Vegan Food Is Now Britain’s Fastest Growing Takeaway — and It’s Good News for the Planet

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Vegan junk food is amazing — especially if you’ve been vegetarian for exactly 666 days and counting (hail seitan!), all while fighting a daily craving for KFC.

The British public apparently agrees: orders of vegan takeaways grew 388% between 2016 and 2018 while vegetarian orders increased by 137%.

Vegan fried chicken — swoon — and black bean burgers were among the most popular dishes according to new research by the British Takeaway Campaign.

But while Pakistani, Greek, Persian, and Turkish takeaways also grew in popularity, it wasn’t all gravy for English dishes, which saw slow growth in comparison.

Meanwhile food delivery service Deliveroo found a vast increase in meat-free supply and demand.

The Guardian reports that the number of vegan restaurants on its app have increased by 168% over the last 12 months, while vegan orders quadrupled in the last two years. Indeed, Deliveroo hit its record in June for its most vegan orders ever.

“As people look for healthier and more diverse eating options, they aren’t turning away from takeaways, they are turning towards them,” said Ibrahim Dogus, the chairman of the British Takeaway Campaign.

While I’m personally not a massive fan of takeaway food, it’s certainly heartening to see that the rise in vegan living continues to increase. https://t.co/O7PXq53HCJ

— 📖 That Wordy One 📚 (@Herofthewords) August 28, 2019

While some research has claimed that there’s a whopping 3.5 million vegans in Britain, the Vegan Society has reported it’s more like 600,000. Other estimates from the beginning of this year found that the UK’s vegan population could skyrocket by 327% by 2020.

At the same time, how much we spend on takeaways is increasing too: households now spend an average of 15% of their food expenditure on such orders, up from 11% in 2015.

But what we really need is a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions — a UN report published this month urged people to switch to a plant-based diet to curb global warming.

 

Another report from June 2019 found that if everybody went vegan, the planet could reduce its food-related carbon dioxide emissions from the 13.7 billion tonnes recorded last year to just 4.1 billion tonnes.

Global Citizen has previously reported how dairy and meat products take up 83% of the world’s farmland, but provide just 18% of human calories and 37% of global protein. If people stopped eating these foods, farmland would be reduced by 75%.

Let’s make sure the world knows the truth: vegan junk food is the new chicken tikka, vegetables will soon take over the world, and I for one am ready to submit freely to my benevolent aubergine overlords.

Source: Global Citizen