No meat, no dairy, no problem: is 2014 the year vegans become mainstream?

• Published in: Independent (London, England : 1986)
• Main Author: Molloy, Antonia
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Independent Digital News & Media 01.01.2014
• ISSN: 0951-9467

"By going 100 per cent vegan I think people are missing the boat," said Mr [Mark Bittman]. "The question is not how challenging you can make your diet but how sane you can make it; there's nothing wrong with animal products in moderation," he says. "The problem is huge-scale industrial production of agriculture and, of course, our consumption of junk food - which may or may not be moderated by 'going vegan'. What we need is for most people to move on the spectrum closer to a diet that includes way more unprocessed plants than we're used to eating, and correspondingly less animal products and junk. " Amanda Baker, senior advocacy and policy officer of the Vegan Society, is not overly concerned, and welcomed the potential for it to grow in popularity. "From our point of view, people are beginning to recognise the arguments that we have been making all along," she said. "We all teach our children that it's wrong to harm animals unnecessarily and a plant-based diet can be really healthy."