Yet not everything has changed: the percentage of men taking part in Veganuary – which has grown from 168,000 to 580,000 participants since 2018 – dropped from 15% in 2018 to 13% in 2021. I get called a ‘soy boy’ and there’s a lot of, ‘Ed must be gay because he’s vegan’ Britons have reduced their meat intake by almost 17% in a decade, according to a 2021 study in The Lancet’s Planetary Health journal. According to a 2019 survey commissioned by the Vegan Society, the number of UK vegans quadrupled to 600,000 between 20. McDonald’s even has a McPlant burger now, while vegan celebrities and Netflix documentaries are helping to normalise the concept of meat abstention or reduction. Thankfully, non-animal diets are no longer a niche concern. As a result, for many years I hid the real reason – claiming it was simply “habit” rather than sensitivity to animal welfare.
From the years I was at school right into my 2os, rarely a day passed without some sort of jibe about my diet. I hated ordering food when out with groups of lads because I knew there would be titters and comments about my masculinity. I didn’t know anyone else – male or female – who was veggie. I became accustomed to teasing and shaming – from digs at the apparently tasteless gruel I was consuming to the ubiquitous use of “gay” as an insult, mostly from guys who seemed offended by my decision to not eat dead things.
