CHRISTOPHER ELLIOTT: 'Veganism is on the rise in the general population. The number of American consumers identifying as vegan grew from 1% to 6% between 2014 and 2017, according to GlobalData. That's a 600% increase. A quarter of Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 say they are vegans or vegetarians according to The Economist, which declared 2019 the year of the vegan. "There's an unprecedented level of awareness around both the ethical and environmental implications of our dietary choices," says Esther Ardagh-Ptolomey, founder of Kindred Traveller, a business specializing in vegan and…

CLIFFORD COLBY: 'Here comes the other faux white meat. Impossible Foods, the brand behind last year's Impossible Burger 2.0 craze, captivated the attention of CES 2020 by launching a plant-based pork replacement called Impossible Pork. The man-made pork substitute is designed for kosher and halal certification, and can be used in any recipe that calls for ground pork. Impossible Foods plans to roll out Impossible Sausage later this month in five test cities... Impossible Burger 2.0 is now available in more than 7,000 Burger King locations across the US, as well as restaurants in the US, Hong…

BRIAN KATEMAN: 'According to The Good Food Institute, SPINS retail sales data released this past July showed that grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products grew 31% in the past two years to reach $4.5 billion. Plant-based milk was the most developed of all plant-based categories, accounting for 13% of all dollar sales of retail milk, followed by “other plant-based dairy.” But within that category, one sector seems to be lagging behind: plant-based cheese. Although dollar sales of plant-based cheese grew 19% in the past year and 69% over the past two years, it…

GEORGE MONBIOT: 'We are on the cusp of the biggest economic transformation, of any kind, for 200 years. While arguments rage about plant- versus meat-based diets, new technologies will soon make them irrelevant. Before long, most of our food will come neither from animals nor plants, but from unicellular life. After 12,000 years of feeding humankind, all farming except fruit and veg production is likely to be replaced by ferming: brewing microbes through precision fermentation. This means multiplying particular micro-organisms, to produce particular products, in factories... It comes in the…

CASPAR SALMON: 'Well into Veganuary and the head-scratching confusion over just exactly what veganism is continues.The perception of veganism as a diet or passing fad has somehow clung on in the health pages of our newspapers...There is a continual debate in the media about whether ‘the diet’ is healthy. This is beside the point. There is a stream of misinformation designed to trick people into believing that vegetarianism and veganism are simply not possible. This madness must stop, and it’s extraordinary that it has endured this long... Making the personal choice to live more ethically…

RICHA NAIDU: 'Kroger, the biggest U.S. grocer, rolled out its own line of plant-based imitation meat burgers nationwide under its Simple Truth in-house brand. The retailer said its pea protein-based products would be sold at “more affordable prices” than competing brand-name imitation meat... A Kroger spokeswoman said the company’s own-brand plant-based meat was developed by an in-house R&D team and produced by a third-party... And a two-patty-pack would sell at about $4.99 to loyalty-card-holding customers... German-owned discount supermarket Aldi U.S., which sells Meatless Meatballs…

DANIEL HOWLEY: 'Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown is bringing the heat to CES 2020 in Las Vegas, America’s biggest consumer tech trade show. The head of the plant-based meat company not only debuted two new products, a ground pork and pork sausage alternative, but slammed the meat industry in an interview with Yahoo Finance, calling it "the most destructive technology on Earth by far." The company's ultimate goal is to completely replace animals as a form of food by 2035. Impossible Foods already offers a beef alternative in its Impossible Burger, which uses plants and includes a soy-based…

DAN SATHERLEY: 'A new documentary aired in the UK, which calls for farming to be phased out in favour of food grown from bacteria in factories. George Monbiot's Apocalypse Cow aired on Wednesday night (UK time) on Channel 4. It begins with Monbiot - who was arrested last year during an Extinction Rebellion protest - saying flying less and getting rid of plastic straws isn't going to be enough to save the world from ecological catastrophe. "There's a bigger culprit that hardly anybody is talking about," he intones. "The food industry is destroying the living world and it appears to be…

AGDAILY: 'The Animal Agriculture Alliance announced its new website and updated resources to celebrate the beginning of a new decade... One of the Alliance’s newly updated resources is the animal rights activist groups web. The web details how activist groups are connected through funding, project collaboration and flow of staff and volunteers. “The purpose of this web is to show that while some groups publicly represent themselves as moderate and others are more upfront about their radical views, they are all connected with the same agenda of ending animal agriculture,” said Kay Johnson…

MATT REYNOLDS: 'Once seen as the preserve of hippies and animal welfare activists, in 2019 veganism went mainstream. A growing awareness of the impact that our diets have on animals, our health and the environment has sent people clamouring for plant-based alternatives to meat and animal products. And fast food chains – eager to cash in on the popularity of plant-based diets – are racing to introduce meat-free versions of their flagship products. All this means that you can expect this year’s Veganuary – the annual drive to get people to give up animal products for an entire month – to be…