Processed Vegan Meats: Are They Really the Enemy?

By Chef Alex Bury, Vice-President of Development

tofurky-roasted-red-pepper-panini
Tofurky’s Roasted Red Pepper Panini

Let’s have a discussion about processed foods.

Cue the horror music, call the food police, and grasp onto your whole food cookbooks for dear life!

Just kidding.

Today we want to present a more balanced approach on the widespread apprehension of eating processed animal food substitutes, namely, vegan meats.

Here at Vegan Outreach, we’re big fans of Tofurky deli slices and Gardein’s fish fillets—both processed, both delicious.

But wait, isn’t that exactly what all those health gurus tell us not to eat?

We advocate for the consumption of vegan meats for several reasons. First and foremost, eating vegan meat can make the transition to a vegan diet much easier for meat eaters! If only for that reason alone, I’m constantly telling people to buy vegan sausages.

Allowing yourself to eat processed meat substitutes means you can have the familiar and satiating meal experiences you’re used to without hurting animals. You can even use your favorite traditional recipes by subbing out any animal protein for plant-based products! It’s convenient, it’s fast, it’s delicious, and these days, you can buy so many different kinds of plant-based alternatives it’s almost ridiculous!

gardein products
Gardein Vegan Meats

Another important reason to eat vegan meat—and this is for you, my large and vocal vegan community—you might need it.

There’s a lot of scary nutrition information floating around the web. Many vegans end up terrified of eating processed food and their diets consist of lots of veggies, but simply not enough protein or calories. This can create health problems. Some people don’t feel energetic unless they eat high amounts of protein.

Unfortunately, many vegans consider vegan meats “junk food” to the extent that some will go back to eating animal meat rather than trying high-protein vegan meats. Of course, there are other high-protein vegan foods, such as tofu and legumes, but most vegan meats made from soy or wheat gluten contain more protein per serving than any other plant foods.

Match Meat's Stuffed Chicken Breast
Match Meat’s Stuffed Chicken Breast

Here’s an example of what we’ve been talking about. This is a great story of a vegan thriving today thanks to adding plant-based meat to her diet.

Oh, and for anyone who adheres to a gluten-free diet and is wondering where you fit into this conversation, have no fear! There are plenty of meat alternatives that offer a few gluten-free products, like Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, Gardein, and Tofurky.

Vegan meats help us feel full, satiated, and emotionally comforted. It prevents animals from suffering, and it helps us set an example for meat eaters that vegan food can be fun and familiar. It can help us easily meet our protein needs so that we feel energetic. While vegan meats may not be for every vegan, our movement would gain a lot if we all worked together to abolish the fear of vegan meat we’ve created over the years!


Vegan Advocacy in India



Since 2016, Vegan Outreach has been working to end violence toward farmed animals in India. With the demand for meat and dairy rising in the country, we’ve been working to educate the masses on more compassionate food choices.

Starting with an international expansion tour, the India team has now grown to 10 staff and a country-wide volunteer network. From outreach and education programs in colleges to institutional campaigns, read on to know more about how we’re helping animals in India.

Inspiring thousands of students to go vegan

Vegan Outreach’s dedicated staff and volunteers conduct in-person and online outreach programs at over 2,776 colleges and high school campuses each year, as well as at festivals, fairs, and conventions in 28 states.

Our Adopt A College program involves interactive classroom presentations, showing virtual reality videos, and tabling with our persuasive booklets to raise awareness about the suffering of animals raised for food. We focus on reaching the people who are motivated enough to make changes now—of which there are always many in our target audience of college students.

Support for making changes

We conduct outreach with the aim of signing people up for our 10 Weeks to Vegan guided challenge. Everyone who signs up receives weekly emails or WhatsApp messages with easy recipes, product recommendations, nutrition information, and lots of motivation. The content is tailored for an Indian audience and available in both English and Hindi.

We also offer a free mentorship program for those who need one-on-one support in making the transition.

Institutional dairy and meat reduction campaigns

In addition to in-person outreach, Vegan Outreach also runs the Green Tuesday Initiative, a campaign to help companies, universities, schools, and hostels reduce their environmental footprint by making small changes in the food they serve.

So far, we’ve helped 50 educational institutions and corporate offices in India implement more sustainable food policies and reduce large quantities of animal products from their menus. Some of our recent victories include our latest success with Gujarat University to reduce their animal products consumption.

