Recently, there has been a major boost of vegan product and snack bar sales in the UK, with more people adopting vegan lifestyles or trying to reduce their meat and dairy consumption. Nearly a quarter of all new food product launches in the UK last year were labelled as Vegan, up from 17% in 2018. Now that’s a pretty big jump if you ask me. What are the possible reasons behind this increase? Let’s take a look.
Planting the “seed” of veganism
People must gain awareness about the vegan lifestyle or become inclined to purchase more vegan products in order for this movement to kick off. Therefore, we must consider how people become interested in the ethical movement in the first place.
Celebrities and influencers
In the globalised society in which we all live in, people can become heavily influenced by those who are famous or well known. These individuals hold a lot of influential power as they come across as people who we feel as if we personally know, since their lives are made public, therefore, making them appear to be more trustworthy. When these people start to promote the lifestyle, there is heightened awareness and people are more likely to form positive associations towards the lifestyle. There has recently been an increase of awareness towards celebrities making the switch. Musicians such as Ellie Goulding and Miley Cyrus and actors such as Jarod Leto and Liam Hemsworth are some influencers in the movement.
New Vegan Documentaries
The very powerful and informative nature of Vegan documentaries have definitely increased people’s consciousness towards the lifestyle. Even though some may not be based in England, the principles of a vegan lifestyle are still expressed throughout documentaries from regions where the agricultural practices are comparable to those in the UK. There has been an influx of documentaries produced that have allowed people to understand and acknowledge some of the benefits of veganism. Some of the prominent vegan documentaries made in the past couple of years are ‘what the Health film’ (released in 2017), “Dominion”(released in 2018) and The Game Changers (released in 2018).
Word of mouth and Social Media
Social media can be used as a very powerful tool to spread awareness to people on topics relating to the vegan lifestyle. As people come across certain videos and posts, their spread can exponentially increase with the help of “sharing”. Additionally, the internet allows everyone to have a platform in which they can express themselves and their beliefs on, so it is easy for an “average” person to spread awareness about veganism to a large group of people, who may further pass that information to other friends, and therefore, the information chain continues to expand.
Commitment to lifestyle changes
Being aware of an issue such as the effects of animal agriculture can only do so much if people aren’t willing to change their lifestyle. For someone to make a change of any kind, there must be some kind of motivation or driving force behind it. Let’s take a look at the incentives people have for implementing a vegan lifestyle or elements of the lifestyle.
Ethics
One of the most prominent reasons people have for carrying out a vegan lifestyle is that the mistreatment of animals as a result of meat consumption doesn’t align with their morals. As Billie Eilish says: “Why would you eat an animal when you can eat some chips?”. Factory farming makes up for about 70% of animal agriculture in the UK. Factory farming often involves caging or confining animals in closed, unlit environments where they barely have space to turn around. I wouldn’t say someone’s freedom, and life, should be taken away just because “it tastes good”, would you? In a survey of over 1,000 British adults, animal welfare was the leading factor that drive people to eliminate meat-based products from their diet
Health
With the world health organization officially declaring processed meats as cancer causing and carcinogeneic and additionally labelled red meat as something that probably causes, it is no surprise that some people may want to adopt a vegan lifestyle. Health came out on top as the reason for eating less meat from people interested in cutting down their meat consumption. There are also major concerns around the health effects of dairy, with its high saturated fat content that has links towards health issues such as heart disease and diabetes.
Environment
With an increasing number of people becoming more concerned about the effects of climate change, it’s hard to ignore the effects that the animal agriculture industry has on our planet 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by animal agriculture. There is also an increase in movements such as living “zero waste” lifestyles, which pair nicely with veganism in terms of peoples’ awareness concerning ones environmental impact.
Supply and demand
After we become aware of the vegan lifestyle and find a reason to stop consuming or consume less animal products, companies begin to realise a shift in customer demand and realise they need to supply the products that people desire, which in turn, increases the production and subsequently, the sales of vegan products. Here at Fusions Foods we manufacture delicious snacks and help transform your vision into a reality and we are totally keen on working with you to supply the vegan snacks that the UK is after! We are a snack bar manufacturer that caters for any of your dietary needs and can work with you to make products such as gluten free snacks, and even raw snacks! Along with us, many other companies are catching onto this idea and making it easier for people to access vegan friendly products to fulfill all your vegan needs!