November is WORLD VEGAN MONTHH!! Laura Cordaro tells us how it all started and how awesome being vegan truly is!
November is World Vegan Month! While this celebration of life and health started as a single day back in 1994 commemorating the Vegan Society’s 50th Anniversary, it has transformed into an entire month filled with millions of people passionately celebrating and committing to veganism all over the world. Most importantly, it’s a time to celebrate just how beneficial a vegan lifestyle can be for our health, the environment, animals, and our community at large. Now more than ever in the year of COVID is a plant-based lifestyle so meaningful and important for our future.
World Vegan Month is also a moment for us to recognise how far the vegan movement has come and just how accessible a vegan lifestyle is as we enter into the 2020’s. So, just how far has veganism come?
Globally, veganism has genuinely exploded in the last five years. In America, six per cent of the population is vegan, that’s a staggering 19.3 million people as of 2017. That’s a 600% increase from 2014 statistics! In 2019 there was a 93% increase in vegan food and beverage companies launching in Europe from 2016. More than a quarter of all evening meals in the UK are vegan or vegetarian today.
All of this incredible growth is largely because it's becoming more convenient, as we are now greeted by a huge range of dairy-free milks and many other vegan-friendly products. In 2017, the number of vegan products in Australia had increased by 92 percent since 2014, and this doesn’t capture the last three years. In 2019, Australia's packaged vegan food market was worth around $200 million and is set to reach $215 million this year, that’s a 7.5% growth in market in one year alone. 8.7 percent of new food products hitting grocers in Australia are labelled vegan or as having no animal ingredients. CSIRO predicts the global anticipated demand for plant-based protein alone will reach $25 billion AUD by 2030.
Today if we were to look back at a five year global interest in veganism from Google, Australia is the leading the world!
We have doubled our interest in the topic in just the last five years as a country and surprisingly South Australia is leading the interest, alongside Victoria (we can do better New South Wales!).
According to research company Roy Morgan, in 2019 about 2.5 million Australians, or 12.1 percent, were on mostly vegetarian diets. While it’s not entirely clear, it’s estimated about 2 percent of Australians are vegan. Recent research says 14 percent of Australians intend to go vegetarian or vegan, while 22 percent plan on reducing their meat consumption. Australia is still one of the highest countries for meat consumption globally and there is a lot we can do to help this momentum toward ethical and sustainable lifestyle continue!
World Vegan Month is an opportunity for us to encourage and support those who are considering going vegan by guiding them to resources and helping them challenge themselves to step through the threshold of change.
My wife has not fully transitioned (yet) to a fully vegan lifestyle, though she has cut her consumption of animal products by over 70% and greatly admires my choices (and my discipline!). This past week she accepted a challenge from me to eat an entire week fully plant based. It’s created an exciting opportunity for me to try new recipes that would please her palate and she’s feeling the impacts already of the health benefits with more energy!
Here are some resources and tips for supporting those curious and open to trying vegan again or for the very first time this month:
Lend a book on plant-based living to a friend or leave a few leaflets or a magazine in a public waiting room or your office.
Encourage them to try new recipes and to start with choosing a reduction that works best for them (meatless monday, two meals a day, complete switch, etc.).
Take them to your favourite vegan restaurant, make them a meal, and bring them along to our Sydney Vegan Market November event!
Point them to helpful resources like veganeasy.org or vegansociety.org for additional support.
Help educate them on the beneficial impacts on their health, animals, and the environment with these infographics.
Watch a documentary like Forks Over Knives, Cowspiracy, Game Changers, What the Health or the many others.
Check out the local library some books like the China Study, Animal Liberation or How not to Die to name a few or share some of your own.
As vegans, we also celebrate the month by exploring and trying new recipes, going to vegan events like Sydney Vegan Market days, discovering new restaurants, and shopping with ethically sustainable brands.
Here are some additional ways to celebrate:
Shop our Marketplace!
Join us 15 November for Sydney Vegan Market’s Third Birthday Market Day!
Have a plant-based potluck with friends.
Connect with those most impacted by the farming industrial complex by visiting or donating to a farm sanctuary. We’re lucky to have a number of sanctuaries join us on our Market days.
Share your story of compassion and change with us on social media!
Support local, plant-based, businesses!
Consider volunteering with a non-profit in the sustainability, animal welfare space or becoming a member of some of some of the political activism groups. That includes Vegan NSW! We run SVM with the help of an incredible volunteer team, if you'd like to join us go here
Why did you go Vegan? Share with us on Social media with #SVMWorldVeganMonth