{"id":1332,"date":"2021-01-24T09:53:47","date_gmt":"2021-01-24T09:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/?p=1332"},"modified":"2021-01-24T10:07:03","modified_gmt":"2021-01-24T10:07:03","slug":"coronavirus-boosts-veganuary-sign-ups-to-record-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/2021\/01\/24\/coronavirus-boosts-veganuary-sign-ups-to-record-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus boosts Veganuary sign-ups to  record high"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/VEGANUARY-V2.mp3\"><\/audio><figcaption>For the audio version, click here to listen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Coronavirus has motivated a record number of people signing up for Veganuary in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Veganuary, a charity which allows people to sign up on their website all year round for 31 days of vegan recipes and a free cookbook, has collected more than 560,000 signups in the new year \u2013 the highest since it was started in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Toni Vernelli, from Veganuary, said the expansion in veganism was spotted in March last year, when the pandemic began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe weren\u2019t really surprised, we knew since the Covid pandemic hit there was an increase of interest in a vegan diet, and from that time we actually saw our signups go up\u2026So we expected this to be our biggest year ever, definitely,\u201d said Vernelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to a survey conducted by the charity in the summer of those who had already signed up, 30% of them were encouraged to eat a plant-based diet because of the Coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Of those, 70% did so to be healthier, more than 40% said because they had more time to cook, and another 40% said because of the link between animal farming and pandemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vernelli added the demand in vegan products had grown significantly and she believed that the interest in veganism would not fade away even post-Covid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m very very hopeful. The more we learn about the environment and the impact that animal farming has, it is just inevitable that people will realise that we cannot continue with our current western diet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Davinia Fielding-Cooke, a university student who has joined the movement for the first time, made the decision after reading two books and joining a Twitter community, which motivated her to help the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo I definitely think coronavirus gave me a lot of time to educate myself about the world\u2026because I had much more spare time, I was teaching myself new things, and helping the environment was one of them,\u201d said the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Compared to her last vegan trial, which was in November 2019 and for a charity, she feels much better this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was so strict on myself. If I had one thing that wasn\u2019t vegan I was so harsh on myself, but this time I\u2019m being more flexible\u2026 This time it is so different because I feel so open-minded.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The student credits her change in mentality to social media. \u201cI see a lot of people posting about the \u2018imperfect vegan\u2019, so it is ok to have things wrong sometime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Coronavirus has motivated a record number of people signing up for Veganuary in 2021. Veganuary, a charity which allows people to sign up on their website all year round for 31 days of vegan recipes and a free cookbook,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":{"x":"0.45","y":"0.76"}},"categories":[15,29,8],"tags":[40,112],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1332"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1332\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centreforjournalismprojects.co.uk\/InvictaNews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}