Vegan advances in mainstream American culture, 2014-2024

During a decade when vegan, vegetarian and plant-based foods were moving deeper into mainstream American culture, I wrote an annual, end-of-year column for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram summarizing each year's national and international vegan news highlights. The news items mentioned in these pieces speak to changes taking place within specific groups and certain geographies, while also reflecting ideas that were discussed in the mainstream media thereby allowing others at a distance to envisage such a change as possible. Today, these columns serve as an archive of the individual actions, marketing messages and policy moves influencing our food and culture during each of these pivotal years. 

2024 witnessed vegan food advance onto more plates

2023 has been an excellent year for plant-based foods

In 2022, surveys, studies and reports point to an increasingly vegan world

In 2021, vegan food was here, there and everywhere

In 2020, meat-eating around the world trended down

2019 saw much vegan progress

In 2018, vegans gain ground