"So we've combined a delicious wet mix
and a lovely dry mix together to make a
dough. Gavin is making sure the dough
forms the right texture there, so
it's all nice and stringy." In a
commercial kitchen in East Vancouver,
David Isbister is stuffing meatless
sausages. "The first year, it was just me.
We broke, you know, somewhere around
130,000 and we were pretty excited about
that and then we tripled and then some
in the second year and it looks like
we're on pace this year to definitely
double and probably triple again." His
company PlantBase Foods is at the
leading edge of the growing vegan
movement in B.C. "It'll be put into a
sausage pumper and pumped into
compostable, cellulose casings and then
steamed." Isbister has got a vegan
alternative for almost everything...
Chikun Cubevlaki to PepperNOni, Not Rods
and Wack Forest Ham. "I have a problem
where everything has to be a pun." And for
him, it's not just business. It's personal too.
He was raised vegetarian, has never
even tasted meat. 22 years ago, he took it
one step further, deciding to cut out all
animal by-products.
Now he's vegan ó no meat, poultry, fish, milk,
cheese, eggs, even bee products like honey.
B.C. is Canada's vegan hotspot. There are
more people eating a plant-based diet
here than any other province in the
country. "So do you find it it's almost
just hard to keep up with demand?" "It's
it's honestly, it's brutal right now. It's
very tough, it's very tough. We've found
we're adding five to 10 stores even a
week." That demand is also driving change
in the restaurant business with vegan
options now being considered the
standard on menus in Metro Vancouver.
Just ask the food delivery companies.
Vegan orders through Skip The Dishes
have skyrocketed from 28,000 in
2018 to a 145,000
in just the first eight months
of this year. DoorDash is seeing the same
thing ó nearly a 500 per cent
increase in the last two years. "There are
so many restaurants now that have vegan
options, you know, the big spots at Cactus
Club, Earls... they have their plant-based
menus now. So there's so many people that
are like, yeah, you know, I want to go and
try, you know, vegan on the weekends and
then all the sudden that same person is
like, all I do 100% now." A good place to
start?
Vancouver's vegan night market. "Like the
majority of everything I buy, everything
in my fridge is plant-based, but if I'm
out and I get a cheese pizza, you know,
then I kind of let myself slip here and
there, so I think it's more about just
making an effort how you can." "I turned
vegetarian two years ago and that
just didn't feel quite right, because
there's so much animal harm with like
milk and eggs as well that I just wanted
to go vegan." There are three main reasons
why people say they choose a plant-based
diet:
concern for animal welfare, healthy
eating, and environmental sustainability.
"In B.C., there's a particular food culture
that is distinctive across the province."
Sylvain Charlebois studies what we eat
and why. He's a food distribution and
food security expert at Dalhousie
University in Halifax. His research shows
British Columbians have a better
understanding of the impact of their
food choices than other Canadians. "A lot
of people are in tune with food
systems in general and would tend to be
a bit more curious." That curiosity is
fueled by high-profile vegan influencers
on social media. "Flexitarians,
even omnivores, would consider vegans as
thought leaders and social
influencers. So if, say for example, a
vegan would say that a restaurant is
good or should be recommended or a product
should be
recommended, that recommendation actually
will go a long way in
B.C." "Dipped Doughnut ó they're a local
company." A lot of what's on the shelves
here is made in B.C. Chinatown's Vegan
Supply Co. has a simple philosophy. "Our
goal is to help make it easier to
transition towards a plant-based diet or a
vegan lifestyle. We have a few things for
you to try today." Of course the
transition is easier if the food is
tasty. "So this is the cultured nut." "This is
their smoky gouda, a local
product made in Victoria.
That's delicious." "It's exciting. We were
selling cheeses from California and all
these places when we first started and
now most of our cheeses are from Canada...
Vancouver, Penticton, Victoria. Actually
there's a number of Vancouver
cheeses. We also have cheeses from
Kelowna. There's cheese makers
popping up all the time." B.C. vegan
businesses are proving to be
international hot commodities. Vega,
a Burnaby-based start-up, sold to an
American company in 2015 for $0.5 billion
USD. Vegan yogurt and
cheese maker Daiya caught the interest of
a Japanese firm, which paid $300 million
to take over the company. "I would assume
that if things continue on their path
with a number of companies innovating,
creating new products, we're going to be at
a much different space even two years
from now."
[Music]
You can't get a much different space
than B.C.'s Nicola Valley. This is cattle
country where menus remain much more
traditional. Breakfast today?
"Breakfast today was steak and eggs."
John Kuiper's family has owned this
cattle ranch and butcher shop for nearly
30 years. They're famous for their custom
cuts. "We have a very loyal client base,
customer base.
We're very dedicated to putting out a
quality product." Kuiper says so far
veganism hasn't affected his business.
"Are you concerned at all about a dip in
in customers in the future?" "We don't see
veganism as any kind of threat. We've got
so much that we can draw from in this
country, so many different kinds of foods,
and we would never tell anybody don't be
a vegan. That's just not something we
would ever do." Still according to
Charlebois, vegans are doing a better job
at getting their message out. "Vegans are
are controlling the narrative more so
than farmers, at least on social
media. To me it's pretty clear. There are
460,000 vegans in Canada, but when you go
on Twitter for example, you just feel
that there are 6 million of them."
Back in his kitchen in East Vancouver,
David Isbister says that influence
drives demand for his products. "There's
lots of great companies out there and I
think with the huge explosion in
veganism generally, there's room for all
of us." Room for more innovation and more
growth in an industry already on the
rise.
Anita Bathe, CBC News, Vancouver.