Read more about our latest campaign successes here.

Our impact in numbers

By steadily increasing the number of vegans we’re laying the groundwork to more quickly reach a tipping point. Here’s our success in numbers:

  • 187,468 students signed up for our 10 Weeks to Vegan guided challenge.
  • 2,776 colleges and high schools visited in 24 states.
  • 192,447 students attended classroom presentations.
  • 26,333 people watched virtual reality videos.
  • 1,418,984 people reached with informative vegan leaflets.
  • 50 universities, corporate offices, and hostels joined the Green Tuesday Initiative.

Excited to join the movement? Here’s how.

Our work is possible because of generous supporters. Make a donation today to help animals in India!

We also need dedicated volunteers to help us reach more students and community members to spare more animals from suffering. With just a few hours of your time, you can change several dozen students’ lives forever. Sign up via our Volunteer Form.


How we will help animals in India and beyond!

As we start the new year, we are reflecting on the impact of your support in 2023, and we’re excited to share our plans for 2024. Much like the leap year, we are determined to accomplish more!

Our Goals for 2024

  • Inspire 50,000 students to try the 10 Weeks to Vegan challenge.
  • Reduce 550,000 kg/1.2 million pounds of animal products from institutions in India and Vietnam.
  • Engage 150,000 people in vegan activities and spread awareness about speciesism.

Impact Your Support Created in 2023

  • 44,420 students took the 10 Weeks to Vegan challenge.
  • 3.8 million pounds of animal products were reduced by partnering with 15 new institutions.
  • 120,000 people participated in vegan activities.
  • Launched the Green Tuesday Initiative in Vietnam.
  • People Inspired by Our Work

    Thank you once again for your support. Want to learn more about our work? Write to us at [email protected].


    With Gratitude,

    Team Vegan Outreach India


Retro Vegan Mac and Cheese

Retro Vegan Mac and Cheese, Easy Recipe

Alex Bury first made this recipe in 1998—back when we didn’t have good vegan cheeses. It’s cheap, easy, and yummy! We think it’s stood the test of time.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup nutritional yeast
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup oil
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Whisk together dry ingredients, then mix in water, oil, mustard, and apple cider vinegar. Gently cook on medium-low heat, whisking often, until it thickens. Taste and adjust seasonings. If you want it thinner, add more water.

Stir into hot, freshly cooked pasta and serve.


Creamy Cashew Vegan Mac and Cheese

Cashew Vegan Mac and Cheese, Easy Recipe

Creamy Cashew Mac and Cheese. This is one of our favorite recipes from the 10 Weeks to Vegan mentor group using cashews and vegan cheese.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1-1/4 cups raw cashews, soaked for 3 hours or more
  • 1 -1/4 cups plain, unsweetened vegan milk of choice
  • 3 cloves peeled garlic
  • 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp paprika powder
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/2 cup of your favorite vegan cheese, cheddar style, shredded

Directions:

Drain the soaked and softened cashews. Add all the ingredients except for the cheese to a high-speed blender. Blend well.
Stir in the cheese and then toss with hot, freshly cooked pasta and serve.



BBQ Chickpea Plate

Portland Prasad BBQ Plate
BBQ Plate at Prasad in Portland

By Lisa Rimmert, Director of Development

I recently had the pleasure of visiting Portland for the first time, to meet with many wonderful Vegan Outreach donors there. Of course I had a long list of restaurants and shops to visit too, as everyone knows Portland is a haven of vegan goodness. I had some expected favorites, like Vtopian Artisan Cheese shop, Portobello, and a few others. But one place I ate surprised me and stood out.

Diane, an awesome VO donor, suggested Prasad, a little cafe inside a yoga studio, and I’m so glad she did. I ordered the BBQ Plate, made with barbecue chickpeas, jalapeño cornbread, millet, and steamed greens with jalapeño cashew cheese. It was one of my favorite meals in Portland, and that’s really saying something!

When I arrived home in Denver, I knew I had to recreate the meal. I made a couple changes due to laziness–using buckwheat instead of millet, because I had that on hand, and not including jalapeños in the cashew cheese. It was delicious! I made the dish for my parents, too, using farrow as the grain, and without nutritional yeast (a vegan sin, I know, but it’s hard to find where they live in rural Illinois!). It was delicious once again! I hope you make it and enjoy it even half as much as I did!

