IT’S A VEGAN WORLD
Stories from around the globe celebrating all things vegan
New York, USA: City gets first vegan mayor
In November 2021, Eric L. Adams officially became the first ever vegan mayor of New York City, defeating his opponent Republican, Curtis Sliwa. The feat follows Eric’s primary election win back in
July, where he beat former NYC sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang as well as previous City Hall legal advisor Maya Wiley.
According to VegNews, Eric has been vegan since 2016, with his transition first driven by his desire to combat debilitating symptoms he experienced from Type 2 diabetes. Notably, Eric has spearheaded a plant-based medicine programme within New York’s largest medical system, NYC Health and Hospitals/Belleview.
During his time in the office of mayor Eric intends to support animal welfare issue and bring his plant-based perspective to the role (vegnews.com).
Hong Kong: Starbucks adds vegan seafood to menus across country
At all 170 Starbucks locations across Hong Kong, customers will now be able to choose vegan crab cakes for the first time ever — this marks the chain’s first step into the plant-based seafood sphere. The new Thai Style Crab Cake Salad contains vegan crab cakes made by innovative plant-based brand, OmniFoods (omnifoods.co), founded locally by entrepreneur David Yeung. As well as the vegan seafood, the new salad dish also features mixed lettuce, tomato, pumpkin, fresh pomelo pulp and a salad dressing served on the side.
David Yeung commented: “We are thrilled to have Starbucks Hong Kong to be one of our first OmniSeafood launch partners. […] We trust this is the beginning of raising awareness that ocean preservation and reduction of seafood consumption should be high on everyone’s agenda in terms of combating climate change and ensuring food security for the planet.”
Leicestershire, UK: Market Harborough gets a vegan market
At the end of last year, a Leicestershire town got its first-ever vegan market, which local councillors hoped would boost visitor numbers to the area. The plant-powered market took place in The Square in Market Harborough at the close of October and it is hoped to become an established event in the town. Across the stalls, visitors could enjoy vegan clothing, jewellery, cosmetics, cheeses and street food, brought to the event by passionate vegan producers from all over the UK.
Lewis Beresford, from the Vegan Market Co., which organised the event, explained: “We also work with many local businesses and can’t wait to give all of these fantastic producers the platform they deserve.” (bbc.co.uk)
India: Country gets first commercial vegan egg alternative
Piperleaf (piperleaf.in), the brand that made India’s first plant-based chocolate, has furthered its mission to make vegan foods more accessible to everyone — with their revolutionary Vegan Egg Premix.
Anshul Agarwal, the founder of Piperleaf, adopted a vegan lifestyle in 2019. As a vegetarian since his childhood, he used to eat dairy products and eggs on a regular basis.
He says: “I struggled a lot to find plant-based alternatives to dairy and eggs that I was so accustomed to consuming before turning vegan. That is when I realised the biggest barrier that stops people from turning vegan. The lack of accessible alternatives to products that have become a part of our routine life which can replicate the taste and nutrition of animalbased foods.”
“It had become evident to me that a huge void exists in the vegan industry. There are hardly any companies in India that are actively working towards creating plant-based eggs, largely because of the trouble caused in mirroring the taste and texture of a regular egg. This sparked my interest and I decided to make Piperleaf the pioneer of such plant-based alternatives that serve both your palate and the planet.”
Team Piperleaf has worked incessantly to achieve the desired product which tastes, smells and looks like an egg, but is animal-free and healthier. The result: a legume-based, soya- and additive-free ‘egg’ that is high in protein, fibre and taste. The Vegan Egg Premix can be used in regular cooking as well as in baking.
Berlin, Germany: University canteens to serve majority vegan and vegetarian meals
Across Berlin, university eateries have committed to serving students meals from menus that are 68 per cent vegan, 28 per cent vegetarian and just four per cent meat and fish (bbc.co.uk). Additionally, Mondays will see no meat dishes available at all, as canteens and students swap bratwursts and other meats for plant-powered foods.
The menu move is in response to the climate crisis, with universities in the German capital trying to reduce their carbon footprint. Traditional German cuisine favours meat dishes like currywurst, schnitzel and pork knuckles, so the hope is that with these types of foods reduced in universities, young people will start to adopt more plant-based eating habits at university and beyond.