The reason I write this, however, is that many of my nearest and dearest are, and over the past couple of months I have heard some very compelling arguments forcing me to ponder my choices.
Eating meat isn’t really a choice. You’re born into it. But becoming vegan is.
And what I once considered a fad and a trend propelled by the “cool kids”, I now see as a genuine lifestyle choice made by many for differing reasons, whether environmental or health enthused.
A couple of months ago and pressured by my colleagues who were dropping like flies in their pursuit of plant-based lives following the release of the Netflix documentary The Game Changers, I began to explore this topic in depth.
I Googled, and I quickly met London’s Avocado Accountant.
I won’t deny it, my brain went straight to an image of a suitcase holding, glasses sporting avocado, but after overcoming a rather prolonged burst of the giggles, I gave his philosophy the attention it deserved.
What I discovered is that London has become a hub for plant-based businesses, including a vegan recruitment agency, vegan temping, vegan coworking spaces (not yet sure how these are policed), a vegantech search filter, a vegan delivery app, and even a vegan business bootcamp.
Avocado Accountant, Keith Lesser – an actual accountant – decided to begin working with plant-based firms after two clients passed away from heart disease and cancer.
He started to lead a vegan lifestyle and, inspired by the changes he was seeing in himself, he decided to set up shop for vegan businesses.
Mr Lesser is now also a prolific blogger, and in one of his recent write-ups he says that “veganism is inevitable”.
And, given the ruthless exemplars of climate change we have only recently suffered in our own backyards, I must admit he has a point.
Finger on the pulse
This got me thinking, are Aussies ready?
As I began to research Australia’s veganism uptake, I came across Greg McFarlane, director of Vegan Australia.
Mr McFarlane has dedicated his life to a future where veganism will become mainstream, convenient and accepted, and a time when all animals will live free of human exploitation, use and ownership.
He tells me that Vegan Australia is much more than a social group for like-minded people, rather the name represents an ethical and political statement pushing for a vegan world.
Asked about the acceptance of veganism in Australia, Mr McFarlane says that according to estimates, 2 per cent of Australians are vegan.
This is approximately 500,000 people.
According to a Roy Morgan Research study from 2019, almost 2.5 million Australians whose diet was all or almost all vegetarian.
This represents over 12 per cent of the population and a 13 per cent rise over the previous four years!
In further statistics, according to market researcher Euromonitor International, Australia is the third-fastest growing vegan market in the world.
“An increasing number of companies are expanding their consumer appeal by staying away from animal ingredients whenever possible,” says Ewa Hudson, head of health and wellness at Euromonitor International.
Mr McFarlane tells me that his organisation too is attracting growing interest, particularly its Vegan Australia Certified program, which engages with manufacturers to make sure that their products are void of any animal products.
Just recently, some major Australian brands have come on board, including Vegemite, Peters with its vegan Drumstick, and Event Cinemas’ popcorn and vegan Choc Tops.
“About 10 years ago there was virtually no processed vegan food, you couldn’t get any in cities,” Mr McFarlane says. “But now you have supermarkets selling these products.”
Analysis by Vegan Australia shows that the number of vegan products listed by Woolworths has increased at a rate of 44 per cent per year. Raw figures are 446 in November 2018 and 597 in August 2019 as displayed by Woolworths online search.
Animal cruelty
As we mull over these statistics, Mr McFarlane asks me whether I have seen the movie Dominion.
Dominion is an Australian-made film that uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture
Mr McFarlane tells me that the underlying message of the film is something most of us refuse to face – animals suffer no matter how they’re treated in farms.
As we discuss the horrendous conditions animals are often subject to, I give in to my head and ask what it would do to our economy if we as a collective say no to animal slaughter?
“A lot of those beliefs that people hold in regard to the importance of animal agriculture are myths,” he tells me.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) tables for agricultural commodities produced, show that in 2016-17, plant products made up 54 per cent of the total value of agriculture, or $32.8 billion, while animal products were valued at $28.0 billion.
Digging deeper, I learn that in 2018, agriculture contributed around 2.46 per cent to Australia’s GDP, with animal agriculture making up about half of that.
“We do a lot more business of teaching overseas students at universities than we do with animal agriculture,” Mr McFarlane tells me.
And its share in our total employment is about the same, he assures me.
“About 1.5 per cent of people are employed doing animal agriculture,” he adds.
Mr McFarlane’s vision is that within 10 years there will be no animals in our agriculture system.
“We forget that animals don’t just pop into existence, they’re deliberately bred,” he says.
While we would need to find new jobs for our animal farmers, Mr McFarlane assures me that this is more than possible if we put in place a 10-year animal farming eradication plan.
