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From temples of gastronomy to fast-food restaurants, it's easier than ever to find items on the menu without any meat or fish as restaurants are increasingly responding to a growing demand for vegetarian and vegan options.
PARIS — Vegetarian and vegan alternatives are gaining more and more ground on French restaurant menus. This phenomenon is spreading across a wide range of establishments. According to the Food Service Vision firm, out of the around 630 Michelin-starred restaurants in France, 145 of them now offer a vegetarian or vegan menu.
On the table service side, according to the same firm, 11 of the 12 largest French restaurant chains included vegetarian options in their autumn-winter menus, while in fast-food restaurants, 11 out of 14 chains offered vegetarian options as well.
"The big names in gastronomy, from Alain Passard to Alain Ducasse, were quick to embrace this change," says François Blouin, Food Service Vision president-founder. "The leading chains also quickly took into account the rising demand. Today, all levels of the market are affected."
Indeed, the trend has expanded beyond those who only consume vegetarian or vegan meals. According to a study by CHD Expert-Datassential conducted for the latest Sandwich & Snack Show, over 40% of French people had consumed at least one meal without meat or fish in a week.
Ready-made meals and sandwiches are at the top of the list. However, 63% of individuals aged 18-24 feel that the offerings in the establishments they frequent are not sufficiently developed.
What younger generations want
Indeed, if you were to interview a young vegetarian who travels regularly for business throughout various cities in France, they would still express some frustrations. Especially in smaller towns, they often struggle to find options beyond the usual pasta or vegetable pizzas in bistros and brasseries. Still, many appreciate that restaurants are now making an effort to adapt, even if there are no explicitly labeled meat or fish-free dishes on the menu.
The availability of these products is expected to continue to increase. Some chains have already made it a strong focus, such as Burger King. The fast-food brand, part of the Bertrand Group, a leading French restaurant conglomerate, is diversifying its offerings: for a two-month period until mid-June, they added a "veggie" version of their chicken burger, in addition to the four permanent meatless burgers and wrap on their menu.
By the end of 2022, vegetarian options accounted for 20% of sales for the four iconic burger recipes, including the Whopper.
A vegan food truck stands on the Place de la République in Paris.
In KFC outlets, the "Colonel Veggie" burger, which is made with mushroom-based proteins, was initially launched as a limited edition in Aug. 2022, but has permanently established itself on the menu after becoming a resounding success.
Bagel Corner, on the other hand, partnered with Planted to launch the "Pulled no-Pork BBQ," made with a pea-based protein. At Pomme de Pain, a French fast-food chain, the new spring-summer menu places particular emphasis on vegetarian offerings, ranging from tomato and mozzarella pasta salad to a falafel sandwich.
The industry needs to cater to the growing number of "flexitarian" consumers.
In a different vein, the Barrière Group, which operates in the French luxury hotel industry and in the catering and leisure industry, has symbolically organized the first edition of its "100% Vegetal Challenge" among its chefs. The winning dish, based on artichoke hearts, will be featured on the menu of the group's 140 establishments for three weeks in autumn, coinciding with the European Sustainable Development Week.
Some cities have made more progress than others in this regard. While the national average of purely vegetarian restaurants stands at only 0.3% according to Food Service Vision, it reaches 1.2% in Lyon. "This type of establishment is diversifying. Players in the street food and ghost kitchen sectors are now occupying this niche field with products that are intended to be very tasty," says François Blouin.
An economic challenge
High costs for meat are also likely to come into play. While meat substitutes often come at a similar price point to the products they aim to resemble, a well-presented and skillfully prepared vegetarian dish made from alternative ingredients can be more cost-effective for restaurateurs.
In non-vegetarian restaurants, the offering is expected to continue expanding. The industry needs to cater to the growing number of consumers who have adopted a "flexitarian" approach, where they consume meat or fish in some meals and abstain from doing so in others. There is a need to provide a wider choice for these consumers and accommodate their dietary preferences.
Poland's capital — known for its rich history, impressive skyline, and vibrant arts scene — is often overlooked when it comes to cuisine. Here's what to eat when visiting Warsaw.
For destinations like Rome or Paris, eating the local cuisine is a big part of the draw. Warsaw instead is an evolving food and drink experience, offering an eclectic mix of culinary options: traditional fare and trendy alternatives.
Fusion restaurants and gastro pubs have become popular as the Polish capital reinvents itself. Chefs are continuing to reinvigorate and experiment with Polish cuisine, and Japanese and Korean restaurants are enjoying newfound popularity.
Visitors looking to explore Poland’s flavors are sure to find them here.
Start your day at an artisanal bakery: Baken
This breakfast spot – featured inVogue Polska – promises locally-sourced, quality ingredients and, most importantly, fresh-baked bread. About 60% of Poland is dedicated to agriculture, and much of the country’s culinary tradition stems from this agrarian background. But at Baken, even those in the largest Polish city can enjoy the flavors that the countryside has to offer.
Their breakfast menu includes leniwe – unfilled Polish dumplings served with a side of cream and rhubarb jam – made with twarog cheese sourced from Strzałkowa, a village in lower Silesia.
Or, opt instead for a ham toast, made with meat from a farm in Szlędaki, about an hour from the capital. The bakery promises that its meat, herbs, tomatoes, eggs and even mozzarella cheese are all sourced from local Polish farms.
If you wake up late, Baken also offers a curated dinner menu with wine options.
Explore a new take on a classic at Pierogi z Pieca
Pierogi, Polish dumplings – perhaps the country’s most famous culinary export – are most often served boiled or fried in butter. But the casual stand Pierogi z Pieca, or “Pierogi from the oven,” offers baked dumplings that can serve as an afternoon snack or a full meal.
The dumplings here are made from yeasted dough, rather than the traditional mix of flour, water and oil, which gives them a unique crunch when they are baked in the oven. They offer flavors including potato and onion, cabbage, spinach and feta. While homestyle pierogi are typically served with a pat of butter and chopped, fried bacon and onion, Pierogi z Pieca offers three dipping sauces: garlic, tomato and horseradish.
Looking for a sweeter alternative? They also offer options with strawberries, sweet cheese and apples with cinnamon.
While traditional options served boiled or fried at home, casual stand Pierogi z Pieca, or “Pierogi from the oven,” offers baked dumplings that can serve as an afternoon snack or a full meal.
Some of Poland’s most budget-friendly options are bary mleczne, literally, “milk bars” — self-serve canteens offering soups, dumplings and kiełbasa — Polish sausage.
Part of the reason for the low prices at these bars is government subsidies, allocated from the state budget since 2015, so long as they do not mark up their prices over 56%, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Visiting patrons can also enjoy a glass of kompot, a traditional sweet drink made by boiling fruits and sugar in hot water. In the winter, the drink is often made from dried fruits and warming spices. Summer travelers can enjoy a version from fresh seasonal fruits and berries.
