55 Percent of United Kingdom May Be Vegan by 2020

As veganism moves from a fringe lifestyle to a mainstream movement, Vegfest UK predicts that nearly 55 percent of the population will be cruelty-free by 2020. Vegfest has experienced a surge in traffic on its social media outlets and the last Brighton fest had record-breaking attendance of nearly 7,500 visitors. According to the source, there has also been a 100 percent increase in vegan book sales on eBay and Amazon. Fueling the vegan trend is the rising number of affordable animal-free alternatives as well as the recent horsemeat scandal, which prompted many omnivores to choose meat-free options. “Many kids have a natural instinct that eating animals is something they’d rather not do and struggle with the concept that … some animals are pets and some are food.” says nutritionist Harley Street Yvonne Bishop-Weston.