are from meat eaters,[2] showing that the interest in everyone eating less meat is most definitely on the rise. This means that the buying power of flexitarians is causing a huge spike in sales of vegan products! Being vegan is actually being made easier by people becoming flexitarian, because it increases the demand for quality and easy-to-find non-animal products. So even eating a few more plant-based meals, will make a big difference in our overall global consumption.
You don’t have to be a full-blown card-carrying vegan. You don’t have to wear socks and sandals or put hemp seeds in your smoothies. It is not about that. It’s about reducing your meat and dairy intake, whatever that means for you.
Think about what has brought you to this point. Why do you want to live vegan? Is it due to the environment, your health, the animals or for humanitarian reasons? Are you planning to change the way that you shop for non-food products as well? Some clothes, personal care products and make-up are made from animal products – do you plan to cut those out? Or just focus on food for now? Considering all your options will help you stay committed to your decision. It’s a really good time to think about your life and what you plan to do, then make daily decisions keeping you in line with those aims.
It’s simple. Choose animal-free products. As far as is right for you.
As consumers, our biggest power is in what we buy. Reducing the amount of money we spend on animal agriculture is the single best way we can, as consumers, start to make a positive impact. We’re going to show you how to vote against the meat, dairy and animal products in your life, without compromising choice, flavour or lifestyle. You’ll see how easy it is, you’ll feel better and healthier, and you’ll know that you are drastically reducing your carbon footprint, too.
We’ll help you BOSH! your kitchen, your bathroom and your life. We’ll show you how to remove animal products and turn your fave meaty meals plant-based. We’ll give you all the tools you need so you can save the planet and feel amazing.
In Great Britain, the number of vegans quadrupled between 2014 and 2018. There were about 600,000 vegans in 2018, or 1.16% of the population.[3] During that time, BOSH! launched making recipes for our books and our channels, where our videos have been viewed 1.5 billion times. That’s a lot of views!
We all want to make a positive change for the world but before we show you how you can do that, we think it’s important to understand exactly why veganism is a part of that change.
We’ll give you a heads-up now that it can make tough reading at times, but we can’t shy away from the facts and so in this section we’re going to start with a few home-hitting truths. They were a real wake-up call for us, and they help keep us motivated every day to do what we do.
About one quarter of our personal carbon footprint in the UK is down to the food and drink we consume.
JOSEPH POORE
Researcher at the School of Geography and the Environment, The University of Oxford.
Pow. What a great milestone! Now we are all talking about meat and dairy as being a huge part of the problem, we can go about starting to fix it.
It’s sadly undeniable that our addiction to steaks, hamburgers and cheese is a core part of the problem. It’s pretty clear to us that we need to reduce our intake of those, so we can reduce the amount of greenhouse gases we are releasing into the atmosphere. As individuals, that’s the most powerful thing we can do to reduce our carbon footprint.
There have been five mass extinctions in the history of our planet. This period that we are living in now has been termed the ‘sixth mass extinction’.[4] This is an entirely human-caused extinction. We’ve killed half of all wildlife in the last 40 years,[5] and since the rise of human civilisation, 83% of wild mammals have been lost.[6] We’re causing the biggest extinction since the dinosaurs, and the first extinction where the cause – us – is acting through choice.
What has brought this about? Well, the loss of animals is partly due to human overpopulation, but also overconsumption. There are a lot of us on this little planet, yes, but our repeated acts of killing for food and destroying habitats are the main destroyers of wildlife.[7] Humans have modified more than half of the Earth’s surface according to their own aims,[8] and it is estimated that 26% of the entire Earth’s surface is now used for livestock grazing.[9]
It’s not just wildlife that’s at risk either. Perhaps the bigger, more frightening danger that we are currently facing is the warming of the planet. Scientists have warned that the ‘catastrophic’ level of 2°C warming is a nightmare we need to avoid,[10] and while this has been popularly framed as a doomsday-like worst-case scenario, in practice, that catastrophic 2°C warming is more like the best-case scenario. [11]
Increased levels of greenhouse gases, including methane and carbon dioxide, are trapping more heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This prevents it from cooling down properly, and as a result the planet is warming up rapidly, in turn causing dramatic melting of the ice caps and an increasing number of climate-related disasters.[12]
A warming planet also means we can expect more global conflicts.[14] We were surprised by this at first, but it is inevitable: as the natural resources people depend on – water, food, fuel, etc. – become increasingly limited and unpredictable weather events cause climactic damage to landscapes and communities, governments will find it harder to protect and manage their societies. Severe droughts,[15] drowned coastal cities[16] and millions of climate migrants from scorched, desertified countries[17] will leave people feeling uncertain about their futures, resulting in widespread instability and political unrest.
These threats will materialise for the world’s poorest first,[18]particularly those around the equator, and there are already communities whose homes are being threatened or destroyed by climate activity across Africa, Asia, South America and even Alaska,[19] where temperatures are rising more dramatically than elsewhere. Meanwhile, our overconsumption is also affecting the poorest. Isn’t it terrifying to learn that although we produce enough food to feed every human on the planet, over 800 million people go to bed hungry each day?[20]
When we learnt these facts, we have to admit that we found ourselves losing faith in humanity for a while. As soon as you hear statistics like these, it’s easy to feel resigned and deflated – as though you don’t have any control. But we pulled ourselves back out of that hole and realised that there is something we can do – we can all act in a way that does some good for the world. Let’s use these depressing and humbling facts as a motivator