Veganuary: Everything you need to know

Maybe you’ve heard of Veganuary, maybe you are vegan, maybe you have no idea what I’m talking about!

Well, you’re not alone. Veganuary is a relatively new event, especially here in North America. But it’s gaining popularity, and fast!

Veganuary is officially organized by a UK-based charity and the first organized event was in January 2014. Nowadays though, it’s much less of an official event. It’s more comparable to the “meatless-Monday” trend and is a challenge for people who want to try eating less meat with the help of a community.

The most recent stats we have about this popular event is from just a few days ago actually! The Maine Sunday Telegram reported that this year Britain remains the biggest participant, but the number of participants is growing in the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, Germany and Sweden. [1] So far this year, 500,000 people signed up for the challenge, compared to 400,000 in 2020, 250,000 in 2019 and 170,000 in 2018 and 50,000 in 2017.

The growing popularity of Veganuary, from 2017 to today. 

500,000 people omitting meat and dairy products from their diet comes to saving:

• 58,800 tonnes of CO2 (equivalent) from the atmosphere
• 929 tonnes of sewage from our waterways
• 3.6 million liters of water [2]

Interested in giving it a go? Here are some of our tips for starting to eat meat-free:

• Make easy swaps if you’re just getting started. Find a meatless product you like and use it in your everyday cooking.
• Play around with recipes you know (maybe check out our recipe section?)
• Look to popular recipe creators for inspiration (here are some of our favourites in Canada).
• And especially: Don’t be too hard on yourself! Everyone makes mistakes and that's fine. Take this opportunity to try something new and challenge yourself, not to chastise yourself. 

References

1.  Kamila, Avery Yale (3 January 2021). "Vegan Kitchen: More people are resolving to start the year without animal products". 

2. Vegconomist (2 January 2020). "Veganuary 2020 Will Save CO2 eq of 450,000 Flights and Over Million Animals".