Americans Projected to Eat 160 Million Vegan Chicken Wings on Super Bowl Sunday
With the Super Bowl just days away, new data reveals that more than ten million Americans are expected to ditch animal-based chicken wings in favor of plant-based alternatives.
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Chicken wings are usually a firm favorite for crowds watching the Super Bowl LVI, but as the appetite for all things plant-based grows, consumers are switching up their traditional animal meat wings for vegan alternatives.
A staggering 160 million plant-based chicken wings are predicted to be consumed during this year’s NFL championship game, according to the campaign group, Compassion in World Farming, (CIWF) with more than ten million Americans expected to pass on the animal-based version.
“Every year we’re told how many animal-based chicken wings will be eaten during the Superbowl,” said Ben Williamson, U.S. Executive Director of CIWF. “But one of the fastest-growing food trends is the increasing popularity of healthy and humane plant-based versions of classic American foods, which taste identical to the animal variety. So, we decided to estimate how many football fans will be eating compassionately next Sunday.”
The findings are based on a survey that found roughly 6 percent of the U.S. population count themselves as vegan or vegetarian, while 33 percent consider themselves flexitarians or meat reducetarians, according to CIFW.
Data suggest that 1.42 billion animal-based chicken wings are expected to be eaten this year. This means that more than 700 million chickens will be slaughtered for the game alone.
But CIWF’s estimates show that change is happening; of the billion-plus chicken wings consumed next Sunday, 10 percent will be vegan.
“Plant-based meat products are now more widely available than ever before, online and in your local supermarket,” continues Williamson. “There’s never been a better time to replace your meat made from animals, with meat made from plants—for your health and for the sake of the planet.”
Vegan Chicken is the Future of Food
With more than 66 billion slaughtered for consumption globally each year, chickens are considered the most abused land animal on the planet. For the majority, their short lives are spent on cramped and filthy factory farms. They’re bred to grow as big as possible in the shortest amount of time, which means they often suffer from chronic pain or struggle to move due to their own weight. Some die of organ failure before they even reach the slaughterhouse doors. At six weeks old, when they've reached “slaughter-weight”, they packed into lorries and sent to be ‘processed, where their throats are slit and they’re dumped in scalding water.
When it comes to the environment, animal agriculture is also wreaking havoc on the planet. Much of the soy and corn grown today—and the land, water, fossil fuels, and pesticides used to produce it—is used for livestock feed. A global shift towards a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change, according to the United Nations, and research from the University of Oxford shows that going vegan is the “single biggest way” to reduce your impact on the planet.
Vegan options, such as plant-based chicken wings, are helping consumers to make the switch to more ethical and eco-conscious alternatives. There are now countless tasty vegan chicken options on the market, from KFC’s new Beyond Fried Chicken to Walmart’s new buffalo vegan chicken wings that have launched especially for the Superbowl.
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