User:BP988/sandbox

My topic proposal:

The global demand for plant-based foods is increasing and it is here to stay. 20 years ago, no one would think this is would be the case. According to a report by research firm GlobalData, only 1% of the U.S consumers in 2014 claimed to be vegan. In 2017, that number rose to 6%, resulting in a 600% increase. In the UK, there has been an increase of 350% in the number of people identifying as vegans. There might be a number of reasons this trend is occurring. People are shifting towards veganism/vegetarianism because they want to alleviate animal suffering or to pursue a healthier lifestyle, or to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With this global trend, stores are also starting to make adjustments to accommodate them. For example, big chains such as Marks & Spences and Pret a Manger have introduced vegan ranges and Pizza Hut recently started offering vegan pizzas. Due to this rapid explosion of plant-based food consumption, there will be a major increase in people turning vegan/vegetarian and more mainstream stores are likely to increase their supply of vegan/vegetarian food.

Articles that may help with my topic:

Veganism

This is a good article to know the general logistics and history of veganism worldwide. It has subtopics like vegan diet and animal products. This article would be helpful to know a general overview of veganism. You can see which countries are more concentrated in veganism vs which countries are not and it would be helpful to probably compare them.

Vegetarianism by country

This article gives an overview of vegetarianism around the world. It provides data and history of vegetarianism in the major countries worldwide. Although it provides information about vegetarianism for the countries, I think they can be updated and more information can be added. For example, under the United States section, the latest information that's there is from 2017. I think it would be helpful to find more data that's more recent.

Canada[edit]
In Canada, vegetarianism is on the rise. In 2018, a survey conducted by Dalhousie University, led by Canadian researcher Sylvain Charlebois, found that 9.4% of Canadian adults considered themselves as being vegetarians.[131] 2.3 million people in Canada are vegetarians which is an increase from 900,000 15 years ago. Another 850,000 people identify themselves as vegan. The majority of Canada’s vegetarians are under 35, so the rate of vegetarianism is expected to continue to rise.[131][132] This is up from the 4.0% of adults who were vegetarians as of 2003.[133]

United States[edit]
In 1971, 1 percent of U.S. citizens described themselves as vegetarians.[131] In 2008 Harris Interactive found that 3.2% are vegetarian and 0.5% vegan.[132] U.S. vegetarian food sales (dairy replacements such as soy milk and meat replacements such as textured vegetable protein) doubled between 1998 and 2003, reaching $1.6 billion in 2003.[133] Some of the restaurants that are dedicated to vegetarianism include Veggie Frill, Plant Power-Fast Food, Amy’s Drive Thru, and Evolution Fast Food.

According to a report in 2017, the number of consumers claiming to be vegan has risen to 6% in the US. [134] In 2015, a Harris Poll National Survey of 2017 adults aged 18 and over found that eight million Americans, or 3.4%, ate a solely vegetarian diet, and that one million, or 0.4%, ate a strictly vegan diet.[135]

Many American children whose parents follow vegetarian diets follow them because of religious, environmental or other reasons.[136] In the government's first estimate[137] of how many children avoid meat, the number is about 1 in 200.[138] [139] The CDC survey included children ages 0 to 17 years.

By U.S. law, food packaging is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, and generally must be labeled with a list of all its ingredients.[140] [141] However, there are exceptions. For example, certain trace ingredients that are "ingredients of ingredients" do not need to be listed.[142]