BBQ Chickpeas & Kale

Ingredients:

  • 1-1/2 cups dry buckwheat, farro or rice
  • 1/4 cup raw cashews*
  • 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 cup plant milk, unsweetened
  • 1 bunch of kale
  • 2 cans chickpeas
  • 2 tbsp oil for frying
  • 2 Tbsp oil for sauteing
  • 1/4 cup of your favorite barbecue sauce

Preparation:

  1. Cook the buckwheat, farro, or rice according to directions.
  2. Blend cashews* thoroughly in a food processor with the nutritional yeast, cumin, garlic, and half of the milk. Add more milk as needed so it’s smooth and creamy. Set aside.
  3. Meanwhile, rinse the kale in a strainer, squeeze out the water, and remove stems. Cut into bite-sized pieces.
  4. Heat a large frying pan on medium and add a tablespoon of oil. When hot, add the kale. Stir as needed until soft, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
  5. Return pan to medium heat, add a tablespoon of oil, and when hot add the drained chickpeas. Stir so they don’t stick and when heated through stir in the bbq sauce and turn off pan.
  6. Serve the kale and chickpeas over the grains with the cashew cream sauce drizzled on top.

*It’s best, but not required, to use soaked cashews. They can be covered in water and soaked overnight in the fridge, or quick-soaked in the microwave, on the stovetop, or covered with boiling water. Let stand for 20 minutes before draining and using.


Tips for Tabling

By Lori Stultz, Outreach Coordinator

Last week, in celebration of students’ return to school, the folks at Vegan Outreach offered a few helpful pointers for leafleting.

Today we wanted to discuss a similar form of activism: tabling. Like leafleting, tabling can be an effective way for students to educate others about factory farming and other animal abuse related issues. It provides a great platform to engage in conversation and offer information and advice on how others can most effectively help prevent animal suffering. That is, through reduction of their meat and dairy consumption.

Most often, tabling is done as a group activity (perhaps with an animal advocacy group on campus), but it can also be done solo. Before setting up a table on campus, though, you will need to check in with the campus student activities center to find out where and when you can table on campus. Many campuses have designated locations and times that are acceptable for tabling.

Whether you’re by yourself or with a group of animal-loving friends, your information will be more compelling if you keep these things in mind:

Appearance and Displays

  • Personal appearance is crucial! Instead of dressing in counterculture attire, which may send the message to your audience that your worldview is radically different from theirs, dress conservatively. Be clean and well-groomed. This will prevent your audience from assuming that you’re not relatable.
  • Make sure your visual displays clearly and simply relay your message. Think big pictures and big words—limit the amount of small text on your display.
  • Limit your available materials to one or two issues. Don’t overwhelm your audience by offering literature on five or six different issues. And when laying literature out on the table, fan it in a straight row (instead of a semi-circle). This detail may seem insignificant, but it will drastically increase the rate at which your audience picks up the literature and reads it.

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Conversation

  • Actively listen to your audience members. Acknowledge their valid points and observations and ask thought-provoking questions. Find issues that you agree on (common ground). They are much more likely to listen if you’re coming from a place of commonality instead of difference.
  • If your audience says they are unable to make a lifestyle change (e.g., “I could never give up meat” or “I could never afford to go vegan/vegetarian”), offer your personal experience of the lifestyle changes they are concerned about. For example, if someone claims that he or she could never give up meat, you could respond by saying, “I used to feel the same way, and at first, I just cut back on meat. Now that I’m vegan, I’ve found that I really don’t miss meat. In fact, I feel good about my diet and am more at peace with the world around me.”
  • Refrain from getting into an argument. Some audience members may try to start an argument by saying something rude or obnoxious. They are usually doing this because they are uncomfortable with their own emotions in relation to the topic. Therefore, rather than reacting hastily, simply smile and wish them a good day. Remember that you’re the spokesperson for the animals.

Keeping these points in mind will ensure a successful tabling experience! And be sure to visit the Vegan Outreach website to find accurate and useful information regarding animal-related issues and tips for how to go veg. You can also order literature to use at your table through our website!