Though such restaurants can be found throughout the entire country, the top-rated milk bar in Warsaw is Mokotowski Bar Mleczny, which offers dishes ranging from 5-8 złoty each (less than €2). It opened about a decade ago, but milk bars have long been a staple of traditional Polish cuisine, with the first one opening in Warsaw in 1896.
Go veggie at Lokal Vegan Bistro
A growing number of Polish millenials and younger generations have embraced a healthy, flexitarian diet — something which stands in stark contrast to the rich, meat-heavy traditional cuisine. Warsaw has been named one of the best cities in the world for vegans, and has a variety of experimental and traditional options for vegan and vegetarian travelers.
While chain restaurants such as Krowazywa, which offer meat-free burgers and wraps, have expanded from their Warsaw flagship all across the country, other restaurateurs offer vegetarian and vegan takes on traditional food that most Poles could find at home.
Enter LokalVegan Bistro, which offers options from vegan schabowy — polish schnitzel — to plant based tatar — Poland’s version of steak tartare. Here, even those who are entirely meat-free can enjoy some of Poland’s most traditional dishes.
Lokal Vegan Bistro offers options from vegan schabowy — polish schnitzel — to plant based tatar — Poland’s version of steak tartare.
When creating this restaurant, head chef Marcin Przybysz drew inspiration from Polish history, which is reflected in the tasting menu as well as the historic restaurant building itself. Some of his recipes are based on historical cookbooks, including one from 1503 titled Praktyczny Kucharz Warszawski (“The Practical Warsaw Cook”), and updated for a modern palette. The restaurant has been featured inRzeczpospolita, as well as Gazeta Wyborcza''s Warsaw edition.
“My passion for historical Poland began with the moment I stepped into the European Hotel building which houses the Epoka restaurant. It was the history that inspired me to discover the unknown Polish cuisine,” Przybysz writes. Also open to the meat-free, Epoka’s tasting menus can be made vegetarian or pescatarian as well.
When creating this restaurant, head chef Marcin Przybysz drew inspiration from Polish history, which is reflected in the tasting menu as well as the historic restaurant building itself.
Marcin Przybysz is the head chef at Epoka, one of Warsaw’s newest experiments in Polish fine dining. He began his culinary career as a dishwasher over his summer vacations, then went to culinary school and worked as a chef in Poland, London and Copenhagen.
Originally from Wola, a village of just 219 people, Przybysz went on to win the third season of the Polish edition of Top Chef in 2014, and the Prix au Chef de l’Avenir two years later.
Przybysz planned to continue his career internationally, but instead decided to come back to Poland and focus on the cuisine of his home country. “Sadly, many Poles have left to work abroad,” he told Polish YouTube channel Droga do Kariery. “If all of the specialists leave, where does that leave the country?” he asked. “It is us Poles who need to show the world why it's worth coming here.”
Try the best tatar in Warsaw at Stary Dom
Those looking for a more affordable alternative with greater menu flexibility can instead opt for Stary Dom, owned by Piotr Adamczyk, one of Poland’s most popular actors, and profiled in O2.
This restaurant's chefs prepare the tatar in front of you, mixing steak with pickles, sunflower oil, onion, mushrooms and mustard. By far its most popular dish, Stary Dom serves about 150 per day.
Other menu items include braised venison, roast duck and szarlotka — Polish apple pie.
Stary Dom also promises a family-friendly environment for patrons with young children, and offers kids a free dessert after their meal.
See Warsaw from above at Panorama Sky Bar
Warsaw boasts an impressive skyline, featuring the Stalinist-era Palace of Culture and Science, as well as Varso Tower, the EU’s tallest skyscraper.
Located on the 40th floor of Warsaw’s Marriott Hotel, Panorama promises stellar above-ground views, allowing visitors to take in the city from a bird’s eye view.
Their cocktail menu is a mix of classics and signature cocktails, including an homage to the European Bison — Bison in the Grass — which also inspired Polish vodka brand Żubrówka. For the alcohol-free looking to enjoy the views, the bar also offers several mocktails, including tropical, ginger and espresso-based drinks.
What you have in your plate isn't always what you think it is. As food counterfeiting increases in the food industry and in our daily lives, some products are more likely to be "fake", and it's up to consumers to be careful.
All that glitters isn't gold – and all that looks yummy isn't necessarily the real deal.
Food fraud or food counterfeiting is a growing concern in the food industry. The practice of substituting or adulterating food products for cheaper, lower quality or even harmful ingredients not only deceives consumers but can pose serious health risks.
Here's an international look at some of the most widespread fake foods – from faux olive oil to counterfeit seafood and even fraudulent honey.
Honey fraud, from China to Turkey
As German daily Die Welt notes, honey is one of the most counterfeited foods in the world. And Germany would know, as the country’s local honey production covers just one third of its consumption, which means that the rest is imported – and often of poor quality.
Hence the rise of honey-like products made from glucose or other sugar syrups, containing added flavours, fillers, dyes and sugars — and possibly not even any bee honey at all. As bees disappear, the honey we consume is increasingly not real honey, writes French daily Le Monde.
An investigation by the European Commission has uncovered massive honey fraud, revealing that nearly half (46%) of the honey imported into Europe is fake – often made with rice, wheat or sugar beet syrup. Products from China (74%) and Turkey (93%) are particularly likely to be fake, but first place goes to British products: European Commission tests found that 100% of the samples of honey packaged or blended in the UK were found to be adulterated.
This is a well-documented phenomenon: previously, a 2015 European Commission study tested more than 2,000 honey samples and found that almost 32% were fraudulent or suspect, while a new report from the European Anti-Fraud Office shows an increase in honey adulteration in Europe.
“Made in Italy”?
“Neither Italian, nor virgin” – that’s how magazine Forbes describes the state of olive oil on grocery store shelves. Like honey, the olive oil market is rife with food fraud.
Extra virgin olive oil should mean that no product has been added during the production process – but is that always true? Forbes reports that around 80% of so-called Italian olive oil available in stores is actually not from Italy, nor made entirely out of olives. Instead, it’s often poor quality oil, a mixture of vegetable oils or oil from all over the world (often Turkey, Tunisia or Syria) – anywhere except Italy, but at the price of a 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil.
European Union countries produce around 67% of the world’s olive oil – mainly in Mediterranean countries like Italy and Spain. Sunflower or rapeseed oil are often the adulterants of choice – but recent analyses of 11 brands of alleged fraudulent olive oil in the Extremadura and Andalucia regions of Spain showed that one brand contained lampante oil, a poor-quality olive oil that was historically used in oil-burning lamps and is unsuitable for human consumption.
Genuine Parmesan cheese is a renowned Italian product, made to exacting standards in specific regions in Italy. But what’s sold as Parmesan cheese is often not from Italy and can often be better described as a cheese product, or cheese-adjacent – but they bear no resemblance to authentic cheese.
