Is Veganism Dead? 

I believe most experienced vegans are not buying the processed foods or eating out and are cooking more. Too expensive and unhealthy.

I live in an impoverished, rural area of the US where people love to eat meat, hunt, etc. I don't even know of any other vegans around here. Despite this, both my local Walmart and Kroger have decent selections of vegan products. And while there are no vegan restaurants, there is one pizza shop that has a vegan pizza option. Surely there are some other vegans around (or plant-based eaters) because these places keep these products in stock and I can tell that they are being bought. All this in one of the least likely of places tells me veganism is here to stay.

Most vegans I know don’t eat out much. They’d rather cook at home.

I think a lot of us vegans have also drastically reduced our meat replacement intake and swapped it for beans, lentils, tofu, tempeh, etc, which are more affordable and healthier.

A local food truck keeps adding more vegan items due to demand. I have never met another vegan anywhere around here. I am so thankful for the online vegan community. ❤

Vegan restaurant goes under: “LOL veganism is dead!!!” Omnivore restaurant goes under: “Awww that sucks. Food industry is a tough business! 😢”

In Germany, we say: "Totgesagte leben länger!", which means: Those who are said to be dead live longer. 💚🐾🌱

I think restaurants are just struggling in general. Vegan restaurants are adding meat to try to survive but just since the pandemic people arent eating out as much. A vegan restaurant near me added meat but then still shut down a year later. Its just the nature of things post pandemic. Most restaurants are struggling.

I would say that here in Germany, more more people are going vegan and more people generally are increasing the plant based percentage of their nutrition. We have more plant-based options than previously.

Someone who says 'Anyone who's hot, cool and intelligent is...' needn't be taken seriously.

It will not die because there will always be people who have an emotional problem with the treatment of animals.

Abusing your pet is a crime. Someone punching and kicking a Dog/pig/horse/calf etc on the streets would be called psychopath and people would help or call the police.

Veganism can't die because I'm vegan.

If carnivores think people go vegan to be "cool", does this mean they went carnivore for the same reason? They're telling on themselves here 🤭

I’m not hot or cool. Guess that’s why I’m still vegan.

It’s also important to note that mainstream cafes and restaurants have increased their range of vegan options on their menus. This is evidence of veganism expanding rather than dying!

Veganism is cooler and smarter than ever. I actually can't imagine what a person was thinking when they LOOKED at a cow for a drink. Also if against assault of females, then why is it okay to do that to a cow as far as getting them pregnant. Disgusting

I've been vegan over ten years and was vegetarian for decades before that. In the 1990s it was fairly difficult to find even vegetarian food in places like the UK, Spain, Finland, and Canada, now vegan options are available almost everywhere. In the early 2000s, or even the early 2010s, veganism hardly existed at all, not only in terms of options and restaurants, but culturally it was completely unheard of. Despite setbacks, like ex-vegans, the overarching progress of the vegan movement in the past 20 years has actually been enormous. It's a bit like D-Day and the Normandy landings in WWII, there were loads of casualties at the beginning because of the huge opposition on the beaches, but the soldiers that made it through changed everything and eventually won the war.

Veganism is the future of humanity

We’ll never let it die

In all honesty, if a vegan restaurant that I frequent added meat to their menu, it would lose me as a customer. I think they are forgetting to read the room and consider their base audience. It’s a breath of fresh air to go to a restaurant and know that I can eat ANYTHING on that menu. That’s what makes it special. Literally every other restaurant on every corner is omnivore. Why be average when you can be special? Make really good food at reasonable prices and your base will stay loyal.

Let’s start with 2/3 of the world is already lactose intolerant and the fact that every major religion has some form of vegetarian tradition from at least one of its sects. Veganism will never die

If veganism is dying why is my favorite vegan pancakes mix always sold out? 😩

One factor that Mike didn't mention that influenced the popularity of plant-based meat products was the sudden increase in inflation. That made the price difference big enough for the popularity to drop suddenly.

Yes. I have been dead for forty years now. I have a good looking corpse.

