Are Plant Based Diets & Foods Sustainable?

This post is written by Helen Breewood, research assistant at the FCRN. She is also a freelance writer, and blogs about solving global sustainability issues at The Progress Motive(link is external). You can find her on Twitter(link is external). She is writing this post in her personal capacity. Note too that the FCRN has no financial affiliation with any of the brands mentioned in this blog.

Vegan food is in fashion, and not just among the increasing(link is external) numbers of vegans – many Brits are cutting down their meat intake, in a trend known as flexitarianism(link is external). As a vegan living in the UK, I’m noticing a lot of changes: supermarkets and restaurants are cashing in by offering new vegan options, Instagram is bursting at the seams with avocados and colourful Buddha bowls(link is external), and bloggers such as Deliciously Ella(link is external) are making plant-based foods mainstream. This new-found popularity of vegan foods has been hailed as great news for the planet – but might these changes have unintended consequences? How much do we really know about the environmental and social sustainability of modern plant-based eating?