Manufacturers or traders often mix real Parmesan cheese with less expensive cheeses or bulk up their blends with cheap filler ingredients – including wood pulp and palm oil. In the U.S., research from the University of Missouri found that 29% of 52 samples of grated Parmesan cheeses were adulterated with palm oil, while reporting from Bloomberg found that some brands of “100% Grated Parmesan cheese” contained up to 8.8% cellulose, or wood pulp.
Canadian fish laundering
Fake fish is a rampant, illegal practice, and studies show that some fish are cheap, similar-looking species passed off as more expensive products, or sold as fresh when they’ve actually been frozen.
In 2022, the Guardian Seascape looked at 44 studies on seafood in markets and restaurants in more than 30 countries and reported that, of the 9,000 samples studied, 36% were falsely labeled or otherwise fraudulent.
The UK and Canada were the worst of countries surveyed, with 55% of fish products in those markets found to be mislabeled. The Guardian’s investigation also found endangered species passed off as other fish – and that some fish products were not fish at all, but pork.
British-ish pork
The 2013 European horse meat scandal – where horse meat was found in products described as beef – kicked off an increased focus on food safety in the EU. But food fraud risks seem to be making a comeback in the UK since Brexit, The Guardian reports. Professor Chris Elliott, who chaired the 2013 horsemeat investigation, told the newspaper that the UK now lacks the resources put in place by the EU to fight food fraud.
A recent investigation by Farmers Weekly found “British” pork sold by one of the UK’s largest manufacturers was actually often from overseas – and sometimes rotten, and that the UK Food Standards Agency was investigating the alleged meat fraud.
Avoiding fake foods is all about being careful: purchase from reputable sources, read labels and packaging, check for proper seals and certifications and pay attention to pricing (cheap does not often rhyme with good quality). But even though these measures can reduce the risk of encountering fake foods, recent headlines show it’s always a possibility.
A German politician got a taste for the backlash that can come from getting close to the vegetarian movement, especially as environmental factors make the choice even more loaded than at its birth in the animal rights movement.
PARIS — Eating meat-free can sometimes come with consequences. Just ask German center-right politician Silke Gorissen, who has been in full damage-control mode since participating at a seemingly ordinary vegan-vegetarian awareness event last month at the University of Bonn.
Gorissen, who serves as the Minister of Agriculture for North Rhine-Westphalia state, made the usual rounds at the veggie event, offering typical politician praise for the local fruit and vegetable products. And then she tasted the vegan cannelloni…
Indeed, it was the Minister’s public praise for the meatless take on the classic Italian stuffed pasta recipe (traditionally served with ground beef or pork) that set off an uproar — a reminder that the debate over vegetarian diets can still be explosive.
German daily Die Welt reported that rumors followed the University event that the government was about to declare a meat-free month for the state — rather than just the student dining hall. In the heartland of German pig farming, it makes sense that the local farmers oppose anti-meat initiatives that could affect their livelihoods.
Still, there is something about vegetarianism that goes beyond simple economics.
As a representative of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, Gorissen has a long track record of defending meat farmers. Yet, the worry was such that she felt that she had to clarify that her enjoyment of the plant-based cannelloni was not changing her opinions.
Free Choice
She came out with a written statement to reassure the public with details of her dining habits. “I am a person that regularly eats meat,” she said. She also confirmed that there would be no state wide restriction of meat eating, saying “each person should decide for themselves if they want to be meat-free.”
People also continue to oppose veganism in the name of tradition.
Yes, 60 or so years after vegetarianism first came into vogue, mostly as a way to protect the lives of animals, it still causes a stir. Recent international polls show that around 8% of people are vegetarian, whether that be for their health, for animal or environmental rights, or even just for taste. Veganism — which alongside meat also excludes all animal products including dairy, eggs and honey — is the fastest-growing movement, with a recent estimate of 79 million vegans around the world.
If vegetarianism and veganism have become a part of being environmentally and socially conscious, then "meat is part of my diet" is a political statement that goes far beyond animal rights.
It can even enter into policy making. The German Green Party had previously proposed a meat-free day every week and campaigned for a veggie-day in public canteens. This came after they denounced the environmental damage inflicted by the meat industry, which produces large amounts of greenhouse gasses.
But people also continue to oppose veganism in the name of tradition and culture. Labeling something a burger when it does not contain meat has been hotly debated, and many traditional cuisines cannot exist if meat is removed.
German center-right politician Silke Gorissen (left) having lunch outside. Where's the beef?
In France, Green party politician Sandrine Rousseau made a comment last summer about meat and manhood that ignited weeks of headlines. “We need to change the mindset that eating ribs on a barbecue is no longer a symbol of masculinity” she said.
Her opponents on the political right called Rousseau delusional and accused her of “attacking men.” On the left, as Paris-based Le Figaro reported, Communist party leader Fabien Roussel criticized her for missing the more salient economic point: Eating meat is “about what is in your wallet, not what is in your trousers.”
A chef cutting bread in the veggie café Opium Paris.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also received his fair share of insults for being vegan. The black, former police officer made the decision to go green in 2015 to help control his diabetes.
In the past few months, he has been accused of being a “food and climate dictator” who is forcing his “deficient diet” on the most vulnerable for his plan to make New Yorkers healthier through food.
Even vegans took a swing, accusing Adams of not going far enough in promoting his diet, for being “all flash and no bang.”
The numbers of vegans and vegetarians continues to grow no matter what the motivation: dietary, environmental, political. And even if meat-eaters are still the majority, it seems reasonable that any kind of cannelloni is worth a taste.
For a combination of spiritual and political reasons, Rastas developed a diet based on healthy, local ingredients that was a precursor, it turns out, to some current food trends.
Bob Marley used to drink a strange beverage every morning made of a reddish colored seaweed known as Irish moss, so named because it's thought to have been introduced in Jamaica in the 17th century by Irish immigrant workers. The algae has been growing on the coast ever since.
The drink derived from it, known for its high content of vitamins, iron and calcium, is now marketed in a ready-to-consume version. It has little to do with the brew that was so dear to the king of reggae. Either way, the Irish moss beverage is part of what's known as the "ital diet," which was born with the Rastafari movement in the 1930s.
The word "ital" is a contraction of "vital" and "I" (the unifying English pronoun "I" favored by Rastafaris), and the diet that goes with it consists mainly of vegetables and unprocessed products. Homemade is the key word for ital followers.
Jamaican chef Rasta Mokko, one of the leading exponents of ital or vegan cuisine, takes the time to simmer his Rastafarian nectar over a low flame in his garden, commenting on the benefits of the fruits and plants that grow on his land.
In a sad irony, Bob Marley died of melanoma skin cancer at the age of 37, despite drinking his homemade, iodized concoction daily.
For Rastas, preparing their own food means rejecting consumerist society.
