An egg has become Instagram’s most-liked post ever. Yep, a regular egg. In its shell, without avocado. The world’s most famous egg now has 54 million likes on Instagram (and counting). Welcome to 2019…

Despite its rising profile, the industrial egg is starting to crack as people look for plant-based solutions.

Is the egg toast? As Veganuary convinces people to ditch meat and dairy for one month – for the benefit of the environment, the animals, and their own health – everyone from The Economist to Forbes is hailing 2019 ‘The Year of the Vegan’.

Good news: veganism is moving away from being seen as a cult. The flexitarian, vegan, vegetarian and sustainable food movements are growing in sexiness every day.

FutureQuote

How do you create a world where human beings have enough cheap protein and food without ripping up the environment, massively abusing animals and sucking up the world’s water? Part of the solution is plant-based approaches to these really vexing problems.

Josh Tetrick, Founder, Just

This week we’re celebrating plant-based solutions in the most surprising places – bomb shelters, football club pies… and eggs. Plant curious?

 

1. The vegan shoe in Vogue

These green kicks are Hollywood-approved footwear

You don’t need to be vegan to join the cult of Veja. Everyone from Eddie Redmayne to Meghan Markle to our editor is into the Paris-based sustainable sneaker label. The ethical shoes are made in Brazil with fair trade businesses and small cooperatives. And they look damn cool.

 

2. Bleeding veggie burgers

Caution: burger porn

How about a sustainable plant-based burger by Impossible Foods that bleeds just like a meat patty? This ‘plant blood’ recipe is winning over meat-lovers.

 

3. Wow! Milk without the cow!

Cows rejoice

The Swedish milk industry is worried about Oatly – a ‘milk’ made from oats that can wean people off dairy and proves livestock is antiquated tech. Why grow oats to feed to cows? Just cut out the middlecow.

 

4. Pigs hail the new kale!

Gratuitous shot of snuggling pigs

This pink seaweed superfood tastes just like bacon and is better for you than kale. High in minerals, vitamins, protein and antioxidants, could a fast-growing smoky-tasting ‘bacon of the sea’ turn you pig-free?

 

5. Video ► The eggless egg

Something about egg on his face

vegan mayo CEO wants to change the world by making the right thing easy and sexy. With ‘Just’, Josh Tetrick plans to shift the eating habits of climate-conscious millennials. We asked former the American football player-turned-food saviour which came first – the idea to crack the future of food or the eggless egg?

 

6. Tunnel visionaries

These veg are the bomb

South London holds a secret. Deep underground its streets are Second World War bomb shelters pimped out with the latest hydroponic systems and LED technology. Growing Underground is a pristine, pesticide-free farm harvesting leafy micro-greens all year round and supplying them to consumers in the London area and reduce dependence on imported crops.

 

7. Our freezer’s bigger than yours

Fortitude in real life

Deep inside a mountain on a remote island in the Svalbard archipelago, halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, lies the Global Seed Vault. Safeguarding everything from sheep food to chili peppers, the fail-safe Noah’s Ark of seeds is built to stand natural or man-made disasters. It represents the world’s largest collection of crop diversity.

 

8. Video ► Inside London’s first ‘agri-tech’ incubator

Green fingers design a better future

Let us take you inside an old school made from recycled theatre salvage, decommissioned bio labs and art freight containers – because something special is happening. Green Lab is creating a vibrant city community for creative sustainable food innovators. The Green Lab focus is on insects, algae, hydroponics, aquaculture, fungi, fermentation and vermiculture. (That’s cultivating earthworms to convert organic waste into fertiliser.)

 

9. The world’s first vegan football club

Vegan pies are on the menu at The New Lawn

Eco-warrior and outspoken founder of the world’s first green energy company, Ecotricity, Dale Vince is on a mission to green up sport. With a football pitch that is organic and rainwater-fed, an eco-friendly stadium with solar panels on display, LED floodlights and a menu only serving vegan food, his Forest Green Rovers is turning ‘the beautiful game’ green.

 

Enjoyed this AtlasNews? ► Sign up here to receive weekly slices of joy into your inbox.