Let us fill your social feed with a colourful array of foods that will have you feeling as bright and energetic as the colours of the rainbow.