"For Rastas, preparing their own food means rejecting consumerist society," says Alexandre Grondeau, founder of reggae.fr, one of the first French media outlets dedicated to the genre and its culture. "We can see a political interpretation, because to consume what we produce is to be anti-Babylon, anti-colonial."
Vegan chef Delroy Brown agrees. Brown runs Gee Wiz, an ital restaurant in Treasure Beach, in southwest Jamaica.
"The goal of this diet is to ban all food that was imported by the colonists," says the 66-year-old, who also works as a caterer for Jammin Voyages, an agency specializing in customized trips to Jamaica. "The ital diet encourages us to eat what grows naturally on our land."
This fervent defender of Pan-Africanist movement says the idea is also "to get closer to our slave ancestors who grew their own food during the colonial era." Thus, items on the menu in his colorful canteen include vegetable-based stews and soups that also, in some cases, contain fish — "to support local fishing," he says.
Vegetarian or vegan, the ital diet has several variations. Bob Marley himself allowed some fish on his plate, but never went on tour without his chef.
"Marley did not go to restaurants," says Alexandre Grondeau, author of Bob Marley: A Universal Hero. Grondeau recalls that during his first tour with the Wailers in England, in the early 1970s, Marley had to find something to cook ital. "But it was winter. There were no vegetables and everything was expensive at the time," the author explains.
Cooking at home, cultivating and eating locally: a triptych that is reminiscent of the consumption patterns encouraged by environmental protection activists in the context of the current ecological crisis. Like vegans, followers of ital cuisine do not eat meat or animal products such as milk and eggs. Environmentally-friendly before its time, their approach is less political and social than spiritual.
Rastas want to free themselves from Christianity and yet their eating habits are drawn from the Bible.
Rastas want to free themselves from Christianity, a religion imported by European settlers. And yet, their eating habits are drawn from the Bible: "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis, 1:29).
This pattern of consumption is also influenced by passages from Leviticus, and embraces what's known as the livity movement, a contraction of "live" and Leviticus.
"We can also see an animist approach inherited from African spiritualties," says Coralie Jouhier, co-founder of the ital and Afro-vegan restaurant Jah Jah le Tricycle in Paris. "Some pioneers of the Rasta movement like Leonard Howell, apostle of the return to Africa, encouraged being aware of what we eat, to be close to nature, to respect the cycle of life, his body and his spirit," Jouhier adds.
Legumes (lentils, beans), alkaline foods (spinach, broccoli), sources of protein from oilseeds (almonds, peanuts) and more recently "raw food" (salads, carrots and beets) are the basis of the ital detox.
"One day I was in the studio in Jamaica with the reggae star Anthony B, and we wanted to have food delivered," says Alexandre Grondeau. "He was amazed and said: "You see, I eat what I am, that's why I'm healthy. We've never seen a carrot go crazy like your cows do!""
At a time when being a city dweller in Western capitals is synonymous with chia seeds and yoga, the ital diet is slowly beginning to be accepted in practice. But for a long time it was an oddity, something associated with out-there 1970s eating habits.
"Today, concert organizers no longer receive Jamaican artists the way they used to, by laughing at them and serving them platters of cold cuts," says Alexandre Grondeau. "Society has changed its view and has understood that Rastas were avant-garde in their way of eating."
The movement has spread beyond Jamaica's borders to U.S. and British artists such as Jah Sun and his song No Bones No Blood. There's alsoMacka B and his ital anthem What We Eat. Both continue to advocate this culinary philosophy in music.
In the meantime, there's still the question of certification. A label is being structured in the United States for an official recognition of this almost century-old diet. "It's only a matter of time," says Coralie Jouhier. "I'm convinced that ital products will soon be available in organic stores."
Is the former Beatles band mate to blame for declining beef consumption in the BBQ-loving country?
BUENOS AIRES — It goes without saying that beef is a big deal in Argentina, where barbecuing remains an almost sacrosanct pillar of social life. And yet, as of January, consumption has dropped to an historic low of 41 kilograms per person annually. So what gives?
That's the question Argentine beef lobbyists in what's known as the IPCVA, the meat industry's promotion institute, are asking. Could it be that the rise of vegetarianism and veganism are taking a toll?
The question has particular relevance given that just this past January, former Beatles singer Paul McCartney wrote to Argentine President Alberto Fernández to ask him to join the Meat Free Monday initiative.
To gauge the impact, IPCVA asked a sample population of 1,100 nationwide how they reacted to such actions on the part of environmental or vegan activists. The result? Seven out of 10 said that such campaigns did not lead to reduced meat consumption. Respondents found such actions ineffective, in other words.
Why, then, are Argentine's cutting back on beef? For money reasons, most likely.
That, at least, is the conclusion of the IPCVA, which accuses pro-vegetarian activists of being unnecessarily divisive. Their campaigns merely add to the "the social divides we sadly have in our country," the institute deplores.
How should the meat sector respond to this hostile setting? Should it defend itself?
The IPCVA tells this daily that "clearly" for both the countryside and the city, where meat is produced and consumed, meat was not to blame for "this senseless argument."
"A meat eater would never reject a vegan... and always make place for them at a barbecue, so they can share grilled vegetables if they want to," states the lobby group.
Going vegetarian or vegan is not just to stop eating meat, but a progressive rejection of the globalized food industry.
BARCELONA — The warnings have been piling up for years: researchers are encouraging the public to eat less meat, both to protect the environment and their health. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) qualified red meat as "probably" cancer-causing and processed meats as "carcinogenic to humans," prompting social alarm and a sustained reduction since in meat consumption worldwide.
Spain's Agriculture Ministry, which gathers food consumption statistics, found that meat-eating in Spain fell by 2.8% in 2018 compared to 2017, as part of a steady decline over the previous seven years. In the United Kingdom, a study carried out by Sainsbury's supermarkets found that 91% of Britons were actively reducing meat consumption, not just for health but also ethical and environmental reasons.
In Argentina too the numbers are telling: The Agriculture Ministry has found that every Argentine eats on average 51.4 kilograms of meat annually, compared to 65 kilograms 19 years ago.
Environmental groups have been urging a drastic cutback in meat and dairy consumption for some time, to help protect the planet. The IPCC panel, a United Nations body, stated in an August report on land use and climate change that high beef consumption levels were key to exacerbating the climate crisis.
Still, while many people try to become vegetarian, almost as many fail half-way in their bid to swap the omnivorous for a vegetarian diet, for reasons of nutrition but also social adaptability.
Daniele Rossi is the 50-year-old co-owner of the Rasoterra restaurant in Barcelona, part of the Slow Food movement. He says "there were so few of us when I became a vegetarian, and there were barely any vegans as there was so little information and you got tired of hearing "I don't feel like I've eaten if I haven't had meat"." Now, he says, thanks to the internet and the work of animal rights activists, many find it easier to go straight into becoming vegan, "which new generations are doing very well."
