Market provides well for vegan food

GLOBAL interest in plantbased cuisine has exploded in recent years. Although only about 6% of Americans identify as fully vegan (no meat, eggs, dairy or fish), many people see the benefit of limiting their consumption of animal products for health, environmental and moral reasons.

The market has responded to this consumer demand.

Plantbased food restaurants aren’t difficult to find in large cities (there are two in my small neighbourhood alone), and many meatserving restaurants offer some sort of vegan fare.

Even McDonald’s, home of beef burgers and processed chicken, added a vegan burger — ‘‘El Veggo’’ — to its menu in Finland.

In short, the oncefringe food fad is now fairly mainstream and doesn’t need the heavy hand of government to help it grow.

Los Angeles City councilman Paul Koretz last week unveiled a proposal to require vegan food be served at large entertainment venues, movie theatres and other facilities in the city.

Well, it’s actually a proposal to ask the appropriate city departments to study doing so.

Nevertheless, Koretz says his intention is to require food concessions in places such as Staples Centre and LAX to have at least one vegan food option on the menu.

Koretz is a friend of the environment and animals, and bless him for that, but he ought to back off.

Vegan food is not like plastic straws, which he and other council members are seeking to limit within the city.

The crucial difference is that the market is not successfully providing alternatives to the environmentally unfriendly singleuse plastic market; quite the contrary.

Governments, especially cities that have to deal with rubbish, have a right and even an obligation to take steps to reduce the source of this waste.

But the market seems to be working just fine on behalf of plantbased foods. —