How Plant Based Lifestyles Affect Agriculture

Approximately 2-6% of US adults identify as vegan or vegetarian. In just the past

three years alone there has been a 600% increase in people identifying as vegan. Like it or not, this trend of plant based eating is here to stay and along with is comes more food products geared towards those that don’t eat meat. The need for these vegan or vegetarian snacks has increased nearly 40% in just the past few years. But how is the increased production of these meat and dairy substitutes affecting our agriculture industry?

It is estimated that about $25 billion will be made off of meat and dairy substitutes over the next two years. While this may sound like quite a substantial amount of money it actually has very little economical effect on the meat and dairy industries. But as the demand for these products increases, a more noticeable financial deficit in the livestock industry may began to arise. This shortfall may eventually lead to financial problems for those who depend on the livestock industry just to make ends meet. Many farmers and CEOs of the big meat and dairy industries are protesting the rise of these vegan and vegetarian food industries.

But as our modern society began to make a shift to more plant based lifestyles, it is clear that this may be our only option. By the year 2050 we would not be able to meat the nations demand for meat even if all of our cropland was devoted to meat production. These plant based alternatives are also more ethnically and economically feasible. Ethical beliefs about the meat and dairy industries are one of the main reasons people become vegan or vegetarian. Moving towards a plant based diet as a nation will appease many peoples beliefs that the livestock industries are cruel and disgusting. These meat and dairy alternatives are also more economically feasible because it takes far less amounts of water and space to yield a higher amount of crop, depending on farming practices of course.

We may not be able to predict exactly how big this meat alternative industry may go but many believe it has a very bright future. Many big names have invested into these alternative start up companies such as, Bill Gates, who invested into Impossible Foods Inc., creator of the impossible burger. A shift towards a more or eventually completely plant based lifestyle is on the rise and it appears to have no intention of slowing down anytime soon.