 


Helping Animals in Vietnam | Amplifying Impact in India

I’m delighted to share that our India team has successfully reached 90% of our annual goals for both the Green Tuesday Initiative and the Adopt A College program. Our focus has been on expanding and amplifying our impact. Here’s how we’ve been accomplishing these objectives

Expanding the Green Tuesday Initiative to Vietnam


We are pleased to announce the expansion of our Green Tuesday Initiative to Vietnam. Over the past six years, we’ve successfully replaced 3.3 million pounds of animal products with plant-based alternatives in India, and we are hopeful to create a similar impact in Vietnam as well.

Our Plan of Action:

  • We started working with over 100 educational institutions and corporations in Vietnam, advocating for the implementation of the Green Tuesday Initiative on their campuses.
  • We are also working to partner with local publications to promote our message and increase the visibility of our campaign.
  • Our goal is to reduce the consumption of 44,000 pounds of animal products by the end of 2023.lso working to partner with local publications to promote our message and increase the visibility of our campaign.

    We Are Now Presenting our Webinars in Six Languages!


    Ajith K, our outreach coordinator with Karnataka State Akkamahadevi Women’s University students, on August 04, 2023. He delivers the webinar in English and Kannada languages.

    Key Highlights:

  • Over 17,000 students signed up for our 10 Weeks to Vegan series last quarter.
  • We organized Adopt A College webinars in over 40 universities and colleges.
  • Our multilingual approach is amplifying our impact––ensuring that our message resonates with a diverse audience. We now deliver our webinars in English, Hindi, Gujarati, Bengali, Kannada, and Malayalam.

    Meet Sarani Bhattacharya (Pronounced as Sha-ro-ni) (She/her)


    Sarani is a passionate plant-based nutritionist dedicated to promoting a compassionate and sustainable lifestyle. She joined Vegan Outreach as an outreach coordinator, and during her first three months, she has already inspired 7,000 students to try the 10 Weeks to Vegan program.

    Thank you for helping us create a compassionate world for animals. Your support allows us to maximize our impact. Kindly consider becoming a monthly sustainer to enable us to reach our full potential and expand the scope and reach of our programs

    Become Our Monthly Sustainer



    With gratitude,

    Richa Mehta,
    Director of Programs, India


  • Impact of 10 Weeks to Vegan

     

    2023 Randomized Controlled Survey

    10 Weeks to Vegan is a weekly email series from Vegan Outreach containing tips, recipes, and resources for those interested in learning more about animal-free eating. We’ve adapted versions for 55 different countries and regions.

    In 2022-23, Vegan Outreach conducted a survey to assess the effectiveness of our 10 Weeks to Vegan program by including a randomized control group. Previously, we’ve conducted numerous surveys to determine whether participants had converted to vegetarian or vegan at the end of 12 weeks and 6 months with very high rates of change (you can see the results of those surveys below). But we wanted to include a control group to see if people who sign up for 10 Weeks to Vegan were likely to change even if they hadn’t received the series.

    Methodology

    The surveys ran in Chile, Vietnam, and the United States. Instagram and Facebook users in our target audience were shown our typical ads used to pique interest in learning more about going vegan (the image at the top of this page is representative of ads we typically run). When someone clicked on the ad, they were taken to a screen explaining that we were conducting research and asking if they would take part. We let them know that if they agreed to participate, they might not receive any information about becoming vegan for 12 weeks. If they declined to participate, we sent them to our usual signup form for 10 Weeks to Vegan and they were not part of the study.

    To encourage participation, we told them that they would be added to a raffle in which two randomly chosen participants per month, from each country, would win a $50 Amazon gift card (U.S. and Chile) or a 500,000 VND Tiki voucher (Vietnam).

    If they agreed to participate, they were presented with a pre-test survey. After they took the survey, they were randomly assigned to be in either the treatment group (receiving the usual emails from the 10 Weeks to Vegan program) or the control group (receiving no emails). People in the treatment group were also invited to be part of the 10 Weeks to Vegan Facebook support group for their country. After 12 weeks, both the treatment and control groups were sent a post-test survey to fill out.

    Conversion Rates

    The main outcome we measured was the net conversion rate of the treatment and control groups. We defined a conversion as someone who reported going from meat-eater to vegetarian, from meat-eater to vegan, or from vegetarian to vegan. A recidivist was someone who changed in the opposite direction. The net conversion rate was the number of conversions minus the number of recidivists divided by the total number of participants.

