Has the menace of veganism finally passed? No more pretending like a plant-based burger is just as good as the real thing. No longer will the barista put oat milk in your coffee without you asking, as if that’s ever been the default option. And, most importantly, no more insufferable lectures from your woke-inclined friends about how that cheeseburger you’re eating is literally burning the planet to a crisp.
It’s a sign of the times when one of the world’s most famous plant-based restaurants is putting meat back on the menu. Eleven Madison Park, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Manhattan, announced last week that it would be reintroducing a limited number of fish and meat dishes. In an Instagram post, the restaurant’s chef-partner, Daniel Humm, explained that the new menu was all about “embracing choice.” Apparently motivated by a desire for greater inclusivity, he wrote that he wanted to “create an environment where everyone feels welcome around the table.”
Speaking to the New York Times, however, Humm let slip another vital reason behind his choice: “It’s hard to get 30 people for a corporate dinner to come to a plant-based restaurant.” NYT points out that Humm’s restaurant has had “varying levels of financial success since introducing the vegan menu” four years ago. No wonder—selling plates of vegetables for hundreds of dollars was never going to be an easy task, no matter how artfully arranged and lovingly prepared they were.
The fall of Eleven Madison Park is a real blow to veganism. It was, after all, the first restaurant in the world to be awarded three Michelin stars with an all plant-based menu, which was previously lauded as the way forward for fine dining. It’s also by no means the only sign that veganism as a lifestyle is on the way out. In the UK, this trend has been clear for a while now. Here, the vegan market declined from £963.8 million (about €114 million) in 2022 to £523 million (roughly €605 million) in 2023, and restaurants and manufacturers have struggled to continue making a profit on many of their plant-based offerings.
As a result, more and more vegan options have been pulled from the shelves. In 2023, dairy-alternative company Oatly stopped selling its vegan ice cream in the UK. That same year, Innocent Drinks discontinued its dairy-free smoothies, even taking to social media to joke that only five people had bought them. Sausage brand Heck reduced its meat-free range from ten products to two, citing a lack of demand. In 2022, coffee chain Pret a Manger announced it would shut down all but two of its vegetarian-only Veggie Pret stores, with the remaining two branches being converted to regular Prets last year. Just this month, Neat Burger—a vegan fast-food chain founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lewis Hamilton, coincidentally two of the most irritating and preachy celebs to currently walk the Earth—entered voluntary liquidation, after its eight restaurants closed for good last year.
On the continent, the story is similar, though not as stark. Plant-based retail sales were down this year in the Netherlands, despite the country historically being one of the strongest markets for meat-free alternatives. This month, Austrian meat-free burger chain Swing Kitchen was forced to shut all its branches in Germany—another nation that was previously enthusiastic about veganism—with very little notice, due to financial constraints. European consumers appear to be shunning plant-based meat alternatives in particular.
What happened? There was a time when you could hardly move for vegan alternatives. Restaurant menus and supermarket shelves were filled with Quorn ‘chicken’ nuggets, pulled jackfruit ‘pork,’ soy-protein ‘burgers,’ and dairy-free cheese that looks and tastes like plastic. This points to one reason the public is turning its back on veganism: plant-based alternatives are just never as good as the real thing. Vegan cheese doesn’t melt properly, the texture of an Impossible burger is suspicious at best, and jackfruit is still jackfruit, no matter how much barbecue sauce you slather it in.
The look and taste of vegan alternatives aren’t the only things that are putting people off. Consumers are also growing wary of the health impacts. The vegan trend has now lasted long enough for us to see the side effects of a wholly plant-based diet. Despite veganism often being sold to the public as a miracle cure-all, it’s incredibly difficult to consume enough of the proteins and vitamins needed for the human body to function properly without meat or dairy. Vegans who don’t religiously supplement their diets can suffer from anaemia, brittle bones, and hair loss, and, in some extreme cases, malnutrition. Children are especially at risk, and some have even died when this diet is imposed on them by their parents.
Price is another important factor. Going vegan is, on the whole, far more expensive than eating a regular diet filled with animal products. A vegan’s money simply doesn’t go as far. Vegan portions are 15% smaller than non-vegan ones and 11% more expensive per kilo. As the cost of living continues to climb, it’s no wonder people would rather spend their money on filling staples like chicken, milk, and eggs than tempeh ‘bacon’ rashers or cashew ‘brie.’
