Plant-Based in the News

• VegNews has announced the winners of the 2020 Veggie Awards, awarded annually to the very best of vegan products, people and places worldwide.
  
• A new study has found that the number of American who identifies as “vegan” has increased by more than 3,000% over the past 15 years, from about 290,000 in 2004 to 9,700,000 in 2019.
  
• Veggly, a dating app for vegans and vegetarians, has hit a milestone: 100,000 users. The app launched in 2018, and is available in English, Danish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, with Polish scheduled to be available later in 2020.
  
• Barbara Ruetting, a German actress, writer, and activist, who is considered a pioneer of vegetarianism in her home county, has passed away at the age of 92. She starred in over 40 films during her acting career, while later in life she turned her action to politics and writing, specifically on animal and environmental protection.
  
• Cardi B has donated 20,000 bottles of OWYN, a plant-based vegan meal supplement, to New York city-area hospitals to support medical staff and ambulance crews during the coronavirus pandemic. This is just one of the many plant-based efforts being made by other celebrities to help out during COVID-19, including those by Maggie May Baird, actress and mother of Billie Eilish, and plant-based tennis pro Novak Djokovic.
  
• Vegan brand JUST egg recently became the first vegan product to win the “Best New Frozen Product” award at the NEXTY Awards. The company won for its breakfast sandwich version of its mung bean-based JUST Egg, which is slated to hit stores later this month.
  
• Upon realizing that its liquid Spiked Ice Vodka freezer treats came in containers suitable for holding hand sanitizer, vegan company Drake’s Organic Spirits has converted a portion of its production process to make it. “This is the time to step up as businesses, as neighbors, and as citizens to fight COVID-19,” said founder Mark Anderson.
  
• Stuck inside and need something to binge? Journalist and vegan activist Jane Velez-Mitchell hosts a cooking show called “New Day New Chef.” The show is available on Amazon Prime, and grew out of Velez-Mitchell’s Facebook Live series #LunchBreakLIVE. Each episode features a different celebrity guest sharing how to make their favorite plant-based dish while also discussing their journey to a plant-based lifestyle.