The Veganuary was a success.
Linguistically, the term is a monster.
What is advertised with it has nevertheless arrived: At the start of the new year, canteens, restaurants and supermarkets all over the country have encouraged people to do without food of animal origin;
in many places, oat milk and tofu, egg substitutes and plant-based meatballs have made their way onto the menu.
Sebastian Balzter
Editor in the economy of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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Bettina Weiguny
Freelance author in the business section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
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The initiators assure us that more people took part this year than ever before.
Deutsche Bahn was there, as was the delivery service Hello Fresh and the furniture chain IKEA.
The vegan currywurst was a hit in the on-board bistro, Deutsche Bahn reports.
Because everyone wanted to be vegan or at least vegetarian this month - and thus like to present themselves as modern and trendy.
Schnitzel and bratwurst, whole milk and parmesan?
No thank you.
A few more days and January will be over.
It's high time to say goodbye to the veggie enthusiasm of the past few years.
It is good for one's own health, the welfare of animals and the climate to consume more plant-based foods than has become common in industrialized countries.
It stays that way.
But the abolition of livestock and the food industry revolution on which investors have flocked have been called off.
Bill Gates has left Beyond Meat
This becomes ruthlessly clear on the stock exchange, where, as is well known, the future is always traded.
Two companies caused a sensation there, with their products challenging cattle farmers and dairy farmers as well as dairy and meat companies.
Oatly is the name of a company founded in Sweden, the largest producer of oat milk in the world.
Beyond Meat is the name of the other, based in California, by far the best-known producer of meatless hamburger patties.
Beyond Meat was worth $14 billion in the stock market as of the summer of 2019.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates invested, as did actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Restaurants and supermarkets couldn't get the vegan meatballs onto their shelves fast enough.
In Germany, the otherwise rather reserved poultry meat group PHW from Lower Saxony, to which the Wiesenhof brand belongs, got involved as a sales partner with the Californians, whose frontman Ethan Brown preached the demise of the meat industry and the triumph of substitute products like a messiah.
Two years later, the unlikely couple was divorced again.
Publicly, PHW boss Peter Wesjohann wishes the former partners all the best on their further path to happiness.
The industry goesssip about how unreliable the Americans were when it came to delivery quantities and deadlines.
Oatly stock market value fell sharply
The shine has not only faded in Germany.
Most recently, Beyond Meat reported millions in losses, every fifth employee was laid off.
The company is only worth around one billion dollars on the stock exchange.
Bill Gates has quit.