My husband (vegan 4yrs) and I (vegan 15yrs) looked into taking a family member to the vegan mushroom restaurant mentioned, Third Kingdom, here in NYC last January and it was completely booked out for the next few months! Also their sister restaurant Avant Garden is super delicious and also completely vegan. No sign of veganism dying up here at least with so many great places to choose from. 🎉😅

Here in Warsaw, I just saw a Vegan kebab place getting opened up in a place where a meat kebab used to be. Meanwhile, my favorite vegan placed here closed... for renovation, so I suppose that if they can afford renovation they must be doing at least fine. Just sayin'.

Seven years vegan, me and my husband. His health has improved drastically since we changed, including stopping and REVERSING COPD. For those that don't know, COPD is a progressive disease. He also no longer has any symptoms of congestive heart failure and zero bouts of ulcerative colitis (which nearly killed him twice) since going vegan. And my skin looks great.😃

Last month one of Germany's biggest supermarket chains opened their first all vegan branch in Berlin. Surely they see things a bit differently than this carnivore dude 😅 I think people who have money to lose tend to be a bit more straight with the facts than a random guy on twitter who's personally offended that veganism is still not dead.

I see it getting stronger, despite the ebb and flow of the forces of carnism. As we age and studies catch up, I think the benefits just get clearer and more undeniable.

Maybe it is because smart vegans do not want to pay those inflated prices. So make the food themselves from healthy ingredients

But I hate is that the vegan products in my store got replaced by the plant-based products of the big meat companies. And when the big meat company is plant-based products failed they never brought back the original vegan products that got removed

Nope, not vegan death here. 15 years vegan.

RIP sage, that’s like the saddest news I’ve heard today, never going back to that restaurant again 😓

The popularity of plant-based and vegan diets means that almost all restaurants now offer vegan options, a huge change from ten years ago, so is hardly a surprise that some purely vegan restaurants are struggling more. Something similar is probably happening with the specialist shops/health food stores which used to the main source of vegan alternatives/milks etc - these are now widely available in most supermarkets.

Its wonderful to be without arthritic troubles. Yesterday, my friends in thier 70s and I chatted and we are all impressed with our health indicators and delicious vegan no (or very low)oil and salt recipes packed with nutrients and much from our gardens.

How does one slaughter an innocent being with integrity?

Im more vegan than ever

I think I'm leaner and more energetic when I don't use animal products. 🕊️💕🌱🌞

Veganism will live on through me as long as I'm here 😁

IMO the meat industry is definitely funding the carnivore diet trend. This is a trust-me-bro anecdote, but carnivore appeared out of fucking nowhere, most notably from the best snake oil salesman there is: Jordan Mothereffin Peterson.

Keep up the good work, Mike, always appreciated

In other news, two guys in my home town have brought out a brand of vegan fried chicken, called VFC, and it's selling so well that it's now being sold in major supermarkets up and down the country.

Vegan. Still here. Didnt die. ❤

Veganism will outlive the naysayers 😀

Why is everything a trend to people, eat healthy = longer life

Congratulations on 400 subs, Mic!!!

I guess I'm not cool hot or intelligent but I'm eating plant based beginning of this year and only going to move further toward veganism. My hobbies are violin, gym, ice bathing, computer programming. I consider keto diets unhealthy in their commonly presented forms.

Not the bird flu thinning the carnivore herd via raw milk 😅

finally 400k, congratulations, Mike! 💫

I became vegan like 20+ years ago. I didn’t due it because it was popular. I did it for my health and now I do it for the earth. If a vegan restaurant closes it’s not the end of the world. I can cook my own food. If they stop making non dairy milk, I can make it myself. Do what helps you and the planet! Don’t worry about trends!

Vegan is the best way of life !

Congratulations on 400k! 👏

Vegan until I grow really old and die! 💚🌱

I became a vegan and I did, in fact, die. Healthy *and* immortal life, my butt!

I just looked at the Google trends; compared “vegan” and “carnivore”. People are searching vegan wayyy more! Look per city and and we see every major city in the USA is searching “vegan” at 95% or more vs “carnivore” at 5% or less except St Louis, which still searches vegan more but proportion was slightly lower. Carnivore was most searched in the states of Idaho, Wyoming, Missouri, and a couple other super red states.

