Julia Paternain 1

Vegan Paradigm Shift

In the last three years there has been a 600% increase in people identifying as vegan in the U.S

according to a report by research firm Global data ("Vegan Statistics: Why the Global Rise in

Plant-Based Eating Isn't A Fad" 2018). Corporations have been adjusting their products to tailor

for a more animal-friendly market and account for this dramatic rise. Products such as

“Vegenaise,” “Violife Vegan Cheese” and “Tofurkey” seem to appearing in grocery stores and

people’s homes across the country. There has been a sharp shift in the way that we as a culture

view veganism. This shift in the variety of vegan goods available and how we cater for our

fellow vegan friends has been due to the drastic increase in the amount of people identifying as

vegan. Vegan diets are on the rise and the way that we regard veganism is changing with it,

becoming more common among citizens. But why has this quickly unravelling paradigm shift

happened? Why have the last 5 years exploded with veganism? Through my research I have

discovered that not only are the ethical reasons key for the expansion of this diet but more

significantly, the rise in awareness of our health, the impact of millennials and the growing

suspicion of the meat industry have also contributed.

Growing Societal Awareness of our Health

Firstly, one of the key reasons as to why there has been a drastic increase in people identifying

as vegan in the last five years is due to the populations rising awareness about their health. The

recent obesity epidemic has created a sense of urgency in citizens’ minds that they need to act

quickly to combat this social problem and avoid becoming overweight. In today’s diet-obsessed
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culture where obesity is becoming a more prominent focal concern in society, people are

looking for new ways to lose weight particularly after the shocking obesity report conducted by

the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) in 2015-2016 showed that

nearly 40% of adults were obese ("National Obesity Rates & Trends"). There has been an

increasing focus on strategies for prevention promoted by vegan claimsmakers who have been

taking advantage of the rhetorical situation created by this epidemic leading many citizens to

rethink what methods they are implementing to remain slim and healthy. Advocates have

claimed that following a vegan diet can assure that you maintain a low body mass index as

animal products contain significantly more calories than foods like fruits and grain (which tend

to make up a vegan diet). The message that following a vegan diet can help someone avoid

following the same path as many other Americans is one of the key reasons that citizens have

shifted their way of eating to encompass a dairy and meat free lifestyle. The fact that plant-

based diets have also been having a growing impact on the medical world, with a number

of American hospitals now removing processed meats from their menus following

recommendations from the American Medical Society and adding healthy vegan meals in their

place, has also been used by advocates to show how even experts have suggested following this

“healthier” lifestyle ("US Health Experts Call On Hospitals To Serve Vegan Food"). Thus, citizens

are being persuaded by vegan advocates that they can avoid this obesity crisis and keep their

weight down if they follow a vegan diet.

Moreover, advocates are also trying to make citizens feel ashamed about their size if they are

not following a vegan diet by suggesting that they will end up “fat,” “ugly” and “disgusting” if
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they don’t change their ways. Websites like YouTube have helped generate a feeling of guilt

among citizens if they do not follow this trending lifestyle. Influencers like “FreeLee the Banana

Girl” have contributed to this climate of culpability. FreeLee, a famous Australian health and

fitness Youtuber with over 780 thousand subscribers, proposes that we should follow a high-

carbohydrate-raw-vegan diet in order to thrive and find a “way out of the ugly, dieting world”

("Freelee the Banana Girl"). FreeLee often analyses celebrities bodies and claims that the

reason they are overweight is because they are not following a vegan diet. She critises their

way of eating making her viewers feel guilty if they eat the same way. Through social media,

FreeLee is able to make citizens feel ashamed about their way of living and their health urging

them to change- contributing to the considerable rise of veganism.

The Impact of Millennials and Social Media

However, without the youth FreeLee, and other advocate’s, message would be much less

potent and widespread. In 2018 Pew Research Center found that 94% of 18-24 year olds were

watching YouTube in comparison to just 56% of those over 50 (Smith & Anderson "Social Media

Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics" 2018). This statistic shows how people like Freelee’s

message is going to be much more likely to reach millennials and have an impact on their diet in

comparison to other generations. The vegan movement is clearly driven by the young as close

to half of all vegans are aged 15-34 (42%), compared with just 14% who are over 65.

Additionally, when the Guardian asked people about being vegan, 67% of the 474 who replied

were under 34, and more than one-sixth were teenagers (Marsh & readers "The rise of vegan
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teenagers: 'More people are into it because of Instagram'" 2016). Moreover, as many

celebrities have recently been promoting veganism on their social media accounts, the

contribution of the youth to this vegan paradigm shift is even more prominent. For example,

Miley Cyrus has been promoting this way of eating through her Instagram account. Cyrus has

almost 75,000,000 followers and a large portion of these followers are likely to be young

teenage girls. These young teenagers are still at a very vulnerable age where many of them are

still finding what out type of lifestyle works best for them as they navigate the world of puberty

and body changes, thus, having influencers like Cyrus who promote the message that veganism

is “cool,” just like the latest Hollywood trend, can be very persuasive. Hence, the interplay

between social media and notable celebrities propelling the vegan message mainly aimed at

millennials has been key to the rapid rise of the vegan trend.

On the other hand, these statistics could also be due to the fact that younger people tend to be

less bound to traditional values and so they are more willing to change their diet. Moreover, as

this younger generation gets older they become more responsible and likely to change their

diet when they have more freedom over the food that they are eating once they move away

from home.

