One week in 2022 has passed already. Have you made any ‘resolution’ yet ? And if you did: are you already struggling to keep going? Maybe to help you, you have decided to join a challenge for the month. So many to choose from.. Veganuary, Red January, Dry January.. I became curious on the statistics, to try and understand whether these ‘one month’ challenges could be enough to make some shifts in lifestyle, and, particularly for the Veganuary, what could this mean for the health of the planet.. According to the official survey in 2021 just over half a million people world-wide took part (which is about the 0.005 % of the world population, after considering the already vegan out there, which are estimated to be close to 0.1 %).
And 85% of these were women and I am wondering whether it is because a vegan diet is supposed to be ‘healthier’ (but see some of my earlier posts on this topic, like this one), so, supposedly, it goes well with the ‘losing weight’ resolution… , 22% of respondents in facts had chosen to do it for health ( but it turned out that around 47 % of participants didn’t see any changed in body weight… again, not all ‘vegan’ is the same….). At least 46% chose ‘veganism’ for the animals. Being one that ‘speaks to cows’ whenever I see them (especially if they are right in the middle of a muddy footpath and the alternative is getting even muddier), I do (kind of) understand this point. But there are then plenty of ‘vegan’ foods that are not so respectful of animal rights either, with some intensive (crops and vegs) farming altering habitats and causing pollution. Not to talk about the mistreating of other human beings because ‘avocados are a healthy fat source’ or ‘quinoa is a great alternative for proteins’. Do I need to get started about bananas? Interestingly - 40% of people didn’t even stick to veganuary throughout the month last year (but maybe this year…). Only 30% of respondent believe they would stick to the diet in the future, but 60% plan to at least reduce the amount of meat consumed. Of these , the good news is that many would reduce it by 75% of more, which, if you have been following me for a while, believe it’s one of the best approaches (to reduce it, a lot, while being mindful of the rest of things consumed… mindful being the key, because mistakes are allowed - and it would be much more impactful if a tax/ban for the unsustainable came from the upper levels instead of leaving consumers to jump double hoops to find out.. in fact one of the key challenges was reading through labels (17%), I believe mostly because of processed foods having way too many ingredients, and even some easily vegan foods like bread may end up having egg or butter… but hey, 98% of people would recommend it (to someone else..).. so maybe more and more people would at least try it. The more try, the more may start to notice labels, and ingredients, and hidden things, and start questioning the system. This makes me more hopeful than having 8 billions vegans on the planet…
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