Apparently, 1.6 million Germans are now living the vegan lifestyle. That’s a pretty significant number, especially in a country with such a strong meat tradition. Do you think this is due to health trends, environmental concerns, or something else?
by Ok_School5226
25 comments
A mix of everything. Most vegans I know do it out of ethical and environmental concerns, with ethics at the top. The health benefits are a nice bonus, but few people do it for that alone.
It’s called white woke woman. Germany got alot of them.
personally i would say, its because of the animals, health and environment aspects are good bonuspoints tho.
with inceased selection it gets easier and easier, the barrier of entry is really low nowadays.
Vegetarianism has been trendy in Germany for a century at least. Is that a strong meaty tradition?
As a foreigner here, I think part of it (besides health, ecology, ethics) is part of a (subconscious) counter-culture urge, a cultural cringe in a way. Whatever the mainstream does, because German society has a strong conformist streak, a portion will react strongly and do the opposite. You don’t see as many vegans in more relaxed ‘do whatever you want’ cultures.
Good meat is expensive
That is a bit exaggerated. About 1,47 million Germans regarded themselves as vegan in 2024. That’s a decline to 2023.
And about ten percent of Germans regard themselves as Vegetarians. But I don’t know whether that includes the vegans in the statistics.
https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/445155/umfrage/umfrage-in-deutschland-zur-anzahl-der-veganer/
Being vegan is usually about animal welfare. Not so much about health trends, because vegan food doesn’t always equal healthy food. A lot of the Replacement products for meat is highly processed food.
Vegan products are much more easily accessible. Even in small towns, small discounters have options – that are actually tasty. That wasn’t always the case.
So while vegan lifestyle has been “trendy” for a while, actually being vegan is easier than ever before.
Many young people like me now start to realise how horrible meat actually is. Well not everyone, but more and more
This article is dated 2023. In 2024, the trend was lower 1.47 million, which is about 1.7% of the total population.
There are way more tasty vegan options in comparison to traditional non-vegan german cuisines.
There isn’t even any single vegan german cuisine I can think of ( and before you say anything, Kartoffelsalat is a side dish ).. even Apfelstrudel is austrian.
Yes
Generally:
Vegetarian = environment and/or health, some animal rights/ethics but they are always at risk of “but what about …”
The step to Vegan is therefore usually due to these animal rights/ethics concerns (I.e. egg industry and milk industry practices of animal mistreatments and killing)
I’m considering visiting Germany as a vegan from the U.S. Seems to have pretty good options (although I don’t know if that is limited to the big cities). I went to The Netherlands last week and it was very vegan friendly all over. Loved it.
“Healthy eating” was always a big thing in Germany, actually the who concept of “bio foods” and improving your health through food, as a concept, originated from Germany.
Health trends? Being vegan doesnt make you healthy. You cant still eat garbage food and be vegan .
Nah, people are just dumb and easily influenced.( to explain the meager number, also don’t forget the number is heavily inflated)
That’s the main reason. They need to be careful and take a lot of supplements that you usually get from meat or they will develop health problems later in life.
causing pain to and killing sentient beings if you have the opportunity to not do so is cruel (this is an opinion). Our biosphere is being ravaged by inefficient and wasteful practices like animal agriculture (this is a fact). I live a happy, healthy life without needing animal products. this is why I am vegan
To poor for good meat so might aswell skip it entirely. Granted am neither vegan nor vegetarian as i do eat meat and other products, ive just cut waaaaaaay down.
Good and massive marketing strategies are another reason
My reason: Why should an animal die because I am hungry?
I can eat other things and the hunger will go away. No need for a cow, pig, chicken etc. to die for that.
Guilt culture. And i mean that in the most neutral and unjudgemental way.
That is less than 2 percent, in other words, that is quite insignificant.
I believe that the extreme meat consumption in the country is leading people towards opposite poles of it. Also, universities tend to be very left-wing, progressive and therefore, lots of people get into veganism there
i believe that a lot of people get into veganism for environmental reasons at first and later lean more into the ethical reasons. (at least thats what ive experienced)
I assume climate considerations mixed with ethical ones… ethical ones made me go vegetarian as a 12-ish yo. Even if you are in general ok with eating animals, the way the mass farmed animals are raised is HORRIBLE. And basically all meat you can easily buy was farmed that way.
Plus, alternatives are getting better and better, being a vegetarian in a rural town 16 years ago was a pain, vegan basically impossible but nowadays its not really difficult, especially in student towns.
Also prices. If you dont go for alternatives to meat, plant based food tends to be cheaper unless its those fancy hyped imported shit like quinoa, avocado and the like. Personally I love spicy kidney beans, lentils and – yes – Tofu.
meat prices.
Comments are closed.