Meatless in Michigan: Plant-Based Eaters Speak Up

More restaurants, markets, and organizations are supporting vegetarian and vegan dining

By Ellen Miller | Nov. 9, 2024

Options for vegetarian and vegan dining have exploded in the last decade, including here in northern Michigan.

Long gone are the days where plant-based eaters were relegated to only a salad when dining out. Vegan, vegetarian, or Mediterranean diets (the latter includes some meat and animal products) have been associated with plenty of health benefits, including “lower risk of developing coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and increased longevity,” according to Harvard Medical. Plus, eating less meat is linked with a lower carbon footprint and a reduction in animal agriculture.

But are more people going meatless? According to a 2023 Gallup poll, roughly 4 percent of the U.S. population identifies as vegetarian and only 1 percent identifies as vegan. Though one in four respondents to a 2020 Gallup poll indicated they were eating less meat, the USDA reported that 2021 was a record high for meat consumption, and 2022 came in second place. Our country is still the biggest consumer of beef in the world, and poultry is the most-consumed meat.

For those committed to eating fewer animal products (or none at all), navigating a meat-first world can still be challenging. If you want to start making diet changes, where do you begin?

A Pathway to More Plant-Based Eating

While many vegans and vegetarians stick to a set list of things they don’t eat, the world of plant-based eating is welcome to all.

“We really have to have a welcoming, inclusive approach. Eating is very personal; it’s based on habits and cultural and family traditions. It’s not all or nothing,” says Kim Korona, a program manager with VegMichigan.

VegMichigan works to promote the health, ethical, and sustainable benefits of eating more plants. The organization’s Spring VegFest typically occurs on the first Sunday in June. In their early days 25 years ago, about 300 people attended the event. In 2024, VegMichigan welcomed over 8,000 people to Eastern Market in Detroit.

“Both spring and fall VegFest are free so they are accessible and people can come try different things that might be meaningful to them,” says Korona.

In addition to these events, VegMichigan hosts over 100 events per year at locations across the state, including in Traverse City (Korona is quick to give a shout out to the Traverse City team, who are all volunteers). In-person education programs focus on sustainability, health, our relationship to animals, or an overview of the benefits of a more plant-based diet.

These events are often paired with food tastings, giving people the opportunity to see what vegetarian eating looks like and demystify the sector. “You’ve eaten plant-based before, even if you didn’t know it,” Korona explains.

People can also sign up for VegMichigan’s 30-Day Pledge to eat more plant-based meals in a way that is meaningful to them. For people who sign the pledge, VegMichigan provides samples of plant-based products so they can see what they like.

“For me, I was concerned for my own choices when I was eating fully plant-based,” reflects Korona. “I took some cultural traditions and plant-ified them and shared them with my family.” She says her family now regularly requests those dishes.

“This is a serious topic, but we can make food and eating choices joyful as well,” she adds.

Local Veggie Eating

When Val Schey moved to Traverse City, she was looking for ways to get involved in the community. After joining a Facebook group for vegans and vegetarians locally, she quickly became friends with a woman who lived close to her.

“We were talking about how the area needed something like a meetup group, where people could get together to share recipes and ideas,” says Schey. They found VegMichigan, which provided resources to open a local chapter.

The group met for the first time in January 2023 at Edson Farms Natural Foods, a TC market which offers a range of vegan and vegetarian options. Since then, the group has continued meeting at vegan-friendly spots across the area. They regularly have 20-25 people attend their meetups, where they catch up and share ideas and recipes with one another.

Last year, they hosted a holiday-themed cooking series at Oryana’s community kitchen that was, in Schey’s words, “a big hit.” This year they are bringing back the popular holiday side dishes class on Nov. 12. Registration is available now through Oryana’s website, and the recipes include Roasted Tahini Brussel Sprouts, Roasted Squash, Pecan & Pomegranate Salad, Vegan Buttermilk Biscuits, and “Cheesy” Vegan Cauliflower Casserole.

“Locally we’re just trying to plan fun get-togethers centered around food,” says Schey. “Of course, everyone is welcome—not just vegans and vegetarians!”

Making a Menu That Works

Cooking for yourself is one thing, but what about eating out?

“It used to be that you could only get a salad,” says Schey. “I’m happy to say that most places have a good vegan or vegetarian option these days.”

In addition to Stone Hound Brewing (more below!) and Edson Farms, Schey recommends checking out Barrio (“nice selection, like a tofu taco and a portobello mushroom taco”), Spanglish (“good vegan options”), Milk & Honey (vegan ice cream), Poppycock’s, and Taproot Cider House, which offered a vegan prix-fixe menu during this year’s Restaurant Week.

Speaking of vegan, Stone Hound Brewing opened in 2021 with an entirely vegan menu, first with local outpost Rad.ish as a pop-up and then run in-house.

“We basically got to the point where I knew with an exclusively plant-based menu we were losing out on some business, but I didn’t realize how much,” says owner Brent Faber. “We were trying everything else; we have excellent beer, a solid member group, a good location.” Faber talked to some friends in the industry and realized that food sales were lagging behind where they should be.

Faber, who has been vegetarian for the past 14 years and “mostly vegan” for the last four or five, was faced with a tough business call.

“It was a tough decision for me given my personal choices, but I really felt good that I’d given it a fair shot to try to have something that was exclusively plant-based,” Faber reflects. He called his friend Sean Tower to join the Stone Hound Brewing team as chef and revamp the menu, including adding meat.

“Overnight, like flipping a light switch, all of a sudden we were selling a lot more food,” says Faber. Some regulars who started dining in even told Faber they used to come in for beer but go elsewhere to have food, something they hadn’t shared before because they were trying to be supportive of his vision.

While the menu now includes meat, Faber is quick to reassure long-time fans and new customers that a full vegan menu is still available and that the kitchen is committed to avoiding cross-contamination. Vegan food items also don’t have an upcharge, like they do at many restaurants; Faber is able to subsidize costs with the meat-based menu, so it isn’t any more expensive to eat plant-based.

The Future of Plant-Based

Whether you’re veggie-curious or want to cut meat out of your diet entirely, VegMichigan is committed to supporting more people in pursuing a plant-based diet, both large-scale (they have a partnership with the city of Ann Arbor as part of the city’s effort to be carbon neutral by 2030) and individually.

For people who are looking to explore plant-based eating, Korona encourages them to think about how to “plant-ify” one of their favorite meals. For example, if you’re a fan of chili, think about swapping the meat for either a plant-based meat substitute or extra beans and mushrooms.

“Commit to something that feels reasonable to you,” says Korona, who points to Meatless Mondays as a trend that encourages people to eat meat-free just one day a week. “Even one meal a week—see how it feels, and if it feels good you can always try to add more plant-based meals.”

No matter how you go about adding more plants to your cooking routine, Korona says it’s important to bring your community along for the ride. “Eating is communal,” she says. “You can try recipes together, taste test … you can make it fun.”

To learn more about VegMichigan’s education and community-building, visit vegmichigan.org. If you’d like to join the Oryana vegan cooking class this month, sign up ($40) at oryana.coop.