Yoga Teachers’ Views About Farmed Animals And Plant-Based Diets
In light of the spiritual-, ethical-, historical-, and health-related links between yoga and plant-based diets, this study set out to explore whether these connections are alive and well in the dietary practices and attitudes of modern yoga teachers. The aim was to gain an understanding of yoga teachers’ beliefs about farmed animals and attitudes toward plant-based diets. Animal advocates could then use this information to tailor their message when promoting plant-based diets to this group.
The lead researcher chose yoga teachers as the target group for the following reasons: 1) The U.N. estimates that two billion people practice yoga globally, so yoga teachers could have an influence on a large number of people’s dietary views (i.e., their students); 2) It can be useful to focus on groups of people who may be most receptive to a pro plant-based message to help the movement to grow; 3) No research currently exists concerning the views of yoga teachers on farmed animals and plant-based diets.
Due to the complexity of human-animal relations, the personal nature of dietary choices, and the fact that the results of some past studies have contradicted each other, the lead researcher chose a mixed-methods design for this study. This involved quantitative questionnaires and qualitative telephone interviews allowing the researcher to both test for statistical significance in the quantitative data and collect in-depth information through the qualitative data. This paper reports just the first quantitative phase of the study; publication of the second phase is expected later in 2020.
From 446 questionnaire respondents, the key results were as follows:
- U.K. yoga teachers have very progressive beliefs about farmed animals.
- Around 30% of U.K. yoga teachers follow a plant-based diet, which is 25 times the proportion in the general U.K. population.
- Nearly 75% desire to follow a plant-based diet.
- Over two thirds regard plant-based diets as best aligned to their yogic practice.
- U.K. yoga teachers with more progressive beliefs about farmed animals and greater knowledge of agriculture abstain from consuming animal products to a greater extent.
The six most commonly cited factors that respondents thought could help them to either maintain or transition to a plant-based diet were as follows:
- Improved access to plant-based foods
- Improved choice of plant-based foods
- More support and understanding from others
- More knowledge regarding health and cooking
- Fewer health concerns
- Less perceived conflict with environmentalism.
Arguably, the most important result from this study was that nearly 75% of U.K. yoga teachers desire to follow a 100% plant-based diet. This is a massively positive result. It suggests there is a ton of support for veganism amongst U.K. yoga teachers while also underscoring how becoming vegan is not immediately accessible for everyone to the same degree due to a whole host of factors. This is an important message for animal advocates to listen to carefully and compassionately and to understand fully. It suggests a vast majority of yoga teachers would like to follow a plant-based diet but that they experience challenges that prevent them from doing so. This also supports past research that speaks of so-called ‘cognitive’ vegans—people who support plant-based diets in theory but find implementing such diets much more difficult.
This is the first research into yoga teachers’ attitudes toward veg*ism and it can hopefully help, inform, and inspire animal advocates when liaising with this group, especially any animal advocates within the yoga community. Compared to the general population, this study confirms that there is a higher prevalence of people following a plant-based diet and more support for plant-based diets within the U.K. yoga teaching community. Nevertheless, less than a third of U.K. yoga teachers currently follow a plant-based diet with over 60% still consuming animal flesh or other animal products. The upcoming publication of the qualitative phase of this study will further help to explain some of the key results.
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/10/3/480