"the vegan section"... I think you meant the produce aisle, right? I don't understand society. Back when I stopped eating animals, there were none of these "meat analogues". We don't need them. "Meat Analogues" is more of an indicator of undecided omnivores than for vegans. I appreciate meat analogues. I don't tend to buy or eat meat analogues. My beans, lentils and rice do me just fine... (I do eat more than that!)

If harming killing animals and torturing them is considered cool them I'm good not being cool. You don't have to be cruel to br cool

I watched this video because the idea that veganism is dead was quite funny to me. Then you talk about trends/fashions/fads and that if any "ism" is losing ground it would be the carnivorism or the ketoism trends, which makes perfect sense if you think about people who have perhaps seen their latest bloodwork after a couple of months suffering through such diets. Restaurants adding animal products to their menu is not a sign of veganism going out, but more likely related to restaurants being businesses and it being easier to make money if you cater to every 'ism' instead of just one. Personally, I couldn't care less what other people eat or how popular my food choices are (or are not). We live in a beef, cheese and wine part of a country so we really are not 'fitting in'. There are village activities and the prizes are always a pricey piece of (local) meat or (local) cheese and any gathering is around a meal of mainly meat. If we want to eat in a vegan restaurant, we have to make a reservation, travel upwards of two hours only to find out that what is on offer is basically what I make at home and a lot more expensive. What we tend to do is go to buffet-style restaurants (Chinese, for example) or Indian restaurants. Where there is a will, there is a way. I cannot imagine anyone (other than your typical fad youtuber who switches to whatever will get clicks) abandoning a vegan lifestyle simply because it's not fashionable anymore. For those of us who made a decision based on unchangeable factors (health, preferences, environment, animals, etc) what anyone else chooses to do is irrelevant. I do believe there is going to be more and more anti-vegan 'propaganda' or misinformation as time goes by because more and more people are replacing meat with non-animal 'meats' and more people are choosing veganism. Of course the meat and dairy companies are going to do all they can to prevent this from happening. When was it that the dairy industry went into a panic and got a law passed that forbids any liquid other than cow's milk from being called "milk"? All the non-meat producers need to do is not use any of the meat-related words in the naming and promoting their products. They can use terms like high-protein or tasty. As always, interesting video. Thanks.

Non dairy milk has an entire door at my local grocery now compared to one shelf in a door 4 years ago. Also, 100s of restaurants close locally and few notice but if one of them is vegan i guarantee it will make front page news in the food section.

Excellent video. I really liked seeing the stats in graphs! I've seen omnivorous restaurants close down during the panny, and they continue to close down, thanks to inflation and people having less disposable income. And I totally agree, there's been a huge backlash against veganism funded by the meat/dairy/egg industry. Years ago, Oprah did an exposè called Dangerous Food and explored the mad cow disease that Brittan was facing and how it could happen in the US. She said something to the effect that she would not be eating burgers again. The sales of beef dropped after that episode, and Oprah was taken to court! Anything that messes with profit margins of the big old boys club is not taken lightly.

Considering all the foods that are vegan, it's got to be easier to be vegan than carnivore. I think the carnivore diet will die because there's very little variety.

I can't support vegan restaurants because there are none around me. Closest thing in my small town is burger King with their impossible whopper. But i do work at a grocery store and i do see other vegans in my area. They aren't buying the expensive specialty mock meats. They're getting plant milks, produce, tofu, beans and grains. Sadly i feel like there's often a race to try to get all the tofu we want from the store because the section is so small and the store doesn't restock its tofu and plant based dairy alternative products fast enough.

I did drop the label "vegan", but I'm 6+ years 100% plant based. I will never support factory farming, it's a blight on humanity

Veganism will not be dead as long as I live, that's for sure. Hang on everyone, keep fighting for the animals.

Subsidies from public tax do go to animal industry as well to prop up, and lower cost customers pay. Cost of water efficient food getting subsidies would be grown out of the dirt cheap!

