The Word ‘Vegan’ Is Still More Reviled Than ‘Plant-Based’ But…Why?

Plant-based food has exploded in popularity over the last decade, but many people still view it unfavorably — at least, they do when you call it “vegan.” Study after study has shown that people respond negatively to the “vegan” label, but is this because they actually dislike plant-based food? Or do they just dislike the ideology the word “vegan” represents?

Although veganism rates have remained relatively steady over time, the vegan food industry has grown considerably in the last decade. Retail sales of plant-based foods in the U.S. more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, from $3.9 billion to $8.1 billion, and an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence predicted that plant-based foods could make up 7.7 percent of the global protein market by 2030.

Despite impressive long-term growth, however, actual sales of plant-based foods have stagnated in recent years. The exact cause of this stagnation is unclear, but no matter the reason, ensuring the long-term health of our planet will require a significant reduction in global meat consumption over the next several decades, and negative reactions to the word “vegan” may be hindering these efforts.

Why is it that some people have a negative association with the word “vegan,” and what can be done to change that, so that the world can reduce meat consumption?

But First, a Brief History of the Word ‘Vegan’

The word “vegan” dates back to 1944, when several proto-vegans held a meeting to discuss and promote non-dairy vegetarianism. They recognized that they’d need to come up with a name for their nascent movement, and one of the attendees, British woodworker Donald Watson, suggested “vegan.” He created the word by combining the first and last few letters of “vegetarian,” and the rest is history.

Watson and his peers founded The Vegan Society, which is still active today. The Society defines veganism as follows:

“…a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”

Nowadays, the definition is a bit more diffuse; some people use “vegan” to refer strictly to diets that exclude animal-derived ingredients, while others use it to refer to what one might call “the vegan lifestyle” — a forgoing of not only animal-based foods, but all animal-based products, from clothing to cosmetics to medicine.

Is Veganism Still Fringe?

Although polling on veganism is a bit murky, the totality of surveys suggest that the general rate of veganism worldwide is somewhere in the low-to-mid single digits. Women, Millennials and Gen Z, and people who make less than $50,000 are more likely to adopt vegan diets than other demographics.

Do People React Negatively to Vegan Food — or Just the Word ‘Vegan?’

Many studies have found that non-vegans react negatively to the word “vegan,” regardless of how they feel about vegan food itself.

In one such study, participants were asked to choose between two food gift baskets, one of which contained meat and dairy and one of which did not. When the plant-based basket was labeled “vegan,” only 20 percent of attendees chose it — but when the label was changed to “healthy” or “sustainable,” more than twice as many people selected it, even though the contents remained the same.

Another survey asked people to choose between “vegan” and “100% plant-based” in response to several questions about their food preferences, such as “which tastes better?” and “which is healthier?” Respondents chose “100% plant-based” over “vegan” by a huge margin — around 50 percent — in response to every question, even though a “100% plant-based” and a “vegan” are the same thing.

What’s more, research also shows that omnivores often hold negative attitudes towards vegans themselves. One study found that the only group of people viewed more negatively than vegans were people with addiction, and it’s plausible that this dislike of vegans themselves is contributing to negative associations with the word “vegan.”

Anti-vegan sentiment isn’t hard to come by. In 2018, the editor of a food magazine pitched a story about “killing vegans one by one” to a vegan journalist he was working with. The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain once called vegetarians “the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit,” and compared vegans to terrorists. There’s even a beef jerky company that decided to call itself “F*ck Vegans,” presumably because they believed this message would appeal to its meat-eating customers.

Why Do Vegans (and Vegan Food Labels) Turn People Off?

It certainly seems that many people are put off by the word “vegan.” The question is: why? There are a few theories.

The ‘I’m Not Part of a Movement’ Theory

One theory posits that when people see the word “vegan” on a food label, they associate it with a wider ideological movement — one that they don’t necessarily want to be a part of, even if they do happen to prefer plant-based foods.

It’s often assumed that people who adopt vegan diets do so out of an ethical opposition to eating animals. While this is true some of the time, it’s by no means the only reason people go vegan; one 2023 study found that 52 percent of Gen Z vegans adopted a plant-based diet for health reasons, while only 17 percent did so out of ethical concern for animals.