The vegan artist and activist Nika López says she approached vegetarianism a decade back as a teenager, "to know about new things." She has now adopted a vegan lifestyle that "questions ethical, environmental, social, political and economic issues from a position of actively confronting the system, which would have been impossible without the amount of information I have been able to access in recent years."
For Rossi, a major error many commit when embarking on becoming vegetarian is to "still not question where their food is coming from. Not taking into account the origin of foods has a terrible impact on the planet." Many fashionable superfoods, he points out, or fruit and vegetables like avocados or quinoa "come from the other end of the planet, and that is not sustainable. In my opinion to be vegetarian or vegan, fundamentally you must focus on territory."
Rossi is aware of the complexity of the arguments he has expounded since opening his first eatery in the historic Raval district of Barcelona, in 2001. Sometimes people are uncomfortable with it, but he says there can be no alternative. There is no sense becoming vegetarian, he says, "out of an ethical concern for animals and consume foods whose production entails the destruction of ecosystems in other parts of the planet."
Quinoa is a good example he cites. "It is one of the star products right now, and many do not know that those who grow it must export it as they have no money to buy it. Is it better to eat vegetables than meat? Certainly, but without forgetting we could fall into certain contradictions on which we should at least reflect." Álvaro Sánchez, a nutritionist with Medicadiet, a Spanish nutrition and dieting firm, insists he "religiously" repeats to his patients that "fruit, vegetables and green vegetables must be, without exception, seasonal and local."
First spend a month without eating red meat, then a month without chicken, then fish...
Vegan eating, he says, is a "long path that requires a complex process of reeducation" alongside "appropriate factors." Many people, he says, become frustrated when they fail to complete the journey, or give up, and a main mistake he cites is "trying to suddenly reach veganism or vegetarianism, when the most sensible thing is to do it gradually." If one is used to food variety, becoming vegan too quickly "can be complicated emotionally and in social terms, but also physically. The body may react when so many foods are suddenly withdrawn," he says.
Nika López recommends a gradual approach: "first spend a month without eating red meat, then a month without chicken, then fish, eggs and dairies.., until you get to where you want." Another mistake the artist cites is the zeal that can prompt vegans to reproach others for their failing commitment. "Being vegan is not just not eating animals. You mustn't dress from animal skins either or have anything of animal origin in your home. And if we go further we should question the production dynamics of certain foods on a global scale even if they are vegan, which is the case with cereals for example."
Rossi and López represent two different generations that discovered vegetarian and vegan living at different moments of recent history. Omnivores accuse them at times of being excessively militant and as López says, "it is true our convictions are so strong and we are so clear on the need to act to change the planet that we can even say it in unpleasant ways."
The artist explains that when she first became vegan, certain people around her were uncomfortable. "I was in a struggle and could not abandon the fight for a moment, and the aggressive attitude was often a reaction to the lack of understanding I found around me. I remember I would arrive in the kitchen and tell my mother it was full of corpses."
López now supports an active and didactic veganism as a space where new vegans, whatever their motives for abandoning meat, will feel supported and find answers to the many doubts that may emerge in time. She says "being vegan means never stopping learning as at the end of the day, it is a way of confronting the system from a global perspective."
It is necessary to drastically reduce our beef consumption for both sanitary reasons and to fight against climate change, yet livestock will remain indispensable for their contributions to the environment.
PARIS — By now, we have heard over and over again that we need to lower meat consumption. But by how much? According to an academic study by France's Nutrinet, one is advised to consume at most 500 grams of red meat per week, while according to the "Eat" study published earlier this year by Lancet magazine, the advise is to eat no more than 200 grams per week. The consumption of meat is the center of concern for nutrition specialists and environmentalists.
Fundamentally, a diet rich in animal products, such as red meat, makes one more prone to obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. In France, as of recently, 21% of overweight people consume red meat, while only 12% are vegetarian. Similar trends are recorded abroad. "We associate a more plant-based diet with the reduction of risk for certain cancers," says Benjamin Allès, a researcher at the Nutritional Epidemiology Research Team located in Paris, France.
Others point to livestock, which alone produces 18% of greenhouse gas emissions, two-thirds of which derive from milk and meat production. In addition, 75% of the world's agricultural land, which includes 30% of grassland, is devoted to livestock, which also consumes more than a third of overall cereal production.
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Livestock consumes more than a third of overall cereal production – Josh Withers/Unsplash
However, how can we imagine a planet without meat? Humans can do without it, as they can find substitutes in animal-derived products. Those that follow a strict vegan or vegetarian diet must use dietary supplements to replace certain nutrients and vitamins such as B12 that is necessary for our metabolism. These nutrients are commonly found in meat, eggs or milk. Medical supervision is often advised when one is first converting to a vegan or vegetarian diet. The results of a study on the health consequences of a vegan diet, conducted by the NutriNet-Santé platform, are due by the end of the year.
While the methane released from animals is more powerful, it dissipates over time, whereas the CO2 in cultured meat accumulates.
It is more difficult to imagine a planet where livestock breeding has disappeared because of the lack of meat consumption. "A generalized vegan dietary pattern would lead us to an environmental stalemate," says Thomas Nesme, a professor of agronomy at Bordeaux Sciences Agro. Livestock animals provide different services, such as the development of the grasslands which occupy half of the cultivated areas in the world. For example, environments that are in the mid-mountain range provide difficult environments to cultivate. "What would one do with the grasslands, since man cannot digest grass? In addition to food production, livestock provide a vital role for fauna and flora biodiversity and in the fight against climate change by storing carbon. They are important for both the regulation of water flows as well as their aesthetic role," says Thomas Nesme.
Humans are not the only ones that consume the agro-food industry, animals do as well. Animals consume co-products such as oil cakes from soybean. They then produce fertilizer from their droppings. In the global south, livestock feeds about 800 million people in poverty.
Animals can play a role in the transformation to come. "There is interdependence between the food systems and production and processing systems," says François Léger, a research director at AgroParisTech. Animals have played a major role in revolutionizing organic farming through a combination of polyculture and breeding. "If organic farming is to be developed, animals play a fundamental role in order to produce fertilizers," says Nesme. His laboratory is due to publish a study on that subject.
Researchers have estimated the impact of food on the consumption of farmland. The more our diets are rich in animal protein, the more land we consume. However, a study conducted in the Netherlands came to the surprising conclusion that the lowest point on the curve was not reached by a strictly plant-based diet, but rather by a diet composed of 12% of animal proteins, with some coming from milk.
"A world without animals would not be optimal, and the generalization of a completely vegan diet would require more land to feed the population than a diet with a moderate meat consumption," says Bertrand Dumont, a researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) at the University of Clermont Auvergne.
And this is not only about herbivores. Pigs can be fed with food waste and other byproducts of the industry. "According to some studies, it would be possible to eliminate one-fifth of European farmland. This would be important because on average 30% of the food produced is wasted. Nevertheless, it is important to change the current European legislation, which does not allow (to feed pigs with waste)," says Dumont.
