by Xinhua writers Wang Zhuolun, Nick Kolyohin
JERUSALEM, June 10 (Xinhua) -- In the aroma of food and pop music, customers were lining up in front of the "Vegan Beef" booth at a food festival held in Sarona Park in downtown Tel Aviv.
Besides the plant-based beef hamburgers, the visitors also gravitate toward a variety of other innovative vegan dishes, fruit juices, vegetable cream cake, and pita bread, to name but a few.
The three-day food festival, which already wrapped up on Thursday, is billed as the world's largest vegan event. It hosted more than 100 stalls of vegan restaurants, along with cooking classes and food-related activities for children.
"The purpose of the event is to show that the vegan lifestyle is accessible and easy, with great food, great atmosphere, and great people," said Omri Paz, CEO of the Vegan Friendly Association, organizer of the vegan spree.
Currently, fewer than 1 percent of the world's population is vegan.
When Paz founded the association 10 years ago, there was only 1 percent vegetarian population in Israel, and now the proportion has risen to 5 percent, the man told Xinhua.
In a broader sense, "about 1 million people in Israel out of 10 million choose not to eat animals," he added.
Veganism, analysts say, is rooted in the Jewish dietary tradition, as Judaism has a long tradition of compassion for animals.
As a leader in protecting animals' natural rights, Israel has long banned the sale of personal care and household products that were tested on animals, and was the first country to ban horse and donkey-drawn carts and carriages used for work purposes.
Unique to Israel "is the mix of the traditional Mediterranean diet of the area and the strict dietary laws of kosher food -- the separation of meat, dairy, and parve which is pretty much vegan apart from the fish gelatin and honey," an Australia-based online cookbook Chef's Pencil said.
Additionally, the constant influx and mix of immigrant cultures are believed to have added a diverse flavor to vegan food in Israel.
"With less than half the population being native to the region, the immigrant mindset of looking for something new has to be a big reason veganism has become so popular," the Chef's Pencil said.
According to an article in the British newspaper the Independent, with 400 vegan and vegan-friendly kitchens, the "vegan capital of the world" is what locals dub Tel Aviv.
The Vegan Friendly logo now appears at 1,500 Israeli eateries and on 6,500 products. "Since August 2019, we had about 50 new businesses every month that got certified as vegan-friendly or 100 percent vegan," said Paz.
The Israel Defense Force, the country's army, is also the most vegan army in the world. Israel National News reported that the number of vegans has increased 20-fold in just three years, representing a 1,900-percent increase in serving members who eschew all animal products.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization showed total emissions from global livestock represent 14.5 percent of all anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, constituting an important cause of climate change.
"If the world went vegan, it could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture by two-thirds and avoid 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars of climate damages. That's a significant step toward saving the planet," an Israeli company Redefine Meat predicted.
Data from Germany-based company Statista showed the global plant-based food market is expected to reach 77.8 billion dollars in 2025, and by 2030 the market will have more than doubled.
In terms of both the cultured meat, still at the laboratory stage, and the plant-based meat, the current mainstream meat substitute in the market, Israel has taken the lead, where the number of relevant start-ups has exceeded 50.
"I came specifically to Israel, because Israel is one of the largest, most significant concentrations of people that are removing animals from the food system. There are so many innovations in so many companies," said Jennifer Stojkovic, author of the book The Future of Food is Female and founder of Vegan Women Summit. ■