Nevertheless, many people still perceive veganism as “not only a description of a diet, [but] an activist statement,” Ann Kronrod, PhD, a professor at University of Massachusetts who specializes in marketing linguistics, tells Sentient.

The Negative Emphasis Theory

It’s also been suggested that people respond negatively to the word “vegan” because it emphasizes what’s not in the food, as opposed to what is.

In other words, if you’re browsing the aisles at the grocery store, being reminded that a food doesn’t include an ingredient you like isn’t going to make you want to buy it more, and might make you want it even less. If, on the other hand, you’re reminded of the delicious qualities of the ingredients the dish does include, it becomes much more appealing.

Real-world experiments support this theory. In the U.K., sales of a vegetarian sausage shot up by 76 percent when it was renamed from “meat-free sausage” to “Cumberland-spiced veggie sausage,” while Panera boosted sales of its vegetarian black bean soup by 13 percent by calling it “Cuban black bean soup” instead. A 2017 study found that participants chose vegetarian meals up to 25 percent more frequently when they were given indulgent names like “sweet sizzling green beans” and “dynamite beets.”

Kronrod took this thinking a step further, and ran a study to determine whether using metaphorical language to describe plant-based dishes would increase their appeal. In her study, steamed broccoli became “tree of life steamed broccoli,” collard greens became “green machine collard greens,” and sauteed squash became “summer sunset sauteed squash.” Not only did the dishes become more popular when they were given these creative names — they also were perceived as tasting better, too.

“It’s literally more pleasurable to listen to metaphorical language,” Kronrod explains. Processing metaphors requires “just one more step” in the language centers of our brains, and completing this step gives us a sense of satisfaction.

The ‘Don’t Remind Me of My Cognitive Dissonance’ Theory

Finally, it’s been argued that the mere existence of vegans creates cognitive dissonance in many meat-eaters’ minds, as it reminds them that their own dietary habits might not be in alignment with their own morals.

In theory, most people really do care about the wellbeing of farm animals: In a 2022 poll, 80 percent of respondents said that preventing farm animal cruelty is a moral concern to them. Yet most people continue to consume animal products that were made in factory farms, despite the fact that factory farms — to put it lightly — do not promote the welfare of farm animals.

Researchers have called this “the meat paradox:” people believe that it’s wrong to harm animals, but they continue to eat them. Social psychologist Hank Rothgerber studied the phenomenon, and identified no fewer than 15 defenses that meat-eaters use to “prevent and reduce the moral guilt associated with eating meat.” One such defense was to attack the person who made them feel guilty — and in many cases, that person is a vegan.

What Dislike of the Word ‘Vegan’ Means for Plant-Based Food Marketing

Whatever the reason, the word “vegan” just doesn’t jibe with some people. That’s probably why a growing number of vegan food companies are intentionally omitting the word “vegan” from their product labels, and are instead referring to them as “plant-based” food.

“I don’t even use the word ‘vegan’ because this instantly puts off loads of people,” Zack Bishti, CEO and co-founder of the plant-based chain Neat Burger, told Axios. “When you say ‘vegan,’ it’s like ‘no’ because they associate it with bean patties.”

It’s a sentiment that’s gaining steam. On the marketing website The Drum, one advertiser argued that the key to boosting sales of vegan food products is to focus on “what the product is going to add to consumers’ lives rather than what it’s missing” in order to appeal to customers who “aren’t interested in buying into a lifestyle.”

Will ‘Plant-Based’ Eventually Become As Reviled As ‘Vegan’?

Of course, this rebranding effort begs the question: isn’t there a risk that “plant-based” (or plant-forward or plant-rich) will eventually take on the same negative connotation that “vegan” has now?

Maybe. But maybe not. Unlike “vegan,” “plant-based” reminds consumers what’s in the food, not what’s omitted from it.

But more importantly, as Kronrod’s study and the Panera experiment show, there are plenty of phrases other than “plant-based” that can be used to effectively market vegan foods. All available evidence suggests that colorful, creative descriptions that are specific to the dish in question — as opposed to the generic phrase “plant-based” — are appealing to consumers.

Getting people to eat more plants and fewer animal products for the climate is no easy feat, and despite the increased availability of plant-based foods, many people do seem to be turned off by the word “vegan.” Thankfully, there’s plenty of other language available to describe plant-based foods, and studies show that people like this language.