These meat companies can keep their meat alternatives, I'll stick to my lentils & beans

Veganism is STILL growing pretty consistently, and new generations are much more likely to become vegan. In the end, it's really just a matter of generational renewal, like all big changes through history. ☺

Cheer up Mic. Eating is a long-term proposition dependent upon many variables. An ample supply of food is only a recent occurrence from a past were we were forced to eat anything that came along. Most people live between being fully plant based and full carnism. Recently humanity has become concerned about issues of long term sustainability. Veganism is an ethic as well as a diet. What is important is that moving away from a meat centric lifestyle has great merit.

i know it’s good when i read this title and have a vegan, loving smile

This vid caused me to reflect on my choices a little to be honest. Been a vegan about 12-years now. I have fallen into a bit of pattern since Covid of not going out to restaurants but once a week ordering from Deliveroo while I cook my own meals for the rest of the week. The problem is in the city I live, there are 11 vegan establishments, these include restaurants, cafe's and pubs with an all vegan menu, only 2 of them deliver and of those 1 is an Indian cuisine place that is bloody awful, their curries are so bland it's like they have been diluted with water with the other being doughnut, cookies and sandwich place which while really tasty is not the best option for a healthy and filling meal. So mostly I've been simply ordering the vegan option off places on Deliveroo once a week rather than getting food from a vegan place because I was too lazy to travel there. I told myself that I was not socially responsible for propping up vegan businesses and while I still hold true to that, as long as I am not acting dishonestly and buying food from a place I don't think offers decent quality but rather places I genuinely like the food from and would pick if they were on Deliverloo, then I should make the effort to go to these places in person and not be so lazy alongside understanding the small contribution I can made to optics regarding veganism, as when vegan places close down it will be weaponised to push am anti-vegan narrative. So today I made the effort and went in person to the best vegan place locally, in my humble option, where as a starter I had an incredible, Baked Camembert "Our beautiful house made camembert, baked with white wine, garlic and rosemary, served with garlic toast, cranberry and orange compote" While for my main I had a not as nice but still satisfying, Al Pomodoro "Rigatoni served with rich tomato and basil source" To satisfy my sweet tooth I also had a Biscoff milkshake and lastly after staying in the city centre for a while I made a final stop on the other, actually GOOD vegan Indian place and had one of their mango lassi's. So all in all a very satisfying day and I very much look forward to going to one of the other vegan places next week.

I have been vegan for 7 years now, i think more. Bottom line is and I think it is for a lot of vegans, that in time you move towards more veggies and fruits and do not really buy the meat replacements. My non vegan boyfriend eats more vegan replacements as he likes vegan pizza and vegan beyond jerky than me.

Yep, Carnivores are king of the weirdos now, sorry guys.

Reason and morality are dying, even if that were the case, is not a great argument for reason and morality being bad or undesirable.

When you know you can live healthy without meat and dairy, and your saving a sentient animal, cow, pig from a sad painful slaughter. So intelligent just like our pet dog friends. Wouldn't any compassionate human opt for that choice.

It's not only vegans who eat vegan options. People need to realize that.

I think restaurants are closing in general. It's becoming too expensive, and generally, small businesses (most vegan restaurants are small businesses) suffer the most.

A bunch of vegan restaurants are closing though, at least in Orange County. Vegan Galaxy, Loving Hut, Native Foods, Veggie Grill, Gracias Madre, Cafe Gratitude, Plant Power, and Veg'd have closed in OC during the last year. It definitely sucks for lazy vegans, like myself.

Vegan for life here!

Even just looking at the economic situation, we have clear indications that veganism will have to grow - not shrink - in the future. There's a growing number of people, there's limited farmable land to produce calories. And that just means it will eventually become too costly to keep these extremely innefficient processes of feeding calories in plant food to cattle to then create a fraction of those calories in the form of meat for us.

Great video Mic! Really insightful perspectives in this one

The vegan donut place I go to is booming so hard, you're lucky to get anything before they're cleared out each day. They've been around since '19 and gaining.

somehow I find the conservative crew to say the exact opposite of reality. carnivore is dying? say veganism is dying. same thing for really any topic that isnt in favor if their oppinion.

Oh no not veganism 😢😅 plant on my fellow vegans.

Plant based here. I do venture out occasionally, but Keto? No way! Gross.

Do you have a video on their “regenerative” animal farms? It seems like it’s going to be the next flagship for animal agriculture

I see big beef as being very concerned about plant based/ vegan movement. That’s why we are seeing so much push back. It’s analogous to big tobacco’s tactics.

