Meat-Free Celebration During Thanksgiving, Is It Possible?

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Thanksgiving is one of the most anticipated American holidays of the year. As Americans, we celebrate the blessings that we have received in the preceding year. However, this day also entails preparing the best food during the family gathering. But, would it be possible for American families to celebrate Thanksgiving without eating meat? 

According to an article published in the World Resources Institute, 2017 was dubbed as a plant-based foods eating year for Americans, while 2018 was proclaimed as the year filled with meat. The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicted that Americans will continue to eat more meat, like pork, beef, and poultry in 2018, and the coming years. 

In an article published in TIME, eating less meat can have a positive effect on the environment. Some evidence shows that it reduces climate change because animals help to balance the spectrum of the environment. In 2018, the Nielsen Poll revealed in their report that about 61 percent of the Americans are willing to reduce the consumption of meat to help the environment. And in the same year, the data technology company Spins reported that around31 percent has grown in the plant-based sales over the past two years. 

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Meanwhile, the CEO of Tofurky, an alternative-meat replacement, Jaime Athos said: "We were not ready for what seems to have been the tipping point being met and Honestly, we didn't expect it to happen so fast." Also, the private company will be investing more than $7 million to meet the unexpected demands of the Americans this year .

The author of The Vegetarian Crusade and an assistant professor of history at Marywood University in Scranton Adam Shprintzen said that the growing demand for vegetable products in the U.S. have significantly contributed to the plant-based industry in the country. The practice of vegetarianism can be traced back to the 19th century when meat was so expensive. It was also the time where the practice of eating vegetables was associated with women's rights, abolitionism, and casting to avoid the use of meat as a statement.

Shprintzen said that "before 1900, generally speaking, vegetarianism is seen as a kind of a radical social-reform movement tied to any number of social-reform movements in the U.S., and vegetarianism as a movement undergoes a pretty significant transformation in the U.S. kind of neatly at the turn of the 20th century." This means that the practice of eating vegetables means gaining a healthier body and mind and it does not necessarily mean that being vegetarian means being stuck in vegetables and rice.

The practice of vegetarianism is common already nowadays. The Democratic Presidential candidate, Senator Cory Booker, once said in his interviews that he is a proud vegan. There are also food companies that feature vegetable products such as Burger King's Impossible Whopper. 

However, behind the common practice of vegetarianism, Alexander Hamilton argued that Americans may not yet be ready to skip turkey during the Thanksgiving celebration. He said that the U.S president marks the tradition by offering turkey meat at the White House Lawn. Shprintzen also added that "It's part of us, it's part of our culture, it's imbedded within who we are as Americans." 

According to the Gallup Polling data, only five percent of Americans are full vegetarian, but an analyst from the market research firm NPD, Darren Seifer, said that there will be more vegetarian options in this year's Thanksgiving celebration. And for Dutton, who is known as a vegetarian chef, said that it is just a matter of stuffing regardless if what you prepare is meat or plant-based.