Even if it weren’t so expensive, unhealthy, and downright depressing, there’s another glaring problem with veganism: vegans. The people who advocate for this lifestyle are not content with eating their overpriced vegetables and leaving the rest of us in peace. Instead, they have embarked on a self-righteous crusade to convert the entire world. For years, green activists have tried to tie meat-eating to a lack of morals. We are constantly being told that eating a ham sandwich or putting cows’ milk in our coffee will destroy the planet and bring forth the apocalypse.
Having failed to convince us all that a cauliflower wedge tastes just like a Wagyu steak, particularly zealous vegans have taken to trying to force us into adopting a plant-based way of life. At many universities across Europe, meat is no longer served in campus food halls and cafés; Erasmus University Rotterdam has even introduced discounts on all vegan meals on campus and mandated that all catering for events must be vegetarian. In some cases, activists have tried to physically prevent people from buying animal products. In 2022, campaigners from a vegan group called Animal Rising blockaded a dairy-processing plant in southeast England and managed to disrupt the supply of fresh milk to the rest of the country. Last month, a French animal-rights group shut down four slaughterhouses in the Netherlands and six in France. Protesters have even attempted to stop people from purchasing meat and dairy products by sitting in the aisles of supermarkets and blocking access to products. One particularly hare-brained scheme to foist veganism on the world came from academics at Western Michigan University, who suggested a plague of ticks should be unleashed that could give people red meat allergies, thus reducing meat consumption.
People are understandably sick and tired of being told what to do by a small group of sanctimonious, usually very posh, do-gooders. As with all aspects of green ideology (and the woke worldview in general), there is only so far you can push people, and only so many sacrifices you can ask them to make, before they tell you to get lost. Already, Europeans are being told they need to keep their heating on low in the winter, drive more expensive and less efficient electric cars, and go on fewer holidays abroad in order to ‘save the planet.’ For many, being forced to give up bacon and cheese is just a step too far.
The decline of veganism is a promising sign that ordinary people have had enough with being preached at by Net Zero fanatics and woke warriors. The push to overhaul our diets was another attempt to impose a politically correct mandate on every aspect of our lives. Thankfully, the public is fast losing its appetite for all of it.
People Have Lost Their Appetite for Veganism
The woke push for replacing a real burger with a joyless, plant-based puck resembling flavored cardboard appears to be past its prime.
kmw737 from Pixabay
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Has the menace of veganism finally passed? No more pretending like a plant-based burger is just as good as the real thing. No longer will the barista put oat milk in your coffee without you asking, as if that’s ever been the default option. And, most importantly, no more insufferable lectures from your woke-inclined friends about how that cheeseburger you’re eating is literally burning the planet to a crisp.
It’s a sign of the times when one of the world’s most famous plant-based restaurants is putting meat back on the menu. Eleven Madison Park, a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Manhattan, announced last week that it would be reintroducing a limited number of fish and meat dishes. In an Instagram post, the restaurant’s chef-partner, Daniel Humm, explained that the new menu was all about “embracing choice.” Apparently motivated by a desire for greater inclusivity, he wrote that he wanted to “create an environment where everyone feels welcome around the table.”
Speaking to the New York Times, however, Humm let slip another vital reason behind his choice: “It’s hard to get 30 people for a corporate dinner to come to a plant-based restaurant.” NYT points out that Humm’s restaurant has had “varying levels of financial success since introducing the vegan menu” four years ago. No wonder—selling plates of vegetables for hundreds of dollars was never going to be an easy task, no matter how artfully arranged and lovingly prepared they were.
The fall of Eleven Madison Park is a real blow to veganism. It was, after all, the first restaurant in the world to be awarded three Michelin stars with an all plant-based menu, which was previously lauded as the way forward for fine dining. It’s also by no means the only sign that veganism as a lifestyle is on the way out. In the UK, this trend has been clear for a while now. Here, the vegan market declined from £963.8 million (about €114 million) in 2022 to £523 million (roughly €605 million) in 2023, and restaurants and manufacturers have struggled to continue making a profit on many of their plant-based offerings.
As a result, more and more vegan options have been pulled from the shelves. In 2023, dairy-alternative company Oatly stopped selling its vegan ice cream in the UK. That same year, Innocent Drinks discontinued its dairy-free smoothies, even taking to social media to joke that only five people had bought them. Sausage brand Heck reduced its meat-free range from ten products to two, citing a lack of demand. In 2022, coffee chain Pret a Manger announced it would shut down all but two of its vegetarian-only Veggie Pret stores, with the remaining two branches being converted to regular Prets last year. Just this month, Neat Burger—a vegan fast-food chain founded by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lewis Hamilton, coincidentally two of the most irritating and preachy celebs to currently walk the Earth—entered voluntary liquidation, after its eight restaurants closed for good last year.
