Name: Can I stay veggie in meat-loving Hong Kong? | CNBC Reports
Uploaded: 2020-12-15T21:10:23.000Z
Duration: 6 min 32 s
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I'm on a vegetarian diet for 21 days, which means that I'm forgoing

all my favorite meats and seafood for three weeks.

In part one, I visited a town in Bali, Indonesia, popular among surfers,

that's turning into a vegan paradise, rethinking what plant-based food can look like.

I met advocates and detractors of the vegan lifestyle

including, people who are disillusioned with the movement.

With an abundance of restaurants serving vegan and vegetarian food,

being a vegetarian in Bali is easy, I barely even had to think about it.

But now I've come to Hong Kong, a city with one of the highest meat consumption per capita

in the world, to see if I can continue my meatless trial.

Chicken, fish, chicken, chicken, chicken, chicken.

So they just said no and they kind of, almost laughed at me, too

This is rice rolls. It's the only thing on the menu that is vegetarian.

Of course, eating vegetarian or vegan is possible here, but it'll take a lot more planning and willpower.

Manav Gupta lives in Hong Kong and has been a vegetarian his whole life.

I meet him at a vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Hong Kong's central district.

Meat today, has been presented as a product that makes you feel more like a man, more like a human,

Whereas plant-based food is the food of the animals, it's the food that you should let the animals eat.

He thinks a lot of what we eat comes down to social acceptance.

If you go out to a restaurant, you're eating with your peers, they think that if

you're eating vegan or veg, it's almost emasculating in many ways.

So a lot of people choose to eat meat, or consume meat, even though they sometimes

would be open to consuming the plant-based alternate.

He's so passionate about the vegetarian lifestyle

that he's now investing in startups through a food accelerator.

He ultimately wants to remove animals entirely from the food system.

From startups to celebrities, vegetarian and vegan diets are being promoted in unprecedented ways.

Despite the popularity of the movement, though, the global average of meat consumption per capita

has increased by around 44 pounds since 1961, with developed countries accounting for the lion's share.

Rising incomes in countries like China and Brazil also means meat consumption has gone up dramatically,

with the exception of India due to its lacto-vegetarian diets.

And global meat production has gone up by over 400% overall in the past five decades to meet the demand.

It's going to be a tipping point in five to 10 years.

That's Pat Brown. He's the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods,

a startup offering plant-based alternatives that look and even taste just like meat.

Everybody's going to realize that the animals, the food technology,

is basically going to disappear very soon.

He wants to replace animals entirely from our food system by 2035,

which is ambitious and maybe even unrealistic,

as meat consumption rises globally, driven by a rising middle class.

In China, the average person went from consuming

just nine pounds of meat per year in 1961 to 137 pounds per year by 2013.

The trend of eating more animal- based protein is increasing.

Lily Ng is the CEO of Foodie, a food magazine and online platform based in Hong Kong.

As countries get wealthier, there's a tendency to eat more meat,

as a sign of wealth, as a sign of like, "I can afford it."

In Hong Kong, where meat is a staple in most dishes,

I'm having a hard time getting by on vegetarian-only options.

Out of all eight of them, none of them are vegetarian.

Today is day 19 and I definitely feel a lot different and not in a good way.

I feel like I'm a lot more hungry here, I feel like vegetarianism is more of an afterthought.

The only option available for me was that white rice mushroom and tofu option,

Yesterday my colleagues ordered from a chicken restaurant, I had to sit that one out.

It's a lot more challenging here, but having said that I'm still trying it.

I got a wrap with avocado, tomato and pine nuts.

Just in case I'm not full from that, I also got a carrot soup as well.

Yet, in just a few months, I've also noticed more meatless alternatives,

mainly the Impossible Burger, being marketed in more cafes and restaurants.

Then there's chefs like Tom Burney who's putting meatless substitutes side by side with actual meat.

Wow, it looks the same, looks very similar.

As we want to eat more vegetables, I think plant-based protein or plant-based meat

is a very good way of incorporating vegetables in our regular diet.

She thinks more chefs need to embrace meatless alternatives to be creative

and find food concepts that look and taste good.

My 21-day journey as a vegetarian is coming to an end.

While I definitely felt good most of the time, I had a huge craving for chicken.

I also noticed the importance of my environment.

But in Hong Kong, it was a pretty big challenge.

And while I didn't decide to make this a permanent lifestyle,

the experiment made me question how much meat I need to be consuming

and ultimately break the idea that most of my meals need to include meat.

There's even a label for my new found realization, called flexitarian.

It's someone who eats primarily plant-based but occasionally eats meat and dairy products, too.

Okay, you could argue that the term is less of a diet per se and more of a lifestyle.

But if choosing to consume less meat overall could have a positive impact on our planet,

and potentially, our physical health too, then maybe it's a label I can get on board with.

Check out part one here in case you missed it and let us know in the comments below,

do you think animals will eventually make their way out of our food system completely?