Veganuary
Veganuary is a UK nonprofit organisation that promotes and educates about veganism by encouraging people to follow a vegan lifestyle for the month of January. Since the event began in 2014 participation has more than doubled each year.
Formation | 2014 |
---|---|
Purpose | Advocacy |
Website | veganuary |
Programme
Veganuary is a crowdfunded campaign to issue a challenge each January promoting eating vegan for the month.[3]:36
Participants sign up online and receive a downloadable "starter kit" and daily support emails.[4] They're offered an online "vegan starter kit" with restaurant guides, product directories,[3]:36 and a recipe database.[3]:38 Participants are encouraged to share images and recipes to social media, which according to academic Alexa Weik von Mossner creates a sense of community and communicates the message that veganism is easy and fun.[3]:37
Reception
Gentleman's Quarterly noted "it's a clever way to introduce a new way of nutritional thinking at a time of year where our mind is hardwired to explore ways to better ourselves".[5]
A January 2019 slump in UK pub receipts was blamed on Veganuary.[6]
Impact
Tobias Leenaert postulated the popularity of the campaign may be partially due to the organizers' decision to promote "trying" veganism for a specific period vs. "going vegan", which allows participants to decide not to continue with an all-vegan diet without feeling as if they've failed.[3]:36 Von Mossner agrees and points to the "light-hearted" and generally positive tone of the promotional materials, which feature attractive and "frequently named animals" with captions like, "Save little Eric—Try Vegan this January" rather than images of animal abuse.[3]:37
400,000 people signed up for the 2020 campaign.[7] The campaign estimated this represented the carbon dioxide equivalent of 450,000 flights and the lives of more than a million animals.[8]
Signups for the 2019 event were reported to be as many as 14,000 per day for a total of 250,000 signups from 193 countries by the end of December.[9]
In 2018 170,000 people signed up, a 183% increase over 2017 numbers.[10]
For the 2017 campaign, 50,000 participants had signed up as of 4 January of that year.[11]
Criticism
Von Mossner pointed out that downplaying facts about the lives and deaths of food animals omits important information and that the strict emphasis on food ignores veganism as a lifestyle.[3]:38
References
- "Why I started the Veganuary movement". BBC News. 3 January 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
- Maynard, Micheline. "Happy Veganuary: Vegans And Vegetarians Are In The 2019 Dining Spotlight". Forbes. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- Alexa Weik von Mossner (2019). "How We Feel about (Not) Eating Animals" in Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism. University of Nevada Press. ISBN 978-1-948908-11-5.
- Wicks, Lauren. "Here's Everything You Need to Know About "Veganuary"". Cooking Light. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- Knight, Nick. "Veganuary is here: what you need to know". Gentleman's Quarterly. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- Gill, Oliver. "'Veganuary' blamed for January pub hangover". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- Smithers, Rebecca (3 February 2020). "Veganuary signed up record 400,000 people, campaign reveals". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- "Veganuary 2020 Will Save CO2 eq of 450,000 Flights and Over Million Animals". vegconomist – the vegan business magazine. 2 January 2020. Retrieved 7 January 2020.
- Topping, Alexandra. "Year of the vegan? Record numbers sign up for Veganuary". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- McCoole, Veena. "Going Vegan This January? A London Food Entrepreneur Shares Her Tips For Veganuary". Forbes. Retrieved 19 February 2019.
- "Veganuary: Is following a vegan diet for a month worth it?". BBC. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 19 February 2019.