Vegitarian Pest

POLITICAL FACTORS

The Government is increasingly encouraging the population to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables Ð'-- preferably five portions a day Ð'-- in an attempt to combat the rising number of overweight people and levels of obesity. This should be beneficial to the vegetarian foods market, with such foods claimed to be healthier, owing to their low fat content, and high levels of dietary fibre, minerals and vitamins.

In addition, the outbreaks of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), and then foot-and-mouth disease, among cattle, pigs and sheep resulted in the fall of red-meat consumption. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's (MAFF's), and then the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' (Defra's), actions to limit the effects have met with considerable criticism. The announcement of the confirmed arrival of avian flu in Scotland in April 2006 may have a deleterious effect on chicken sales, which have been the beneficiary of falling sales of beef in the past.

ECONOMIC FACTORS

The existence, promotion and previous strong growth in vegetarian foods has been of benefit to food manufacturers and retailers, in giving them a broad extra market in which to sell products. However, the vegetarian ethos has been somewhat superseded in the past few years by, first, the organic movement and, second, by the rise in interest in `functional' foods. These claim to give certain health benefits, and are characterised principally by cholesterol-lowering margarines and probiotic yogurt drinks.

The vegetarian movement claims economic benefits for vegetable growing, on the grounds that this involves substantially less land than is needed for animal grazing. In addition, widespread animal grazing has resulted in the pollution of land, rivers and drinking water supplies.

Added impetus is likely to be given to the vegetarian foods market by the recent acquisitions of