    We measured whether someone was a meat-eater, vegetarian, or vegan in two different ways:

    • Based on diet frequency (how often they eat various categories of animal products)
    • Based on how they self-identify: meat-eater, flexitarian, pescatarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, or vegan

    We asked the diet frequency questions before asking how they identify so as not to predispose them to answer the diet frequency questions according to how they identify. We considered flexitarians and pescatarians to be meat-eaters.

    Unfortunately, we made an error on the Vietnam self-identify questions rendering those responses unusable, but we were able to include the data for the diet frequency questions.

    Results

    The survey began in April of 2022 and lasted until June of 2023.

    Our response rates were relatively low, as seen in the chart below.

    2023-RCS-response-rates-Impact-10W.png

    We suspect that the response rate for the control group was higher than that for the treatment group because the treatment group’s post-test was longer than the control group’s. We also suspect that Chile had a higher response rate because their potential reward was relatively higher than the U.S. or Vietnam’s reward. We notified people about the post-test up to two times.

    The conversion rates are shown in our Google spreadsheet, 2023 Randomized, Controlled Survey of 10 Weeks to Vegan Program.

    2023-RCS-conversion-rates-Impact-10W.png

    On that spreadsheet, we did three different analyses:

    1. Purple headings: Included all participants except the treatment participants who didn’t receive the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails, the control group participants who received the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails (by signing up in a different way), and the participants who chose the first answer for each question (which were incongruous and an indication someone was simply filling out the survey to be part of the raffle).
    2. Blue headings: Included only treatment group participants who reported joining the Facebook support group and opening at least 4 of the 10 Weeks to Vegan emails (the “committed group”) and control group participants who reported not seeking info on how to become veg after taking the pre-test (an “uncommitted” group).
    3. Yellow headings: Included all participants, even those excluded in the first (purple) analysis.

    As with our previous surveys, there was a high rate of change between the pre-tests and post-tests.

    Generally, for the United States and Vietnam arms, there was a difference between the treatment and control groups with mostly small overlaps between the 95% confidence intervals, giving us confidence that 10 Weeks to Vegan is having an impact.

    For example, for the United States purple analysis, the treatment group had a 21% (95% CI: 14-30%) conversion rate based on diet frequency questions and a 20% (95% CI: 13-29%) conversion rate based on the identification questions, compared to the control group’s conversion rates of 12% (95% CI: 8-19%) and 14% (95% 9-20%), respectively.

    In Chile, the only comparisons that showed a positive impact for the treatment group (where there wasn’t a large overlap between the confidence intervals) was in comparing the committed treatment group to the control group (for the diet frequency questions only). For the self-identify questions, the control group actually converted at a higher rate than did the treatment group (without a large overlap of confidence intervals).

    Discussion

    This randomized controlled survey showed that in the United States and Vietnam, participants taking part in 10 Weeks to Vegan were more likely to convert to vegetarian or vegan than participants randomized to a control group. Participants in the treatment group in Chile didn’t convert at a higher rate than the control group.

    We haven’t figured out a good way to control for self-selection bias—in other words, the bias that people who are more interested in going vegan are more likely to take the survey. Making the reward higher could decrease this self-selection bias, but doing so could increase the bias that people who care about the reward—who might not be representative of the average participant in 10 Weeks to Vegan—are more likely to take the survey. In one of our past surveys, where each participant received a $5 gift card, we found a high rate of fraudulent participants.

    Based partly on the results of our randomized controlled survey, we direct our ad spending for 10 Weeks to Vegan to countries where we get the most new members in our 10 Weeks to Vegan support groups; there are 49 such groups serving the many countries in which we actively promote 10 Weeks to Vegan. In 2023, we’ve averaged over 6,000 new members per month in these support groups.

    In this survey, our first randomized controlled survey, we found a much higher post-test response rate among the control group. We believe this is because the treatment group’s post-test was significantly longer than the control group’s. One modification we’ll be implementing is to reduce the number of questions for the treatment group’s post-test and to allow the data to be submitted once they’ve answered the critical questions—the same questions that the control group receives.

    This randomized controlled survey of 10 Weeks to Vegan is studying the impact on people who sign up through our ads but not those who, albeit in much smaller numbers, come to us organically. We’re working on ways to study those who sign up organically.

    We’re in the process of adding required pre-test surveys for all 10 Weeks to Vegan participants in every country who signs up online, along with optional post-test surveys (we have no choice but to make the post-test optional). While these surveys won’t have a control group, they should allow for country-to-country comparisons and allow us to continue to monitor the program’s effectiveness.

