Interesting. I’ve noticed the hype dying down in recent years and some of my favorite vegan products disappearing off the shelves or changing recipe and then dying a slow painful death. I blamed it on people and companies treating it as just a fad, so reporting that it’s still a thing people do is surprising to me.
It’s true there are still more vegan products than before, but the dedicated sections in my local supermarkets are tiny.
Subsidies for the animal agriculture industry are still lopsided against veganism, and the Far Right escalation in social media awarded by algorithms favors carnism over veganism.
I like to think that veganism is more of a grass roots (pun intended) movement focused on whole foods in favor of processed foods.
All these things may contribute to veganism’s seeming decline in the last few years, although I may be wrong (and that decline may just be a lack of reporting)
I feel like it’s a difficult thing to measure, because like you said, the OG vegans are just eating a plant-based diet of whole foods. Veggies/greens, rice, beans lentils, nuts, grains, tofu etc… which health-conscious meat eaters will also eat. Must be hard to get the signal from the noise there. I would imagine that meat replacement type products would be more faddish and less stable because they’re often popular with those trying to transition to a plant-based diet.
Plus, these foods are just kind of weird IMO, and way more expensive than just eating a regular diet of plants. They’re not going to do well when consumer sentiment is shaky at best.
Disclaimer: I’m not vegan myself, just spent some time in the food industry (organic/natural foods in particular).
Interesting. I’ve noticed the hype dying down in recent years and some of my favorite vegan products disappearing off the shelves or changing recipe and then dying a slow painful death. I blamed it on people and companies treating it as just a fad, so reporting that it’s still a thing people do is surprising to me.
It’s true there are still more vegan products than before, but the dedicated sections in my local supermarkets are tiny.
Subsidies for the animal agriculture industry are still lopsided against veganism, and the Far Right escalation in social media awarded by algorithms favors carnism over veganism.
I like to think that veganism is more of a grass roots (pun intended) movement focused on whole foods in favor of processed foods.
All these things may contribute to veganism’s seeming decline in the last few years, although I may be wrong (and that decline may just be a lack of reporting)
I feel like it’s a difficult thing to measure, because like you said, the OG vegans are just eating a plant-based diet of whole foods. Veggies/greens, rice, beans lentils, nuts, grains, tofu etc… which health-conscious meat eaters will also eat. Must be hard to get the signal from the noise there. I would imagine that meat replacement type products would be more faddish and less stable because they’re often popular with those trying to transition to a plant-based diet.
Plus, these foods are just kind of weird IMO, and way more expensive than just eating a regular diet of plants. They’re not going to do well when consumer sentiment is shaky at best.
Disclaimer: I’m not vegan myself, just spent some time in the food industry (organic/natural foods in particular).
Anecdotally, this is not the case where I live. Vegan ice cream has taken a hit, but the other sections seem to be expanding year after year.