A TASTE FOR CHANGE

By Greater Good Magazine

Louisa Nicholson, Founder of Every Vegan Recipe, is determined to build the (soon-to-be) world’s largest vegan recipe community and we are behind her one hundred percent! When you submit a recipe, it is categorized, nutritional information is added and is made available in various languages. Every Vegan Recipe promotes your recipe, profile and makes it easier to find plant-based ideas. GG Magazine was lucky to chat with Louisa and inquire.

www.EveryVeganRecipe.com

When and what factors made you decide to go with a vegan lifestyle?

Approximately six years ago, my health started to decline, and I decided to spend my leisure time studying human health in multiple aspects. It was around this time, I chose to go fully vegan in my diet, lifestyle, and spiritually, aligning my values to my diet. I went vegan overnight and never looked back since.

Tell us a bit about Every Vegan Recipe.

Every Vegan Recipe is a platform to allow publishing and sharing of vegan, all plant-based, recipes. Every recipe shared or published will be categorized in nearly 100 ways, have extensive nutritional information displayed, and allow users to share, rate and ask questions. Our audience is anyone who wants a recipe to cook with that includes only plant foods such as fruits, grains, vegetables, herbs, and tubers, whether you are a vegan, need a nice side dish, or a Meatless Monday recipe.

The aim is to make finding vegan recipes much easier. Vegan recipes were never represented well in publishing companies or recipe websites, usually only displaying salads. The truth is that plant-based food has been eaten by all cultures globally for thousands of years – the diversity in cuisine is extraordinary! People are very hungry (pun-intended) to find recipes from creators that fit their lifestyle and taste-profile. On the platform, you can find recipes much easier using categories, search terms, or relevant results versus having to network online, discuss in forums, etc. We want to support the community better as well, allowing these recipe creators to sell their cookbooks, courses and more! We want to help people connect through food.

I also believe in creating a technology company that works to help solve problems. Not only is free access to information is a huge driver of this company, but so is the company model itself as the platform does not rely on a traditional advertising model by selling user’s private information or pushing the user to interact with other websites that do so. The company is supported through users using the platform if they find value in it. This also means that the platform is advertising and malware free.

Another set of problems I think the platform helps include are sustainability, educational reach, culture diversity and nutrition. I could speak at length on any one of these topics, but I would also like to mention how information today is promoted primarily through monetary means. Whereas, on the platform, you can access recipes from people who cannot afford to promote their creations to compete against these traditional publishers.

What inspires you to keep motivated?

This is a great question that comes up a lot mentally for me, actually, at least once a week. The life of a solo entrepreneur is very unfulfilling until the company is successful and can be extra challenging while there are many months of work ahead before a launch is due to happen. There have been a lot of challenges over the past couple of years for any business, and I think a common thread right now is exactly this - motivation.

For me, I find motivation is our social media followers who are thankful and understand the mission of the platform. The platform itself will disrupt a traditional industry model, both for recipe publishers in general and for the vegan community. Because of this, there are hurdles I have to go through. At the end of the day, the normie vegan who just wants to know what they will eat for dinner is extremely thankful to know they will have a go-to resource. Also, I am finding it much easier to share plantbased recipes with people who are not vegan and making the conversation about veganism much easier with those users. I can see changes happening and the thankfulness of the community we are building is truly what motivates me.

Where do you see the plant-based industry going in 2022?

The past few years has shown that billions in investment have gone into creating lab-grown animal meats, processed foods, and synthetic vegan foods. Due to natural products being overly regulated lately, increasing food famine due to land regulation, and commodity prices increasing, I think we should expect to see more issues in the food supply globally escalate in 2022 from where they currently are now. Considering these two factors, I think we will continue to see media focus on the new food products and will continue to not report on the issues about access to food due to regulation, commodity control, seizure, or conflicts. Hopefully, I am wrong and instead we will see a boom in the increase in farming and supply of food and, in turn, we will see a new reinvigorated interest in cooking. That is what I always hope for anyway!

What advice would you give someone thinking of switching to a plant-based lifestyle?

Keep it simple and don’t stress about everything. Take it one day at a time. Find a friend with whom you can share ideas It’ll help both of you find new things to eat and keep your diet more exciting. For health, try to keep your diet as diverse as you can. Buy from your local farmer, eat plenty of greens, and try new ingredients all the time. Right now, you can search for recipes and always find how to prepare something, but I hope to see you on everyveganrecipe.com in the future to find new foods, share your creations, and create your own library of recipes!

By Greater