    We’re also planning a second randomized controlled survey, but it will be some time before that begins.

    2022 and Previous Surveys

    To assess the effectiveness of 10 Weeks to Vegan, we surveyed United States, Mexico, and India 10 Weeks to Vegan and Get Healthy participants before and after they began the email series. In order to evaluate long-term change, we sent out a follow-up survey to those in the United States for whom it has been ≥6 months since completing the series.

    Methodology

    The pre-test was emailed to participants within a week after they signed up for 10 Weeks to Vegan. We sent the post-test approximately two weeks after people finished the entire 10 Weeks to Vegan series. To encourage participation, we offered two randomly chosen participants per month a $50, $300 peso, or 1,500 INR, respectively, Amazon gift card.

    We evaluated responses from participants who received 10 Weeks to Vegan, took both the pre-test and the post-test, and reported reading at least one email. In total, we evaluated responses from 500 US participants, 105 Mexico participants, 63 India participants, and 103 Get Healthy participants.

    We asked people how often they eat various animal and plant products. The pre-test asks how often participants ate various animal products in the last month and the post-test asks how often in the last week. We follow the food intake questions with a question about whether they identify as a meat-eater, vegetarian, or vegan.

    We considered those who moved from being a meat-eater to vegetarian or vegan, or from being a vegetarian to vegan, as a positive change. We classified those who moved in the reverse direction (vegan to vegetarian or meat-eater, or vegetarian to meat-eater) as a negative change. However, anyone whose self-identity was vegetarian or vegan at the pre-test and moved in a negative direction at post-test was cross-checked to see if their diet frequency showed otherwise. We counted the net changes for our total conversion figures.

    For people who, based on food intake, misclassified themselves as a vegetarian or vegan in the identity question at pre-test and then reverted to a meat-eater or vegetarian at posttest, we didn’t count their reversal as a net negative. In these cases, we assume that they didn’t understand the definition of “vegetarian” or “vegan” at pre-test but then learned the definition during the series. The conversion rates would be inaccurate if we considered such people as having reverted simply because they learned the definition.

    We further adjusted the results to reflect findings from the control group in our past Leafleting Effectiveness Study (LES). The LES asked the same food intake question as our 10 Weeks to Vegan surveys. We found that those in our control group had a conversion rate of 1.6%. Because we would have used this same methodology if we had a control group for our 10 Weeks to Vegan surveys, we subtracted the 1.6% rate from all our net conversion rates to arrive at the final, adjusted rates shown in the table below.

    Additionally, we compared the results of those who signed up in-person versus online. In-person sources primarily came from those who signed up through public outreach on college campuses or local events. Online signups came from those who signed up via an online ad or through our website.

    We determined p-values using a McNemar test comparing non-vegans at pre-test to total conversions at post-test.

    Results

    We received the following response rates to the surveys:

    • US pre-test: 7%
    • US post-test: 15.5% of those who took the pre-test
    • US ≥6-months post-series follow-up: 30% of those who took the post-test
    • Mexico pre-test: 10.5%
    • Mexico post-test: 10% of those who took the pre-test
    • India pre-test: 3%
    • India post-test: 10.5% of those who took the pre-test
    • Get Healthy pre-test: 9.5%
    • Get Healthy post-test: 12.5% of those who took the pre-test

    The adjusted conversion rates in the table below show what percentage of participants moved in a positive direction—either from meat-eater to vegetarian or vegan, or from vegetarian to vegan. In all but one instance, those who signed up online showed the greatest change.

    10W-Impact-All-Surveys-Table.png

    All findings for the United States 10 Weeks to Vegan and Get Healthy were statistically significant. All but the in-person diet frequency results for Mexico were statistically significant. Because the pool of respondents from India was relatively small, the findings didn’t reach statistical significance.

    Follow-up Results

    We followed up with 143 US participants 6 months or longer after they’d completed 10 Weeks to Vegan. The results were very encouraging. There was no statistically meaningful recidivism between the time that they completed the post-test and the follow-up survey.

    There was a slight improvement in in-person outreach and a slight decrease in online. The differences between the two were only statistically significant for the self-identity question.

    Below are the results from the initial pre-test to the ≥6-month follow-up survey.

    10W-1-to-10W-3-Impact-Table.png

    Based on this data, it appears that our work is having a lasting effect.