Why Are My Vegan Friends Going Back to Meat?

-- For many, the real meaning of Christmas lies in sharing meals with family and friends. A YouGov tracker survey shows that the proportion of respondents in the UK identifying as eating fewer or no animal products — from flexitarianism to veganism — largely hasn’t changed over the past five years: As you’d expect, vegans and vegetarians skew slightly younger — but the differences aren’t huge: But what people identify as is less important than what they actually eat. But left to society and markets, things are moving too slowly to meet targets for meat consumption, and Carmichael’s work reveals that clear barriers to eating more vegetarian and vegan dishes remain. Having both options also normalizes plant-based meals — they are, after all, just food — and makes them more accessible to those who don’t identify as vegan but may want to try a particular dish. At the United Nations climate conference in Azerbaijan, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted that he won’t “tell people how to run their lives.” In the end, the impetus to coax people further toward a more flexitarian practice — where meals are more heavily plant-based but meat, dairy and fish are enjoyed in moderation — may come from another source: public health.