There’s no doubt plant-based eating is becoming more mainstream – just look at Instagram and the big money being injected into lab-made meat.
Let’s be clear, I’m not a vegan or even a vegetarian but a term exists for people jlike me. We’re reducetarians.
We aspire to eat less meat and for me it’s mainly for health and environmental reasons.
I like to eat good quality meat, knowing its provenance.
It’s not an all-or-nothing approach to animal products.
A few weeks ago I cooked tofu for my family for the first time on Meatless Monday.
My youngest gagged on the texture of the “toe-food”, my five year-old asked for chicken next time and my eldest held up a piece of bright red capsicum with suspicion, wondering what else had been substituted.
They ate it (they had to) because I want my kids to get used to eating more plant-based foods.
The New York-based Reducetarian Foundation says more and more people in the developed world are reducing the amount of animal products they eat and are embracing plant-based foods instead.
That’s certainly the case in New Zealand according to anecdotal evidence. There’s no official headcount of non meat-eating Kiwis but a 2015 Roy Morgan Research survey found one in 10 Kiwis considered themselves vegetarian or mostly vegetarian.
The NZ Vegetarian Society says between 4% and 5% of us are committed vegetarians and 1% to 2% vegans. The non-profit organisation provides support and information for people following plant based diets and has 700 members.
“It is growing so fast right now I’m just amazed. It’s really getting a much louder voice,” its national manager Stephanie Lane says.
Lane is a vegan and says many people – particularly millennials – are choosing a vegan diet because there is more awareness of environmental issues and animal welfare.
“The problem that farmers have is that the more connected urban people become (to farming practices), the less inclined they are to approve of it because they haven’t been raised in it,” Lane says.
It’s logical that the urban/rural divide is a polarising gap but Lane suggests many vegans would be open to a conversation with farmers.
“Not all vegans hate farmers. It’s just that we think there’s a better way,” she says.
As for me, I expect the majority of farmers are aware that their consumers are interested in where their food comes from and how it’s produced.
They can expect even more interest in their animal welfare practices as time goes on and there’s nothing wrong with that.
What I don’t like is activists packaging their propaganda as facts and painting farmers as the baddies. I’d rather rely on independent results from cluster studies and have an informed debate than talk about biased information from one source (I could go on).
Even though I enjoy eating meat I respect people who prefer a plant-based diet for environmental or animal welfare reasons.
On a recent trip to Melbourne I stayed with friends who are vegan and joined their tribe for a weekend. We ate beans, tofu and egg-replacement omelette. I still had a milky flat white and that was okay.
They took me to a vegan festival, held in an historic former meat market, where stallholders sold everything from vegan cheeses, chocolates and pastries to cosmetics and handbags.
I admire the ethical nature of the vegan production line – not only in letting animals be but also in sustainability.
There was a handbag brand that recycles materials such as seatbelts, clothing and duvets covers to make their wares (by then I felt embarrassed about my pink leather handbag).
It was lunchtime when we visited and outside the main market hall there were a dozen food trucks offering vegan dishes from Vietnamese and Chinese style cuisine to old-fashioned lemonade.
I ate a delicious Woking Amazing vegan Peking duck pancake then thirst kicked in and I asked for a drink of water at a nearby cafe stall but the waitress said she was too busy to serve me.
“She’d give you water if you were an animal,” said my friend.
Maybe it was my leather handbag.
