Just a few days ago, the Washington Post claimed there were about 924,000 vegan kids in the US and that a “growing number of children and adolescents are consciously opting for a vegetarian diet.”

But some people doubt that. Cattlenetwork is claiming the reported growth is too sudden to be real. So let’s take a look at what might cause an increase in vegan children to see if this spike is possible.

Factors that contribute towards the increase of vegan children:

Microtrends reported these factors:

• Increased social acceptance of vegetarianism and veganism
• More meat alternatives and other vegan products available
• Vegan and vegetarian parents who raise their children as vegans
• Parents who value individuality and compassion and let children make their own kind choices
• Prevalence of information about animals and the environment

The Microtrends authors even comment:

“In fact, if you think about it, what’s really remarkable is not so much that more and more kids are becoming vegan and vegetarian – but that kids today eat as many animals as they do.”

I have to agree with the authors! It’s rather astonishing that there aren’t more vegan children. But I think if we just keep doing what we’re doing – promoting compassion, raising our own children as vegans, and increasing the availability of vegan foods – we’ll be living in a very vegan-friendly society in no time!

American Veal Association: “The treatment of calves depicted in the videos taken at Bushways Packing Plant in Vermont are unacceptable and not consistent with the standards of the American Veal Association (AVA), the Veal Quality Assurance Program or federal law.” (source)

Chuck Jolley, CattleNetwork writer: “In matters of animal handling and food safety, the USDA and any other federal, state and local governmental entity involved must adopt an aggressive, zero-tolerance policy.” (source)

Can we trust these guys? If they believe their own spin, why aren’t they the ones doing the undercover investigations?