On the continent, the story is similar, though not as stark. Plant-based retail sales were down this year in the Netherlands, despite the country historically being one of the strongest markets for meat-free alternatives. This month, Austrian meat-free burger chain Swing Kitchen was forced to shut all its branches in Germany—another nation that was previously enthusiastic about veganism—with very little notice, due to financial constraints. European consumers appear to be shunning plant-based meat alternatives in particular.
What happened? There was a time when you could hardly move for vegan alternatives. Restaurant menus and supermarket shelves were filled with Quorn ‘chicken’ nuggets, pulled jackfruit ‘pork,’ soy-protein ‘burgers,’ and dairy-free cheese that looks and tastes like plastic. This points to one reason the public is turning its back on veganism: plant-based alternatives are just never as good as the real thing. Vegan cheese doesn’t melt properly, the texture of an Impossible burger is suspicious at best, and jackfruit is still jackfruit, no matter how much barbecue sauce you slather it in.
The look and taste of vegan alternatives aren’t the only things that are putting people off. Consumers are also growing wary of the health impacts. The vegan trend has now lasted long enough for us to see the side effects of a wholly plant-based diet. Despite veganism often being sold to the public as a miracle cure-all, it’s incredibly difficult to consume enough of the proteins and vitamins needed for the human body to function properly without meat or dairy. Vegans who don’t religiously supplement their diets can suffer from anaemia, brittle bones, and hair loss, and, in some extreme cases, malnutrition. Children are especially at risk, and some have even died when this diet is imposed on them by their parents.
Price is another important factor. Going vegan is, on the whole, far more expensive than eating a regular diet filled with animal products. A vegan’s money simply doesn’t go as far. Vegan portions are 15% smaller than non-vegan ones and 11% more expensive per kilo. As the cost of living continues to climb, it’s no wonder people would rather spend their money on filling staples like chicken, milk, and eggs than tempeh ‘bacon’ rashers or cashew ‘brie.’
Even if it weren’t so expensive, unhealthy, and downright depressing, there’s another glaring problem with veganism: vegans. The people who advocate for this lifestyle are not content with eating their overpriced vegetables and leaving the rest of us in peace. Instead, they have embarked on a self-righteous crusade to convert the entire world. For years, green activists have tried to tie meat-eating to a lack of morals. We are constantly being told that eating a ham sandwich or putting cows’ milk in our coffee will destroy the planet and bring forth the apocalypse.
Having failed to convince us all that a cauliflower wedge tastes just like a Wagyu steak, particularly zealous vegans have taken to trying to force us into adopting a plant-based way of life. At many universities across Europe, meat is no longer served in campus food halls and cafés; Erasmus University Rotterdam has even introduced discounts on all vegan meals on campus and mandated that all catering for events must be vegetarian. In some cases, activists have tried to physically prevent people from buying animal products. In 2022, campaigners from a vegan group called Animal Rising blockaded a dairy-processing plant in southeast England and managed to disrupt the supply of fresh milk to the rest of the country. Last month, a French animal-rights group shut down four slaughterhouses in the Netherlands and six in France. Protesters have even attempted to stop people from purchasing meat and dairy products by sitting in the aisles of supermarkets and blocking access to products. One particularly hare-brained scheme to foist veganism on the world came from academics at Western Michigan University, who suggested a plague of ticks should be unleashed that could give people red meat allergies, thus reducing meat consumption.
People are understandably sick and tired of being told what to do by a small group of sanctimonious, usually very posh, do-gooders. As with all aspects of green ideology (and the woke worldview in general), there is only so far you can push people, and only so many sacrifices you can ask them to make, before they tell you to get lost. Already, Europeans are being told they need to keep their heating on low in the winter, drive more expensive and less efficient electric cars, and go on fewer holidays abroad in order to ‘save the planet.’ For many, being forced to give up bacon and cheese is just a step too far.
The decline of veganism is a promising sign that ordinary people have had enough with being preached at by Net Zero fanatics and woke warriors. The push to overhaul our diets was another attempt to impose a politically correct mandate on every aspect of our lives. Thankfully, the public is fast losing its appetite for all of it.
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