A breakthrough year for plant-based foods

The evidence is clear: 2017 was the year of plant-based foods across North America, and the movement is set to get even more popular in 2018.

Recent Nielsen market research shows that demand for plant-based meat and dairy alternatives increased by 8.1 per cent last year to reach 3.1 billion dollars in sales, while Google reported “plant-based diet” to be one of 2017’s top searched terms by Canadians.

Major meat producer Maple Leaf Foods added a second plant-based brand to the company roster, acquiring vegan brand Field Roast this month after buying Life Light last year. And one of Canada’s top dairy producers, Saputo, recently talked of plans to seek out a partnership with a dairy-free brand.

Toronto Star restaurant critic Amy Pataki even proclaimed vegan dining “mainstream” in 2017.

Nonetheless, even as Health Canada prepares to publish the new Food Guide with more focus on plant proteins, and potentially eliminating dairy as a food group, that same Nielsen research shows that over 80 per cent of Canadians still consider meat their top source of protein, and that only 15 per cent have intentions to eat less meat in the future. So though interest in animal-free foods may be on the rise, it appears Canadians have yet to truly embrace plants as the main event at mealtime. But now is the time. As information on the negative impact of animal agriculture upon the environment, human health and animal welfare continues to come to light, Canadians should feel more motivated now than ever to not only add more plant-based foods to our diets, but also eliminate more of those derived from animals.

Since 2015, when the World Health Organization linked meat consumption, particularly red and processed meats to cancer in humans, scientists have been consistently drawing similar conclusions, adding diabetes and heart disease to that list. As a result, more research has been conducted on the benefits of replacing animal proteins with plant-based sources.

A2016 study out of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, published by JAMA Internal Medicine, concluded that, “Eating more protein from plant sources was associated with a lower risk of death and eating more protein from animals was associated with a higher risk of death.”

Later that year the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reported that an appropriately planned vegan diet can be healthful and nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. It also said, “These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood and for athletes.”

And yet, nearly 3 million cows were slaughtered for food in Canada last year, along with 21million pigs, and almost 700 million chickens; the vast majority originating from factory farms — where documented cases of animal cruelty have continually made headlines nationwide — before enduring transport conditions considered by advocates to be the worst in the Western world.

Almost all farmed animals in Canada are not protected by provincial animal care requirements, exempted in the name of “standard practice” and farm efficiency. Rather, they are treated as mere units of production, resulting in treatment that is inherently and routinely cruel.

But if neither one’s own well-being, nor the well-being of innocent animals is enough to motivate a swap from sausage to soy, perhaps the ill fate of the planet will get more conscious Canadians ditching meat and dairy last year.

Global animal agriculture is responsible for 18 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all exhaust from all transportation combined. It is also the leading cause of water pollution and ocean dead zones.

But, as Maya Almaraz, a post-doctoral researcher at the John Muir Institute of the Environment at the University of California, Davis recently told Vox.com, “what we’re finding is that reducing your meat intake can actually offset the emissions from all of our cars and even double that.”

Of course so many Canadian traditions are focused on meat-centred meals, which many Canadians would argue are a fundamental part of who we are. Except traditions are not set in stone. It is time we must consider developing new, less harmful, more plant-based traditions.

Thankfully, the market is more than ready to accommodate.

While 2017 may have been the year many Canadians added tofu, lentils and veggie burgers to our plates, let us make 2018 the year we take more meat and dairy right off the table. Jessica Scott-Reid (@JessLReid) is a Canadian freelance writer and animal advocate.