The 'green revolution' begins
The story goes that in the early 1990s, the then still unknown Helga Morath she opened a small restaurant in Austin, Texas called Acorn Café, not knowing that it was going to be a precursor to one of the biggest food trends of the 21st century so far.
Actually, it's not that she Helga invented anything new, but she gave a more attractive name to something that she had been serving herself for a long time: "flexitarian".
Months later, the newspaper Austin American-Statesman published an article about Helga and her Acorn Café, noting that she served "flexitarian food". And that did become first written reference that we have of the term and that it is used to describe a diet based on the vegetarianism , which occasionally includes products of animal origin, and which continues to grow throughout the world. And in Spain?
Do you join the green wave?
NEW FASHION OR IS IT HERE TO STAY?
To answer this question we have approached Flax & Kale (carrer dels Tallers, 74b), the first flexitarian restaurant in Barcelona created by the Barri Carles family (also founders of El Paradis de Lleida, one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Spain, and Teresa Carles).
There, on March 13, they presented the report The Green Revolution 2019 prepared by the Lantern strategy consultancy, for which they carried out an online survey in January 2019 with a total sample of 2,013 individuals over the age of 18 residing in urban and rural areas of Spain , supplemented by an investigation 1,001 people to explore in depth the most recent changes in your diet.
Flax & Kale, the first Flexitarian restaurant in Barcelona
THE VEGGIE CONSUMER TODAY
According to the report, in 2019 the 9.9% of Spanish adults are already veggies. Among these, a 0.5% maintain an all-vegetable diet (vegan diet, compared to 0.2% in 2017), 1.5% include some animal-derived product such as milk, eggs or honey (vegetarian diet, compared to 1.3% in 2017), and 7.9 % consume meat or fish but only occasionally (flexitarian diet, compared to 6.3% in 2017) .
In 2017, 7.8% of the population followed these diets . The data presented in this new edition represent a 27% growth over total vegetarian diets , which means that in this period 817 thousand Spaniards have joined the veggie lifestyle.
The report also highlights that veggies have grown beyond being a niche. ** One in 8 Spanish women is a veggie (in 2017, she was one in 10) **, and they represent 64% of the total. It is the youngest who carry the vegetarian flag, with almost a 15% among people between 18 and 24 years old.
According to the study , the main reason for adopting a veggie diet is health. 67% of flexitarians choose their diet to prevent and take care of their health. On the other hand, 23.8% of flexitarians cite concern for animals and 22.8% sustainability as motivations for their diets.
“The confluence of concerns for health, animal welfare and sustainability will further drive this trend and we predict that in 2020 there will be at least 1,200,000 new veggies compared to 2017 data ”, Jaime Martín (CEO of the Lantern strategy consulting firm) points out.
OPPORTUNITIES ON THE HORIZON
As expected, the report highlights that food brands have realized this change and that is why more and more are jumping on the bandwagon by taking out their vegetarian products such as: Unilever, Mercadona, Carrefour, LidL, Litoral, Danone (...) to give some examples . Not forgetting the industry 'synthetic' or laboratory meat that beyond animal meat, which has been researching for years from Silicon Valley to offer us, for example, the Beyond Burger (100% vegetable burgers but with color, texture and even flavor almost the same as the original).
“Buying ‘synthetic’ meat on the shelves is closer than we think. This technology can be a real disruption in the industry. However, it remains to be seen if people accept consuming this type of meat, given that it goes against the desire to eat more natural foods, and because from an anthropological point of view, eating meat is deeply rooted in almost all cultures on the planet and especially in the Spanish one”, affirms Martín.
Finally, Jordi Barri (Chief Executive Officer of Flax & Kale), points to new opportunities on the importance of repairing the foodchain (damaged by the overuse of pesticides and transgenic crops), promote the Regenerative Farming (regenerative agriculture), end the green washing (baseless brainwashing about the good and bad of becoming a vegetarian) and put more effort and money into food innovation to achieve: “Better food, better people, better World”.
Nothing like some fresh vegetables
VEGGIES BEYOND OUR BORDERS
In 2014, the United Kingdom – a country with one of the highest rates of vegans and vegetarians in the world – began the initiative known as Veganuary (vegan January), with the aim of changing their lifestyle with the excuse of the start of the New Year.
The term was also created meatless mondays (Monday without meat), especially among young people, of which, for example, the prestigious English newspaper Guardian He highlighted that his greatest influence to convert to veganism is social networks, especially Instagram, as it easily shows a wide variety of recipes and their nutritional benefits.
Then France, for its part, did the same by making the _ Lundi-Vert _ (Green Monday), so that from 2019 more and more French people replace meat and fish with vegetables and thus helping to promote a kind of weekend detox.
Finally, a few months ago, the well-known English correspondent John Parker published the famous article titled The year of the vegan (the year of the vegan) in the prestigious newspaper The Economist. In it he forcefully stated that 2019 would not only be the year of vegans, but where millennials lead now is where businesses and governments should invest in the future, since precisely this year is when veganism will become dominant fashion. So let's take note.
The vegetarian wave is here to stay