There are plenty of accepted narratives which are entirely wrong and the growth of veganism is one of them. This is illustrated by the death of ‘Veganuary’ which, until recently, was the hungover journalists’ story of choice as they staggered into the New Year.

The narrative was simple: people’s diets were changing, veganism was growing exponentially and ‘Veganuary’ was the time to give it a try. The problem for the vegan movement is that their story was built on sand and being overly creative with statistics tends to come back and bite you.

Perhaps the apogee of this came in January 2024, when research was published that claimed the UK’s vegan population had risen by 1.1 million in a single year and that 2.5 million people, 4.7% of the population, ate a plant-based diet. These figures seemed extraordinary at first glance and even more so when put beside the collapse in sales of vegan food.

In the same year those claims about the huge growth in veganism were made, the volume of meat-free products sold actually fell by 12.9%. That trend has been confirmed by corporate collapses. Last year, Neat Burger - the vegan burger chain backed by Leonardo DiCaprio and Lewis Hamilton - shut all of its UK restaurants after suffering substantial losses. 

The ironically named Meatless Farms collapsed into administration in 2023, the same year that VBites, the vegan business started by Paul McCartney’s ex-wife Heather Mills, also went into administration, citing high costs and declining demand. Meanwhile, giant multinational Unilever quietly sold off its plant-based brand, The Vegetarian Butcher, last year. Even leading vegan brand Quorn has seen a big drop in sales and its parent company has not posted a profit since 2021.

Those of us who have to travel on the underground in London are currently being bombarded by advertising for plant-based bacon from a company that claims ‘Pork is Dead’. I am not a great one for making predictions, but I would happily bet a few pounds that humans will be eating meat from pigs long after plant-based bacon has been forgotten.

None of this should be taken as an attack on people who do not want to eat meat. That is a perfectly valid choice, but so is the choice to eat meat. Sadly, attacking livestock farming seems to have become more important to vegan activists than promoting their own diet, or indeed ensuring that plant-based products are as ethical as they seem. Locally produced, grass-reared beef and lamb, and high welfare pork and chicken, are far more ethical than many ultra-processed vegan products containing ingredients shipped from around the world.

Even a onetime senior employee at Veganuary, Toni Vernelli, who previously worked for the League Against Cruel Sports, has distanced herself from the vegan movement, arguing that it is actually undermining efforts to reduce animal suffering. She identifies the reason that veganism is not the trend that it once was. 

Consumers have increasingly focused on the provenance and production of food rather than simply whether it is animal or vegetable. Those are principles that will last far longer than the hype of ‘Veganuary’, which itself is becoming a thing of the past.