The UK Could Be ‘100% Vegan’ By 2030, Says Expert

A researcher has claimed that the UK could be entirely vegan in just over 10 years time.

Tom Milner — dubbed “The Vegan Engineer” — recently conducted a survey on 2,800 people who currently follow a plant-based diet.

He concluded from his results that the number of vegans in the UK has doubled every year since 2011. If this rate continues, 15 percent of the country will eat only vegan food by 2030, he notes.

When this rate of growth is considered alongside the rapid rise in popularity of other meat-reducing diets — like flexitarian, pescetarian, and vegetarian — Milner believes the demand will be so low for meat products that animal agriculture will collapse.

“With such a drop in demand for meat, dairy, and eggs, it would be very difficult for any animal product based business to survive,” explains Milner in his YouTube video.

He continues, “2030 is, therefore, my prediction for a financial crippling of the UK animal agriculture industry and the entire UK population becoming de facto vegans. This is actually a slower growth rate than the Finder survey results which indicated 5.5 percent by the end of 2019.”

Is a Meat-Free Future Really On the Horizon?

Some are cynical of Milner’s findings. Design, technology, and science website Gizmodo said, “a lot of fairly major assumptions are being made here off the back of very little data, 2,800 people isn’t a large sample.” It added, “the four-question survey only included vegans, which makes it non-representative of the UK population by default.”

Milner’s prediction is ambitious, but the number of people eschewing meat, egg, and dairy products across the UK is rising. More and more consumers are learning about the environmental, health, and ethical impact of consuming animal-based foods.

Last year, 66 million Brits ate 150 million vegan meals, and this year, a study by Modular Classrooms revealed that 57 percent of the population are willing to change their lifestyles to save the planet, this includes eating less meat or cutting it out entirely.

Mark Brown of Modular Classrooms said in a statement, “It’s encouraging to see that so many people are willing to make changes to their lives to safeguard not only their future but the future of their children.”