The real barrier stopping people from becoming vegan are practical things like the taste, price and convenience, states a recently published study. The researchers wanted to understand public’s opinion on various plant based diets, why do people support veganism and vegetarianism and whether it is only about ethics and environment or beyond. The study involved 1,000 men and women whose average age was 34 and they were recruited online through the survey platform Prolific.
The research focused on shifting preferences away from animal consumption in view of climate change and reducing animal suffering. It mentions that 73% of meat eaters that were surveyed think that veganism is all about ethics whereas 70% said veganism is an environment friendly diet. Only 50 percent of them considered veganism as healthy and 60 percent said they think veganism is ‘acceptable’. 80 percent find veganism difficult to adapt, 77 percent found it inconvenient and 60 percent said that they just don’t enjoy it. But compared to veganism, vegetarianism found more takers.
Research says that people are considering switching to plant-based diets with ‘Veganuary‘, as they identify with the ethics of veganism plus understand the benefits of vegan diets to the environment. People do understand with the principles of veganism but the switch for them has been difficult as they find it too expensive, inconvenient and a sacrifice in terms of taste.
The research work that was partly funded by the charity Viva! pointed out that there should be development in the space of introducing affordable vegan products to change the behavior of people. But this study was published a while back and since then there has been considerable change in the reach of veganism and vegan food. More and more supermarkets, restaurants and even fast food chains like KFC have vegan options for their customers. So this has helped people lessen their animal products consumption.