Culture & Media

Why Veganism Feels Quieter Right Now

Vegan restaurants closing, businesses adding meat back to their menus, headlines calling the movement's momentum lost. Sean A. Russell, who has been in the vegan community since 2013, argues the story is more about interrupted momentum than decline.

Vegans Explore Podcast

Episode 73 · Jan 12, 2026 · 7 min

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What actually happened between 2017 and 2019

Around 2019, media outlets were calling it the year of the vegan, driven largely by three documentaries: Cowspiracy, What The Health, and The Game Changers. Those films created urgency, not just curiosity, pulling in a wave of flexitarians and new vegans who often had not yet built a deep personal why behind the label. That was enough for a while, with each new documentary refilling the pipeline as some people fell off.

Then COVID hit, and the reinforcement disappeared

Community, restaurants, events, and travel all vanished in 2020, removing the social reinforcement that had been carrying people whose motivation was not yet deeply rooted. Many vegan businesses did not fail from lack of interest, they failed because foot traffic disappeared overnight. The movement never fully recovered that momentum, and there has not been a comparable cultural lightning rod since, partly because the media landscape itself has fragmented past the point where a single documentary can cut through the way those three once did.

The argument is not that veganism is as strong as it was in 2019. It is that valleys are a regrouping moment, not a failure, and relying on documentaries and celebrity endorsements was never a durable growth strategy.
Even a future trend cycle or fad is framed as a net positive, since it creates an opening for people to develop deeper, more durable reasons to stay.
The proposed fix is community: real people, real meals, real stories, showing that plant-based living is manageable and social rather than extreme or perfect.