Over the past few decades, the avoidance or reduction of meat in diets has typically been presented as something of an extremist choice. Storylines featuring vegans often centred around the limitations of a meat-free diet or the assumption that abstainers must be craving meat persisted throughout the mainstream media. Gradually, though, and almost imperceptibly, the tide started to shift. We are now at a point where meat and dairy reduction is not just seen as something for those with strong principles or specific dietary requirements. Eating diets without (or low in) meat and dairy is now very much part of the mainstream. Vegan and plant-based options are now on the menu for more and more restaurants and fast-food outlets and all supermarkets have ever expanding product lines of plant-based foods and beverages.
It is possible to map the journey that brought vegan and vegetarian diets to public acceptance and to extend that journey into a future where it is understood that such dietary practices are vital to developing more sustainable food production. Therefore become the new norm. A global shift towards a more sustainable way of eating is vital; an essential step in this is a largescale shift, which is moving away from a reliance on consuming meat and dairy towards a plant-based lifestyle. This report seeks to identify how we have gotten to where we are now and how to overcome the barriers that stop us from embracing a truly sustainable relationship with food
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