2019: The Year of the Vegan, In Review

Dec 30, 2019

"The dawn right before the sun rises is the darkest."
-BTS,
"Tomorrow"

The Year of the Vegan

The Economist made a bold claim that 2019 would be "the year of the vegan," as interest in the vegan lifestyle, and food in particular, began to soar in 2018. To see the validity of that prediction, let's look at some of the landmark events of this year, both the good and the bad, as they relate to animal rights, plant-based eating, and the progression of the vegan movement.

In the Public Eye

At the beginning of this year, my biggest hope was to see some vegan advertisements. Not bloody PETA videos or Venus Williams and DJ Khaled in fun Silk commercials. No, I wanted to see nonvegan companies advertising vegan products and ads infiltrating the mainstream. And this certainly was the year for it. On TV, I'm always seeing commercials for the Impossible Whopper and even the new Lightlife burgers. During the Superbowl, which is acclaimed for its sensational commercials, Carl's Jr. debuted an ad featuring their new burger made with Beyond Meat. Additionally, Covergirl had their massive campaign announcing their Leaping Bunny certification, and now all their ads contain the Leaping Bunny logo right beside the brand name. Online, I've seen advertising for all these products and more, including Morning Star Farms' plant-based products and the Sweet Earth Awesome Burger.

Veganuary

2019 recorded the largest Veganuary ever, with more than 250,000 participants worldwide. Of those, over 118,000 people pledged to remain vegan after the month-long trial. Think of that: more than 100,000 new vegans in just a single month! Every year, more and more people are signing up for Veganuary and Challenge22, a 22-day vegan challenge, making it easier than ever to make the switch with help from online mentors.

Beyond Meat Takes Over

This spring, Beyond Meat became the first vegan company to go public, with its initial public offering (IPO) skyrocketing from $25 to $65.75 in just one day, a 163% increase. Of course, most vegans were already aware of Beyond Meat as one of the most popular meat alternatives, but this has pushed plant-based eating into the public consciousness. Beyond Meat also extended its reach further into the fast food market, debuting in American Carl's Jr, Subway, and Dunkin' locations. The Beyond Meat trial in an Atlanta KFC was a phenomenal success, so I'm sure there are plans to roll it out nationwide in 2020. And with Ethan Brown, the CEO, speaking out about the disastrous environmental and ethical consequences of traditional animal-based foods, veganism has never been more mainstream.

Impossible Foods + Burger King

Of course, I can't talk about Beyond Meat without discussing Impossible Foods. The biggest news this year for them came from their collaboration with Burger King to introduce the Impossible Whopper to consumers, which sold out almost as soon as it arrived. Thousands of people, most of whom aren't vegan, have been flocking to Burger Kings across the country to get a taste of this beefy plant-based burger. In addition to this news, Impossible Foods has finally released their meatless meat in grocery stores in select cities in the US, with plans to expand in the coming months. (I suspect that's something I'll be talking about at the end of 2020.)

Fair Oaks Farms Investigation

This year has also produced many exposés on the dairy industry. It comes as no surprise that this sector of agriculture is in decline, losing more than $1 billion in sales in 2018. Several undercover investigations were conducted and appalling footage was subsequently released of major dairy farms, such as this one of a Bel Brands farm (of the Laughing Cow cheese) from Animal Equality. Of course, the largest investigation was, by far, Fair Oaks Farms by ARM Investigations. Touted as an agricultural Disneyland, the footage released from this agritourism hotspot sent shockwaves through the world. Thousands of vegans protested Fair Oaks and their partner, Coca-Cola, but Fair Oaks seems to have recovered just fine. They still have the gall to advertise their Fairlife brand as people- and bovine-friendly.

Dean Foods Goes Bankrupt

In November, Dean Foods, America's largest dairy producer, filed for bankruptcy. While we may want to shout from the rooftops, rejoicing in the death of dairy, we should be aware that this is no way means that Dean Foods is gone for good, as the factory farms and slaughterhouses are all still in operation. We should encourage them to focus more on their plant-based brands like Good Karma, the popular flax-based milk, and discontinue their business in traditional dairy. Imagine a world in which the biggest dairy producer goes fully plant-based. That's the place I want to be.

The World in Peril

2019 has truly been the year of climate activism. Millions of people attended climate protests and strikes globally, forcing their governments to accept that the planet is in crisis. And no single person has been as effective or influential as the young vegan activist and TIME's Person of the Year Greta Thunberg. The sixteen-year-old is leading the way for real change through her impassioned and moving speeches, and she has also gained tremendous respect from the vegan movement for actually practicing what she preaches by not supporting the animal agriculture industry, the largest contributor to climate change.

Animals in Law

This year, California became the first American state to ban fur sales and fur trapping. Additionally, they are the third state to ban wild animal circuses, with both New Jersey and Hawaii enacting similar legislation in 2018. New Jersey also became the fourth state to ban shark fin sales, and the House passed a bill to eliminate sales nationwide. In New York City, all public schools are now doing Meatless Mondays, providing a meat-free meal to more than 1 million students every week. Hopefully, this is a start to similar actions in other cities, counties, and states, and maybe more and more schools will enact plant-based Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. New York City also banned the sale of foie gras, a huge achievement for a city so full of wealth. Lastly, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act was passed unanimously by the House and Senate, making crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating, and impaling animals a federal offense.

Vegan Films

The Game Changers is hands-down the most popular plant-based documentary of the year, maybe of all-time. It quickly became the number one iTunes documentary pre-order and then the best-selling iTunes documentary of all time. Other films released include A Prayer for Compassion, a documentary discussing the relation between faith and diet; Long Gone Wild, a Blackfish-style movie about orca captivity; Diet Fiction, a documentary detailing how and why traditional diets don't work and why a healthy plant-based diet is the easiest way to keep unwanted weight off; and The Animal People, a film ten years in the making (and my personal favorite movie of 2019), documenting the legal battle to permit animal activists to pursue their first amendment right to protest.

2020: The Year of Animal Rights

I believe that 2020 will be even bigger than 2019 in terms of plant-based eating. I'm looking forward to (possibly) new products from Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods and their reach expanding further into the traditional meat market. Hopefully, the Impossible Burger will be in grocery stores nationwide early in the year. Maybe more vegan companies, like JUST, will follow Beyond Meat and go public. In terms of plant-based foods going more mainstream, I'm praying McDonald's will get their act together soon and release at least one vegan (or vegan-friendly) option in all American locations. In the next few years, we will be seeing a plant-based milk takeover, and dairy will be pushed further into decline. Hopefully, it will become obsolete sooner rather than later. Finally, Seaspiracy is a documentary I am very much looking forward to; from the directors of Cowspiracy and What the Health, I have high hopes for their next venture. Though no official release date has been announced yet, we seem to be getting close to learning more. And as fish are the most exploited beings on the planet, I'm hoping this will spur on more fish activism (or Fishless Fridays in schools?). Overall, I'm very much looking forward to the coming years, and I have great expectations for our progress towards total animal liberation.