Criticism often converges on industrial breeding. "This method is densely practiced in Brittany, northern Germany and Denmark, and this model poses a major problem to the environment," says Léger. "Diversifying livestock would only have agronomical benefits, the diversification of crops and landscapes would allow us to use fewer pesticides."
A generalized vegan dietary pattern would lead us to an environmental stalemate.
This would imply another approach to breeding. "There is an ontological difference between producing animals and raising them. We must return to breeding that ensures the diversity of animal breed, feeds and territories," says Jocelyn Porcher, a former sheep farmer and current researcher at INRA.
"A change in diet that contains fewer animal products opens the door for new prospects for a transition to less productive agroecology," concludes a study conducted by the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). The report assures that a "generalization of agroecology, the abandonment of plant protein imports and the adoption of healthier diets," would be able to feed 350 million Europeans by 2050, despite a 35% drop in production.
By 2040, natural meat — whose sales are decreasing by 3% every year — will represent 40% of the public market according to a study recently conducted by AT Kearney. Lab-grown meat, or "cultured meat," will account for 35% of sales in comparison to plant products that will account for 25% of sales.
One must also look at the future and how lab-grown meat will affect the environment. Two researchers from the University of Oxford compared the greenhouse gas emissions of lab-grown meat with that of cultured meat over 1,000 years. While the methane released from animals is more powerful, it dissipates over time, whereas the CO2 in cultured meat accumulates. The researchers concluded that "lab-grown meat is not the most superior when it comes to emissions. Its relative impact will depend on the availability of low carbon production and other specific production systems."
The 'exceptional' eaters are tolerated if it's part of a medical treatment. But when it's based on well-being or upsets dinner parties, it can get tricky.
PARIS — Try this: tell those around you at dinner that you have stopped consuming gluten. Or meat. Or dairy. And wait for the answers: "What's this, a new fad?", "Do you want to lose weight?", "Are you sick?"
Refusing to share a meal often sparks all sorts of comments and more or less unpleasant criticism, even debate. Since becoming a vegetarian four years ago, Laura Antonakis has become very familiar with this. "But… What are we going to eat?", "Men have been eating meat since prehistoric times!", "What you're doing is useless, it won't change anything", "Your carrot is suffering too" are remarks she often hears when the subject is brought up during meals. The 31-year-old Parisian librarian says she has been called a "quinoa eater" and a "stupid hipster."
Like many others, Laura tries to avoid this touchy subject, especially when she is with a new group. "I never try to convince anyone. But when I go out in Paris, my friends always get charcuterie, and refusing to eat it can trigger hostile behavior," she says. "I also get criticism from vegans who accuse me of not going far enough. ‘You don't eat animal flesh, but you don't mind wearing a wool sweater made in Bangladesh?" In the end, you can't make everybody happy."
It is difficult for people who follow a restrictive diet to know what behavior is best. "When I'm invited somewhere, I feel like I'm being judged as a selfish person," says Pauline Randet, 48, who lives in Moscow and stopped consuming gluten three years ago after being diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis, an autoimmune disease. "You never know if it's better to tell them, not tell them, come with your own food or beg everyone to eat out, even if it means being frowned upon by the waiters."
A traditional moment of conviviality
In France, you don't joke about food. The French are known for their love of big festive meals where guests can indulge into the art of "eating well" and "drinking well." In November 2010, an intergovernmental committee of the UNESCO even decided to add the "Gastronomic meal of the French" to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
This "French-style" meal must meet certain criteria in terms of "time, schedule, location, space — eating at the table, for instance — and the structure of the meal — with a starter, a main course and a dessert. Most importantly, it must be shared with other people," says Claude Fischler, a sociologist and research director in food at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
In France, meals are a communion — Photo: Kelsey Chance
According to French tradition, the meal is a convivial moment during which people savor the dishes over a long period of time. A 2018 study by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) shows that France is the country where people have the longest meals, averaging 2 hours and 13 minutes every day. The overall average for other member countries is about 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Differently from the Protestant tradition in which food is not sacred, France is influenced by Catholicism where food is a communion. "This is my body, this is my blood… You can't be picky and ask if it's gluten-free," says Mr. Fischler. "Since the meal is a communion, if you show that you do not want to take part in it, you are literally excommunicating yourself."
In all religions — except Protestantism, which allows people to eat anything and everything at any time as long as they do not take pleasure in it — there is a common practice of food deprivation, according to Eric Birlouez, professor of nutrition at AgroParisTech. "This is sometimes called ‘fasting", when people refrain from eating certain foods for a period of time, such as Lent for Christians, Ramadan for Muslims, or Yom Kippur for Jews. The practice of fasting is pleasing to God because man is able to willfully control his food impulses, but also sexual impulses. You have to be able to show that the mind is stronger than the body", says the academic.
Since the meal is a communion, if you show that you do not want to take part in it, you are literally excommunicating yourself.
Since France and Southern European countries in general favor "commensality, or the sensory pleasure of eating, of having a good time together," says Birlouez, "it is not in good taste to refuse food. Moreover, one of the first things children learn is to try it before saying ‘I don't like it"."
Juliette Liegeois, a 13-year-old schoolgirl from Nice, decided to ban meat from her diet two years ago because "it disgusted her." Her worst memories? That time when she was invited to eat lunch at a neighbor's house, and they refused to give her a substitute dish saying: "It's your choice, own up to it!" She ended up not eating anything. There was also that time when the school cafeteria staff told her "Just pick the bacon out of your rice, there's nothing else." Her stomach remained empty, again.
"Overall, being different is a problem in France," says Céline, who started a gluten-free diet one year ago. This French teacher, who has been living in Hamburg for the past ten years and wishes to remain anonymous, noticed that there are very clear disparities between France and Germany, where people's food choices are much better accepted, particularly in restaurants, which systematically declare all of the dishes' ingredients.
Half of French people have changed their diet
Despite all of this, there has been a sharp increase in the number of French people who choose to eat differently. In 2017, the Observatory for Society and Consumption (Obsoco) published a study on French people's dietary behavior. According to this study, 21% of them follow a specific and permanent diet.
Among them, flexitarians — who limit their meat consumption without being exclusively vegetarian — are the most numerous (8%); followed by those who have banned sugar (4%); those who only eat organic food (1%), and vegans (0.4%). The study also reveals that half of French people say they have changed their diet in recent years.
While such diets are tolerated when they are part of a medical treatment, acceptance is more difficult when they are based on physical and mental well-being.
For Eric Birlouez, it is necessary to differentiate between diets where a specific toxic food is eliminated and those "who are part of a trend. Many people threw themselves into the gluten-free trend: celebrities, the world of design, fashion, media… One day, it's baobab pulp, the next, it's coconut juice. It allows people to stand out socially, to assert their identity. ‘I am not alone, there is a real or virtual community behind this.""
