Veganuary was inspired by the success and awareness campaign Movember and was established to create a movement that would appeal to non-vegans. Since the event began back in 2014, Veganuary has seen its participants almost double each year. The 2023 campaign hit a record sign-up of over 700,000 participants and reached almost every country in the world.
Kantar research shows that not everyone who takes part signs up via the website, and they estimate that around 10 times as many people usually take part in Veganuary. This means over 7 million people gave vegan a try in January 2023.
The aim? Well, there are both health and economic benefits to choosing a vegan lifestyle, but making a change overnight is not easy. With the support offered by Veganuary, people can gain the necessary knowledge to prepare healthy, balanced and nutritionally dense meals. Over four weeks, it aims to help people form new shopping, cooking, and eating habits, making it far more likely they will succeed in the long term.
The rising popularity of meat-free and vegan in the UK
The number of vegans in the UK quadrupled in the period between 2014 and 2019. In 2019, there were 600,000 vegans, or 1.16% of the population; 276,000 (0.46%) in 2016; and 150,000 (0.25%) in 2014.
In 2023 an annual survey of 2000 people suggests that 7.2 million people in the UK now follow a meat-free diet. This includes 3.4 million vegetarians, 1.4 million vegans and the remaining 2.4 million opting for a pescaterian diet 1.
It is thought that the increase in food subscription services has made meat-free meals more accessible.
This makes events like Veganuary even more important. Eating a whole food plant-based diet and adopting a vegan lifestyle requires a mind set change. The slow educational style of the program helps people adapt daily and provides them with the the nutritional information they need to maintain optimum health.
What is a plant-based diet?
A plant-based diet is centered around foods derived from plants, such as vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. It typically excludes animal products such as meat, dairy, and eggs.
People might choose a plant-based diet for various reasons, including health benefits, ethical concerns about animal welfare, environmental sustainability, or a combination of these factors. This diet can offer a wide range of nutrients, and when well-planned, it can provide all the essential nutrients needed for a healthy lifestyle.
This can include fruits, vegetables, grains, pulses, legumes, nuts and meat substitutes such as soy products.
There is a growing number of plant-based meat substitutes available. These are primarily made from soy, wheat gluten, mushrooms or pea protein. Major supermarkets now offer a wide range of brands for consumers to choose from. In fact, there isn't a single meal that cannot be made vegan in some form or another.
What is Vegan?
A vegan lifestyle is an extension of having a plant-based diet. Not only do vegans not eat meat, dairy, eggs, or honey, but they don't wear animal products or use products tested on animals.
Being vegan is no longer as difficult as is was 5 or 10 years ago. There are ethical and vegan companies providing high performance, quality clothing, shoes and accessories for every style and budget. Many vegan brands are also environmentally conscious, using organic and natural materials such as organic cotton, hemp and linen as well as innovative and recycled materials too.
Vegan Fashion
The vegan lifestyle recognises the harsh and brutal treatments of animals used for food and fashion. The growing demand means that both textile development and brands are evolving quickly. Many brands have already banned the sale of fur with more being added to the list every week. The production of foie gras is so cruel and horrifying that it has been banned in 16 countries. Brand Save The Duck creates cutting-edge coats and jackets by replacing goose down with state-of-the-art technology, PLUMTECH®, which is warmer, more breathable and lighter than using animal feathers.
Leather is under the spotlight too. The leather industry will require 420m cows by 2025 to meet growing demand, whilst the process to make leather is one of the most polluting on the planet 2.
As consumers become more aware of ethics and sustainability, so fashion brands are changing their approach to sourcing materials and to design. Many companies are not only producing vegan options, but the items are also produced in better working conditions and with low impact materials such as cactus leather and the corn leather we use in our collection of wallets, belts and accessories.
Is being vegan good for the environment?
Environmental impact is perhaps one of the reason why Veganuary has become so popular over the last 10 years.
The human population eats about 230m tonnes of animals a year, twice as much as we did 30 years ago. The four main species we breed for meat are cows, chickens, pigs and sheep. All of which require vast amounts of food and water. They also emit methane and other greenhouse gases and produce mountains of waste.
According to researchers from Oxford, meat, dairy, egg and fish farming use 83% of the world's farmland, yet provide only 18% of the world's calories. The reason livestock require so much land is because animals are actually just the “middlemen”, consuming on average six times more protein than they even produce 3.
The average British meat-eater consumes more than 11,000 animals in their lifetime. The difference we can make by adopting the vegan lifestyle is considerable for our health, the animals and the demand on our planet.
It is never too late to sign up to the Veganuary challenge, so what are you waiting for?
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Updated 4.1.2024
Main photo by Scott Warman
