It’s been a minute since I posted something in depth about the vegan movement because despite its evident, scientific and unequivocal value to the future of humanity, it still seems to be a struggle for some to draw the hard line, particularly considering the epic information now available about how a vegan future is the solution for our collective planetary and health issues.
The Veganism Impact Report for 2019 was just released and uses statistics on the UK’s, EU’s and world’s annual animal product consumption, employment, trade, health, environment and economy to visualise how society would change if the current vegan population consumed animal products, or if the meat-eating population went vegan. UK statistics are based on 1.16% of the population being vegan and do not take into account the vegetarian or pescatarian population. EU statistics are based on 5.9% of the population being vegan and vegetarian.
The key statistic from the new research has revealed that there would be 129,445 fewer deaths due to heart and circulatory disease per year if the whole of the UK’s current meat-eating population switched to a plant-based diet. Which makes full sense considering the health benefits of optimising your body through non violent action. If we all went vegan, there would be 8,800 fewer cancer cases in the UK each year, and a billion hectares of the world’s land surface used for livestock made available for alternative and more sustainable growth. An estimated 152,405 people in the UK died of heart disease in 2017, but this would fall by a massive 129,544 to just 22,861 deaths per year if the population were to follow a vegan diet.
The statistics which are gathered from associated sources including NHS, Macmillan, Office for National Statistics, Europa and the RSPCA also show what the impact of no veganism would be. When I went on the BBC last year to debate with a farmer about the future, my first recommendation was for him to start looking into non violent alternatives, considering the growth of the movement, so hopefully other farmers in the UK will take heed and evolve their ways and therefore use the demand for these alternative products to replace the decrease in exports and sales of their current offering.