"It is also important to distinguish diets who put an emphasis on the environment and animal welfare. Eating also means acting on environmental protection, limiting waste… In some spheres, this philosophy is not shocking, and is even becoming the new normal," adds the AgroParisTech professor.
From sausage to Christmas oysters, lamb on Sundays and regional specialties, starting a restrictive diet is also about cutting yourself off from French traditions.
Marthe Pariset, 27, vegetarian for the past four years, acknowledges this. "Food is linked to our history, to shared memories of our childhood. And when you refuse that, people's reaction can be very emotional, because it reminds them of their own contradictions: no one likes to see videos of slaughterhouses, but everyone loves eating a slice of sausage."
It took her several months to become fully vegetarian because of the strong "social pressure of my family, my friends and even in restaurants." For this marketing manager, who has been living in Munich for two years, France lags behind compared to Germany. "Even in Bavaria, the land of sausages, there is always a vegetarian option on the menu," she says, ironically. Her brother, a market farmer, strongly defends traditional agriculture, which "makes for very lively dinners." But despite this, her family has finally accepted her diet. Her latest victory: a vegetarian Christmas dinner. "I even convinced them to do this every other Christmas!"
The heir to the Hiltl dynasty of vegetarian restaurateurs decided veggie eateries need not be sober, puritanical settings, like the one his great-grandfather founded in 1898. Vodka, for example, is vegan.
ZURICH — With his converse sneakers, faded jeans, sweatshirt and blond curls, Rolf Hiltl doesn't look like a sandals-and-socks missionary determined to convert Switzerland to vegetarianism. The 51-year-old heir to the restaurant bearing his name is an easy-going type who does occasionally eat meat, describing himself as a "flexitarian."
People in Zurich find it "quaint" that his restaurant will soon have served up food for 120 years without a single animal being killed. "If we had served meat in this time, imagine all the corpses that would have piled up by now, much bigger than this house," says Hiltl. His family's story reflects the history of vegetarianism here in the heart of Europe, from a priestly vocation to fashionable, to its current status as, well, normal.
Ironically, though, Zurich has not embraced this mainstreaming: This Swiss city where in 1898 the Hiltl became the world's first exclusively vegetarian eatery, counts relatively few restaurants today serving no meat.
Still, the Hiltl family company continues to grow, now including six restaurants, a cooking school, a grocery with a meatless butcher's shop and a night club, all drawing in between 3,000 and 5,000 customers a day. Hiltl will not give more figures, as this is a "family firm." A new, seventh restaurant is set to open in the fall of 2017 in downtown Zurich, on the lively Langstrasse street, and like the flagship restaurant, will have a basement club. Rolf Hiltl partnered up with the Frei brothers in 2000 to launch the other chain of vegetarian self-service eateries Tibits, now with nine premises and employing 400 people.
The restaurateur's decision to expand into the night club world was strategic: to rid his establishment of the whole "seed-eating" image, and replace it with the aura of partying, wild fun and nocturnal hedonism that appeals to younger clients. "Our DJs go from hip hop to R&B, they have tattoos on their arms and don't eat meat like many other young people of their generation. But there's vodka, and that's not meat," he says.
The next revolution
The owner, who himself prefers to spend an evening at home cooking for the family or skiing in Zermatt, is a real believer in the power of diversity: proud to be employing 250 people from 60 countries and using as many Swiss or European ingredients as possible. He is very active on social networks, and every tweet with the #Hiltl hashtag is projected in real time onto the wall in one of his restaurants.
Rolf Hiltl learned his own cooking craft in Zurich at the Grand Hotel Dolder, where he was trained to make the classics of French cuisine. Today, he promotes their vegetarian version: Whether à la tartare, sliced, or filleted and sauced, the dish will come with the tofu or seitan that make meat eaters howl. "As a cook, I know that what brings flavor to a dish is above all how it is prepared, and the sauce, spices and herbs. Our customers also want some tradition, and we give it to them," he says.
His great-grandfather Ambrosius, a German migrant to Zurich, decided to start the future temple of vegetarian food for health reasons. He had gout, and his doctor predicted the worst misfortunes if he did not stop eating meat. Initially, the austere Hiltl was called the "House of Vegetarians and Café of Abstinence."
In its first years, the café"s "herbivore" customers were said to enter surreptitiously through a back door. Prejudices in the food business can do great harm, and Rolf Hiltl is obsessed with eliminating as many as possible. When he took over from his father in 1998, he introduced wine and beer into the vegetarian establishment. Horror! "My grandmother and I got on very well, but she did not speak to me for three weeks," he recalls.
She was not the only one who needed convincing. The city government that issues liquor licenses initially refused the request to serve booze, insisting that a vegetarian restaurant needs no alcohol. "It has taken time for people to associate vegetarian food with pleasure. But in Zurich, we've moved onto something else. The next revolution is vegan."
Factory farming is responsible for 15% of carbon emissions, which is more than planes, cars and trains put together. Meat production sucks up 70% of fresh water around the world. The logical conclusion? Meat is evil!
The German agriculture ministry recently advised citizens to abstain from meat for the sake of the environment. The council of experts advocated a "shift toward the consumption of a climate-friendly diet".
But that's where things get complicated. What exactly is climate-friendly? Instead of salami, should I put avocado slices on my sandwich? Personally, I'd consider this a delicious alternative. But is it really more eco-friendly? Avocados grow halfway around the world; pine forests are cleared and artificial fertilizers, pesticides and vast quantities of fresh water are used for their cultivation.
Eating eco-friendly is tricky — even before ethical concerns come into play, which are also valid concerns. There are many reasons people might avoid meat or animal products. Some people don't like the taste of it. Others think a vegetarian or vegan diet is healthier, even when there's no scientific evidence confirming or disproving this theory. Most vegetarians care about animals and think it's immoral, a crime in fact, to kill other living beings for food. Vegans even renounce livestock that are bred for their milk, eggs, hair or skin.
If scientists consider a vegetarian diet the most effective way to counter climate change, there's some bad news — the wealthier a country gets, the more meat it consumes. But I can do my bit. Each steak I refuse to eat is one steak less that has to be produced. But if I'm trying to forgo animal products, I quickly run out of ideas. Pasta without parmesan? A curry with canned coconut milk that's imported even though that is problematic in its own way?
Supermarkets in Germany have solutions. Shelves and shelves stocked with tofu, soy, and wheat gluten steaks. But these offerings also raise questions. If you're consuming a lot of soy-based products, you cannot ignore that its cultivation is responsible for the destruction of certain rainforests. Furthermore, the majority of soy cultivated worldwide is used as feed in factory farms. As for the taste for of my soy Bolognese — it's okay but a bit strange.
In the U.S., it grew harder to go without meat. I was living on carbonated water, pretzels and whole-grain bread.
