Introducing Vegan Literary Studies

Veganism is on the rise. As C. Lou Hamilton writes, “Veganism is hot” (2): a hot topic as much as a hot potato issue. Over the past few decades, the number of self-identified vegans has increased exponentially, particularly in the West. A 2016 survey indicated that the number of vegans in the UK alone had increased by 350 percent in the 10 years prior (Vegan Life). The COVID-19 pandemic and the international lockdowns it necessitated also correlate with a significant increase in the popularity of vegan foodstuffs. A study by the UK Vegan Society, for instance, suggests that during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020, one in four Britons ate less meat, with tofu sales increasing by 81.7 percent and oat milk by 113 percent (Vegan Society). In the US, retail sales data from 2021 “shows that grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products have grown 27 percent in the past year to $7 billion” (Good Food Institute). Seemingly providing people with more time to invest in food preparation and meal-planning as well as for greater reflection on the harms perpetuated by animal agriculture, the pandemic has accelerated ongoing cultural shifts whereby concerns about the impact of industrial meat production and consumption on the environment combine with attention to animal welfare concerns to increase the number of people turning to plant-based diets.

However, the rise in veganism should not be reduced solely to statistics of plant-based consumption. As Eva Haifa Giraud writes, the increased focus on plant-based foodstuffs within a capitalist economic framework risks depoliticizing the vegan movement. For Giraud “Understanding veganism as a conversation for change, rather than consumerist, eating-focused movement” is necessary in order to shift perceptions of veganism away from “something that is about dietary purity and only available to a few, to a way of thinking about and engaging with the world” (Veganism 158). The risk of depoliticization is reflected in Ethan Varian’s 2019 New York Times editorial, which details how “plant-based” offers health-conscious consumers a mode of eating that is “[f]ree from specific ethical constraints,” increasingly used as “a way to distance oneself from the rigid ideology of veganism, which calls for abstaining from animal products of all kinds.”

In such instances, it is necessary to note the implicit misogyny that underscores a recent spate of product placement and plant-based pontification.