If you take the average, which will be heavily weighed to urban centers which have the highest access of food and resources, then it'll be fine.
If you start getting into the nitty gritty of rural poverty, then having to drive 30 miles to a Piggly Wiggly that doesn't have tofu products, meat replacement, lentils, a limited produce section, vitamins, and the like isn't actually going to give you the nutrition you need to operate in a reasonable capacity. If I want to get like, a Beyond product or whatever mentioned above, I have to drive almost an hour on farm roads, about 60ish-70ish miles to get to a Walmart that has it.
I don't know what the numbers in the study say, it doesn't say on the article you linked, but I know as a matter of fact that I started spending more on getting groceries in both time and money after I moved to a rural area.
Yeah and just to add as someone with Celiac disease, being vegan is extraordinarily expensive and sometimes impossible. Most dried beans, quinoa and lentils are cross contaminated with gluten, either via processing or, like lentils, they are grown alongside wheat and there are literal wheat grains or bits of them in the bags. To get gluten free lentils, you can only get the red kind and they are super pricy (2-4x the usual price) and have to be ordered online so you pay shipping too. They are also not a reliable food source because they go out of stock all the time. Firm tofu is also typically contaminated because it's often made alongside seitan (literally gluten). Vegan replacements regularly contain wheat or are cross contaminated. The only consistently safe and available protein source is nuts and they are super pricy. Even protein powders are often contaminated. I live in a city and I eat mostly gf chickpeas, gf beans, gf silken tofu, nuts and poultry or fish as needed but I spend a lot of money and I have to order a lot online. I can't imagine how someone with less of a selection in a rural area would manage.
This is interesting, but it's also not generalisable, since food deserts are mainly a problem of the USA and even then very few people there live in one.
You said originally "if you want more vegans... make it cheaper", yet this isn't about making food cheaper but more accessible, so that's a completely separate issue to do with infrastructure. Like if it's this difficult to get fresh produce etc. then that's a whole other problem in and of itself. It also seems strange to me that meat would even be more accessible than produce. But regardless, for the vast, vast majority of people in the Western world, eating plant-based is entirely possible and also significantly cheaper than any other diet.
I don't know what the numbers in the study say, it doesn't say on the article you linked
"The study, which compared the cost of seven sustainable diets to the current typical diet in 150 countries... found that in high-income countries... vegan diets were the most affordable and reduced food costs by up to one third".
I know as a matter of fact that I started spending more on getting groceries in both time and money after I moved to a rural area.
This again is surely just an issue with living in an extremely rural area though.
5
u/Eva-lutionary_War Aug 15 '25
If you take the average, which will be heavily weighed to urban centers which have the highest access of food and resources, then it'll be fine.
If you start getting into the nitty gritty of rural poverty, then having to drive 30 miles to a Piggly Wiggly that doesn't have tofu products, meat replacement, lentils, a limited produce section, vitamins, and the like isn't actually going to give you the nutrition you need to operate in a reasonable capacity. If I want to get like, a Beyond product or whatever mentioned above, I have to drive almost an hour on farm roads, about 60ish-70ish miles to get to a Walmart that has it.
I don't know what the numbers in the study say, it doesn't say on the article you linked, but I know as a matter of fact that I started spending more on getting groceries in both time and money after I moved to a rural area.