She doesn’t eat meat. No dairy, either. Her meals are built entirely around plants. But when someone at a dinner party asks about her food, she doesn’t say she’s vegan.
She says she eats plant-based.
Same food. Different conversation.
From the outside, that might look like a small thing. But it says something bigger about how Americans think about food and identity. And it’s quietly helping plant-based eating spread in ways the vegan label alone never could.
What the numbers show
Only about 1 percent of Americans call themselves vegan, and Gallup polls show that number has barely moved in years. Meanwhile, the Plant Based Foods Association reports that about 6 in 10 U.S. households bought plant-based foods in 2025. People are taking up the food without taking on the label.
It’s not hard to see why. The word “vegan” carries a lot of weight. It can sound like an ideology, a commitment, a movement you’ve joined. Plenty of people admire that from a distance but feel shut out up close. It starts debates at the dinner table. It invites questions about whether you’re doing it “right.” And it sounds all-or-nothing, which doesn’t fit how most of us really decide what to eat: health, budget, convenience, culture, and family, all at once.
“Plant-based” doesn’t carry that weight. It sounds like a health choice, not a political one. It leaves room for in-between. It sounds personal, not like a moral stance. And best of all, you don’t have to defend anything except your own experience.
Change without a new identity
The Reducetarian Foundation, started by Brian Kateman, is built on a simple idea: you don’t have to give up meat completely for eating less of it to count. Most people don’t change because of an ideology. They change when they find something that fits their real life. “Plant-based” gives people that room. You can move toward something without having to announce you’ve arrived.
That matters, because the people who stick with plant-based eating for the long haul are rarely the ones who changed everything overnight. They’re the ones who tried something quietly, noticed how it felt, and kept going because it worked. Slow, low-pressure change that doesn’t ask you to become someone new tends to last longer than a dramatic conversion.
The food industry has noticed. Big plant-based brands talk more about health and taste than ethics. Grocery stores have “plant-based” sections, not “vegan” ones. Restaurant menus say “plant-based” too. Far more people want plant foods than want a vegan identity, and the language has changed to match.
What this means for faith communities
For people whose food choices are shaped by their faith, “plant-based” offers something the vegan label often doesn’t: a way in that doesn’t ask them to leave who they already are behind.
Talking about food in terms of stewardship, caring for the body as a temple, and living out compassion and responsibility speaks to people in a way strict veganism often doesn’t. The result is the same: more plants, less harm. But it comes through a door that’s already open, instead of one you can only walk through by taking on a whole new worldview.
Where Vegan People stands
Vegan People was built to hold this tension. The name is on purpose. So is the approach.
“We’re called Vegan People, but we’re not about the label,” says Kai Stansberry Fields, founder of Vegan People. “We’re about meeting people right where they are. If you’re plant-based curious, you’re welcome. If you eat plants twice a week, you’re welcome.”
That welcome isn’t a marketing line. It’s a conviction. Lasting change doesn’t start with a label. It starts with paying attention: one meal, a quiet decision to notice how food makes you feel, and the freedom to build from there without pressure or performance.
The change happening in how Americans eat is quiet, because it doesn’t announce itself. It happens in grocery carts, weeknight kitchens, and restaurant orders nobody has to explain. It happens when someone tries something, feels better, and keeps going.
That’s how real change works. And it doesn’t need a label to be real.
Sources: Gallup, “In U.S., Vegetarianism and Veganism Remain Rare,” 2023. Plant Based Foods Association, 2025 U.S. retail data. Reducetarian Foundation.