Increasing Suspicion of the Meat Industry

Furthermore, the rise of veganism in the last five years is also due to the increasing suspicion

around the meat industry. The meat industry has often been labelled as having dirty little

secrets that are constantly being uncovered with questionable products such as “meat glue”
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being discovered. Meat glue, often termed “Moo glue,” is made from the blood plasma of pigs

and cows to make meat scraps a normal sized portion to distribute ("Exposed - The dirty little

secret of the meat industry"). Products like this have generated feelings of fear amongst

citizens about their diet as they become unsure as to what exactly they are consuming. The

sodium nitrates added to meats to preserve, color and flavor them have also created a sense of

mistrust around the industry as they have been found to damage cells and morph into

molecules that can cause cancer ("10 Processed Food Secrets the Food Industry Hides").

However, the most significant turning point in the rise of veganism can be attributed to the

sheer distrust generated by the 2013 Horsemeat scandal in Europe ("2013 horse meat scandal"

2018). This scandal made people completely rethink what they thought they were eating as

they discovered that foods that were being advertised as containing beef were actually made

up of horse meat. Many citizens made the conclusion that following a vegan diet would

eliminate any questions over what they were eating every day and it is likely that this

outrageous scandal from 2013 significantly contributed to the vegan trend quadrupling in the

five years between 2012 and 2017 ("Statistics").

Moral Shock Tactics

Finally, the appeal to ethical arguments combined with the use of moral shock tactics by vegan

advocates are also factors which have led to the recent rise of veganism. Advocates are using

moral shock tactics to make consumers feel ashamed about their diets. Consumers are led to

feel guilty and selfish, just like they are made to feel guilty about their weight, for not thinking
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about the poor, cute and little animals that they are constantly eating. Groups such as People

for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) use these moral shock tactics to try to promote

their message. For example, PETA launched a travelling display called “Holocaust on Your Plate”

(HOYP) which juxtaposed pictures of animals in slaughterhouses with pictures of humans in

Nazi concentration camps. The display triggered a tremendous amount of controversy with the

German high court even banning PETA Germany’s display ("PETA Germany's Holocaust Display

Banned" 2013). Shock tactics, like the ones applied by PETA try to use disturbing graphic

imagery and slogans to draw immediate attention to the issue at hand and convince citizens to

change. The increasing use of posters applying this type of technique is one of the reasons

veganism has become more common.

Additionally, these moral shock tactics are not just used in posters like the aforementioned one,

but they are also incorporated into emotionally distressing documentaries. New plant based

and vegan documentaries are being created and uploaded by giant streaming corporations like

Netflix to meet the increasing public interest about veganism. For example, “Earthlings” is a

documentary which is not for the faint hearted, including graphic footage to try to demonstrate

how animals are exploited for human uses ("EARTHLINGS"). The hard-hitting documentary

evokes feelings of immense shame and culpability among its audience as it shows the

unspeakable horrors that are being committed around us. The film tries to encourage viewers

to acknowledge the disturbing reality of what is really happening behind in the meat industry as

hidden camera footage is featured. These documentaries depict how the animal rights
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movement utilizes moral shock tactics by showing the graphic depictions that detail the

brutalization that humans are inflicting upon animals.

In summary, the paradigm shift in the way that society views vegans and the drastic rise of

veganism in the last 5 years can be attributed to several different factors. The obesity epidemic

has led citizens to take advantage of methods like avoiding animal products to ensure they

maintain a slender physique. Also, advocates have managed to persuade people to follow a

vegan diet by utilizing the rhetorical situation that the obesity crisis and the growing suspicion

around the meat industry has created. Moreover, the timing has also been ripe for advocacy

groups like PETA to deploy posters including images that have scared consumers into change.

Finally, the rise of social media coupled with the youth being less bound to traditional values

has also seen many citizens switch to this new plant-based diet. Therefore, it is all of these

factors combined together which have led to this vegan paradigm shift.
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Works Cited

“10 Processed Food Secrets the Food Industry Hides.” Mercola.com, Mercola.com,

articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/15/processed-food-

secrets.aspx.

“2013 Horse Meat Scandal.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Nov. 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_horse_meat_scandal.

“EARTHLINGS.” Nationearth.com, www.nationearth.com/.

“Exposed - The Dirty Little Secret of the Meat Industry.” NaturalNews.com,

www.naturalnews.com/032315_meat_industry_secrets.html.

“Freelee the Banana Girl.” Freelee the Banana Girl, thebananagirl.com/.

Marsh, Sarah, and Guardian readers. “The Rise of Vegan Teenagers: 'More People Are

into It Because of Instagram'.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 May

2016, www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/27/the-rise-of-vegan-

teenagers-more-people-are-into-it-because-of-instagram.

“National Obesity Rates & Trends.” The State of Obesity, stateofobesity.org/obesity-

rates-trends-overview/.
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“PETA Germany's Holocaust Display Banned.” PETA, 14 Oct. 2013,

www.peta.org/blog/peta-germanys-holocaust-display-banned/.

Smith, Aaron, and Monica Anderson. “Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and

Statistics.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center:

Internet, Science & Tech, 19 Sept. 2018,

www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/.

“Statistics.” The Vegan Society, www.vegansociety.com/news/media/statistics.

“US Health Experts Call on Hospitals to Serve Vegan Food.” RSS,

www.plantbasednews.org/post/us-health-experts-call-on-hospitals-to-serve-

vegan-food.

“Vegan Statistics: Why the Global Rise in Plant-Based Eating

Isn't A Fad.” Food Revolution Network, Food Revolution Network, 7 May 2018,

foodrevolution.org/blog/vegan-statistics-global/.