Yesterday I was stung by a yellow jacket twice. I took some Benedryl and put ice on the stings and this morning it's as if nothing happened. I fully attribute this to my diet. When I was vegetarian I had horrible reactions to bites and stings. The presence of animal proteins causes an overactive/imbalanceed immune system. If people knew more they would make the switch.

Im still predominantly vegan! I cheat here and there with some dairy/ baked goods but I’ve been mainly vegan for 8 years and I was vegetarian for 2 years before that! I love it! I feel absolutely amazing with the help of iron supplements and lots of nutritional yeast for B12!

So cool! I interviewed the lady that flipped the car, Angeline Berva, last year when she was here competing at Mr America 🙂 it's called "Winning EVERYTHING! All As a VEGAN: In French & English Angeline Berva"

I think some of the issues with some vegan convenience foods is that they just dont have healthy ingredients ans ao many people are coming to plant based diets for the health benefits and trying to get away from processed foods. We definitely buy those vegan convenience foods but mostly try to stick to fresh produce, fruit and beans, tofu and nuts/seeds for protein

No, I am alive so it lives until I’ll kick the bucket. Regarding milk, there is mad cow disease in Scotland right now, so good luck to raw milk drinkers 🤩

Veganism is not dead. Carnivore/primal/animal based diet is trending on TikTok right now. That might be connected to the slight decline.

A place called Project Pollo in Texas had a similar story. It was vegan and boomed in popularity massively and quickly, then after about 2 years of success, the guy's finance manager advised him to add meat to the menu. So he did. And then all locations closed 2 months later. It wasn't because vegan restaurants aren't a profitable business model; in Project Pollo's case, the guy was wayyy too ambitious in how fast he was moving. Some locations never even opened. And when he added meat to the menu, most of us said fuck that and stopped supporting the business at all.

Yes, vegan restaurants are in trouble, just like vegetarian restaurants. Why? Because every restaurant now has acceptable vegan options. Mostly no WFPB, but still it's progress.

We are in it for the long game. I went vegetarian at 15 in 1986. Back then not eating meat was like walking around with 2 heads. Trying to eat at restaurants was very challenging. Over time vegetarianism became more mainstream. Eventually as a vegetarian I could find something on the menu pretty much anywhere. When I first went vegan, same issue. Really hard to eat out. Gradually, it’s getting better. Even Disney has plant based options at nearly every restaurant in their theme parks. That’s saying something. But I think a lot of us are getting really sick of the fake meats (if we even ate them at all). I know as a long term veg I don’t like meat replicas. 🤢 But I appreciate them for people who are new to the plant based lifestyle and use them to transition. More plant based people on earth is a win win! I’ve been in this game for almost 40 years. I’ve seen the fads come and go. Plant based continues to gain momentum. The next wave is going to be more natural wfpb foods. It’s already here. Just look at how many followers this channel has! WFPB is the future. It’s what’s best for us and for the planet. 🌎

Yes - because the US is one massive head injury.

In regard to that restaurant that went from plant-based to serving meat: I worked at Sage Vegan Bistro from 2017 to 2020. We were a BUSY restaurant. I was making $45-60 an hour with hourly and tips. Excellent job. But owner was known to be an omnivore. She partnered with her vegan friend and they created the company. Her friend was the passionate vegan. Sadly, her friend died and Molly took over the business. She was never a passionate vegan. They were breeding chickens on their farm for years. How do I know? Because the employee party was at the farm and they had hatcheries. Some of us (the vegan employees) were pissed. She’s been a hypocrite all along and she’s in it 100% for money. So restaurant was doing very well but COVID hit and restaurant was closed to sit down dining. We were still busy with takeout though. Same year she opened two new restaurants which was worst timing from pandemic and both failed. This year, I hear from ex coworker that she’s going to sell meat. No surprise whatsoever. The restaurant has likely lost a huge portion of their base. Many passionate vegans dined there. We had plenty of omnivores as well. So reason for the transition is not because veganism is declining but because Molly has been breeding and killing animals for years and she finally decided to start selling the dead bodies through her restaurant rather than on the side.

No. The problem is that we are sheepeople and so long as all popular influencers, doctors, and advertisements praise the standard American diet nothing will change.

Well done, Mic! 😊❤ Good synopsis! (As always.)