“Given good will by the people and the government, that is quite possible,” he says.
“We could do it without much disruption at all.”
So, I go back to Google and discover Sans Beast Studio – a perfect example of a flourishing business purely founded on vegan philosophy.
Examples of change
Having changed her diet substantially, Cathryn Wills was prompted to think more deeply about the raw materials she was working with.
She left an executive role and took some time to consider whether being an employee or a founder was her calling.
“I decided on the latter, and jumped head first into launching a vegan brand with the vision to establish a design led, accessibly priced, quality brand that didn’t use animals as the building blocks,” Ms Wills tells me.
She launched her vegan handbag and accessories label Sans Beast in 2018, and has since attracted overwhelming support.
“We’ve been embraced by the Australian community – and internationally – to a degree that I didn’t foresee. Naturally I’d hoped for a strong start, but the growth in our community has been heartwarming and very encouraging,” says Ms Wills.
She argues that we must change the way we live and, like Mr McFarlane, she explains to me that the science is overwhelming.
“On planet earth, we are 7.7 billion humans and over 70 billion farmed animals. These animals are bred, raised and slaughtered yearly for food and fashion. The methods in which factory farming is conducted are not environmentally friendly – water use, land and soil degradation, antibiotic and waste run-off into waterways, to name but a few troublesome outcomes,” Ms Wills says.
“The science is overwhelmingly united on the fact that we cannot continue to mass farm in the way we have for the past 50 or so years. This is before we talk about the grave animal welfare concerns that are being ignored, which I believe impact our humanity as a whole.”
Environmental detriment
When I spoke to both Ms Wills and Mr McFarlane, the horrendous bushfires were just setting alight and many communities were still intact.
Knowing a little about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment, I, a true Millennial, turned to Google for enlightenment.
According to the UN, the animal industry is “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems”, including global warming, species extinction, loss of fresh water, rainforest destruction, spreading deserts, air and water pollution, acid rain, soil erosion and loss of habitat.
Seeking answers from Mr McFarlane, he tells me that this is all an easy fix.
Instead of growing crops to feed animals who we then eat, it would be much more efficient and cause less harm to the environment if we consumed the plants directly.
He believes that this would feed five times as many people, make available significant amounts of fresh water, help reverse global warming, use less fossil fuels and allow large areas of land to be reforested.
“At the moment, scientists generally compare gases methane and carbon dioxide using a 100-year scale, it’s called the global warming potential. When all this started, the international movement to cut down on greenhouse gasses about 30-40 years ago, 100 years seemed reasonable,” Mr McFarlane says.
“We probably did have 100 years to do something, but now it’s more like 10, 20 years. So, if we change to the timescale of 20 years, methane becomes a lot more important as it causes a lot more greenhouse warming under the short term, which means animal agriculture is an even more destructive force.
“It then becomes that we need to solve both the fossil fuel issue and the animal agriculture issues otherwise we’re not going to survive.”
And then the selfish meat (only chicken) eater prods its ugly head and I am left wondering what a world of veg eaters would look like.
To get some answers, I contact Dan Pinne, co-founder of Melbourne Vegan Tours.
He co-founded Vegan Tours in early 2016 as he was planning a trip to Paris as a fully-fledged plant-based being.
Food is a big part of his life and together with his mate Jess, Mr Pinne took the plunge and launched a truly unique business.
“We thought if a vegan tour could work in a city like Paris, with its cuisine known for animal products like butter and cheese, then surely we could do one in Melbourne – one of the world’s most vegan-friendly cities,” he recalls
“That same day after finding the Paris tour online, I had bought the domain and business name and Melbourne Vegan Tours was born.”
Asked how locals have taken to the concept, Mr Pinne tells me that they’ve garnered a lot of support from interstate and international visitors, and that Melbourne now has a one of the fastest growing vegan communities in the world.
“The community is always evolving. Due to Melbourne’s multi-cultural population, it’s allowed for many different traditional cuisines to be ‘veganised’ and then supported by our food-centric population. In 2009, there were three all vegan restaurants. In 2019, there is 68,” Mr Pinne says.
Raising awareness
Satisfied with Mr Pinne’s success, I decide to wrap up my research.
Raising awareness about the downsides of animal agriculture is a constant battle for people like Mr McFarlane.
They’re dealing with very conservative governments all over the world, many of which are big deniers of global warming and bank on the power of coal as humanity’s big saviour.
However, there is hope. With many fast food chains now offering vegan options and Four and Twenty committing to a plant-based “meat” pie, Mr McFarlane’s vision of an animal cruelty free 2030 may actually be possible.
I for one am committed to cutting down my chicken intake. In fact, I just enjoyed a very tasty plant-based burger for lunch.