I think replacing meat is easier when it's not the main ingredient, just a part of it. Pizza is still good without ham, as is lasagna or kebab with wheat gluten or a curry with tofu and vegetables. But roast venison is not quite the same without venison.
But even with these changes I've accepted that it's impossible to completely avoid carbon emissions from food production. The blogger Felix Olschewski says that factory farming is just as bad as conventional plant production. According to him, the solution is to simply accept that eating involves denying another animal food. "If you eat the blueberry, the bird can't have it. You take the salad, the bunny has to starve. If you cultivate fields, you destroy the ecosystem and animals' natural habitat."
There are different ways of reacting to this dilemma. One is to have an "I don't give a damn" attitude, eating as many avocados, steaks and environmentally-unfriendly sushi boxes as possible, flushing it all down with coffee that comes from capsules and is for take-away in plastic cups. Or, you can question your own behavior. Do I have to eat steak every single day? Is it the season for strawberries? Where does the milk I buy come from?
There are no clear rules for sustainable consumption because everyone has a different definition. Is it about water consumption, carbon emissions, the wellbeing of animals or chemicals in the food? What's relatively undisputed is that it makes sense ecologically to eat little meat and to focus on regional and seasonal products.
I still haven't become a vegan. To be honest, not even a vegetarian. But I try to eat as little meat as possible and to not stuff myself with meat burgers. Nor avocados, by the way.
PARIS — When she announced it to her parents, her heart was beating fast. Both mother and father tried to hide their disapproval, which gave way to worry and even feelings of guilt. What had they done wrong in raising her? Of course, they would still love her, and anyway they could probably count on this whim and phase ending at some point.
Ophélie Véron, now 29, remembers her "dietary coming out" as an earthquake for her French family.
Back when she was a 22-year-old student in political geography, this pretty dark-haired young woman with freckles announced she was a vegetarian. At 25, she became vegan, thus excluding any animal products from her lifestyle (food, clothes, cosmetics, …). It was a "very very difficult" position to defend, especially when your parents put so much love into traditional and local food.
"They just couldn’t understand it. It’s as if I had a mental illness!," Ophélie explains.
Her mother tries to underplay the family's reaction: "It wasn’t as if she’d joined ISIS or something," she quips. "But it was very strange, it cut her away from the others’ food, and so from us."
A 2012 Terra eco-OpinionWay study showed that about 3% of France's population had decided to give up on meat, fish and sometimes even milk and eggs. Since then, there have been many signs that the trend has accelerated, especially among young women. Business is booming for publishers with vegetarian and vegan cooking books, while trendy bloggers (including Ophélie, a.k.a. "Antigone XXI") concoct vegan dishes for their 20,000 regular readers. Vegetarian restaurants are mushrooming. Even major supermarket chains are starting to produce their own brand of vegetarian and vegan products.
Personal politics
"The trend has clearly gained pace in the last four or five years, especially among educated young urban people," says Elodie Vieille-Blanchard, a young math teacher and president of the Vegetarian Association of France. "We had 500 members in 2007, we now have 4,000." Among their 70,000 Facebook fans, Vieille-Blanchard says three out of four are women, and half of them are between 18 and 34 years old. On university campuses, some 10% of the students claim to be vegetarian or vegan. That’s 3% more than three years ago.
Beyond animal rights and a desire to eat healthy, a broader impulse seems to drive the rise in veggie-only citizens. "Young people no longer believe in traditional politics," says Cécile Van de Velde, a professor of sociology at Paris’ School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. "Since they believe that they can’t influence society as a whole, they change their own daily lives though local engagement and consumption, which becomes a lever for political action."
A pro-vegan demonstration in Melbourne, Australia — Photo: Takver
Inside families, the "conversion" to the vegetal cult doesn’t always happen in harmony. The memory of that fateful moment is still fresh in everybody’s minds. "It was on my 17th birthday," says one, "April 5, 2014," says another, "While I was Christmas shopping with my mom," or "My New Year's resolution in ...," recall several. Reactions are not necessarily enthusiastic in the land of gastronomy — what about the sacrosanct family meal, Sunday’s roast leg of lamb?
Camille and Cécile, twins who became vegetarian when they turned 18, still remember their mother’s panic when they told her that they’d become vegetarians. "What are you going to eat then? You’re making our lives so difficult!" The two decided to help other young people in their dietary transition and created an online forum for vegan living.
"You’re being manipulated," was how the parents of 17-year-old Alexandre Rozenblum responded at first. Then came the coup de grâce, "It's just teenage angst!"
For 16-year-old Mary’s parents, the shock is still raw. "We couldn’t understand it," says her mother. "She used to love her meat rare."
There’s also some fear that such eating habits might lead to dietary deficiencies. And there’s only one thing the youths can do to alleviate those worries: promise they’ll go see a nutritionist and do regular blood tests.
But deep down inside, carnivorous parents never cease to hope it’s just a fad. Some even try the bacon-in-the-vegetable-quiche technique. Or all sorts of fish, before they finally admit the unthinkable: Even fish is banned.
Veggie wedding
As it becomes clear that the hoped-for fad is instead taking root, each meal becomes a war of attrition, with the never-ending barrage of wisecracks as weapons.
*What about when the carrots scream as they are pulled from the earth? Can't you hear that? (The father)
*Just because you’ve stopped eating meat doesn’t mean we’ll stop killing animals. (The older brother)
*You’ve clearly never known what it’s like to go hungry. (The grandfather)
*How will you feed your baby? (The grandmother)
*Will you serve bark at your wedding? (Uncles and aunts)
It goes on until it reaches the point of open conflict. "My parents love meat, they wouldn’t let go," remembers 24-year-old Margaux.
Valérie ended up playing the peacemaker between a "very angry" son and a "provocative" daughter. "She would tell him, as he was eating a steak, "You’re eating a dead animal," and they would argue …"
When parents come to terms with their child's choice, there’s still the issue with friends. It’s exhausting to always have to justify yourself, or to bring your strange sort of chocolate cake, without eggs or milk, to a dinner party.
Maëlle, 17, feels like a "burden" when going out with friends. "I don’t live in a big city, there’s no vegetarian restaurants. It’s always a hassle to choose where we’re going to eat."
If vegans like Maëlle are often seen as extremists, vegetarians are more and more common. For young people, to stop eating meat entirely can originate from a family environment where both parents practice "flexitarianism" (eating meat only sporadically). For Sophie, the fact that her 18-year-old daughter Lucie is a vegetarian is "the most advanced expression of the family’s stance," as they’ve almost entirely given up on red meat.
After his early teenage years spent eating kebabs, Nicolas Celnik — a high school senior whose mother is a vegetarian, whose father is not far from being one and whose sister is a vegan activist — joined the movement last year after he found out how cattle are raised and slaughtered. But there are side benefits beyond the ethics, he says: "There’s nothing quite like being a vegetarian to pick up girls."
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