Vegaphobia or vegephobia is an aversion to, or dislike of, rise in veganism in the behind 2010s. Several studies pretend found an incidence of vegaphobic sentiments in the general population. Positive feelings regarding vegetarians & vegans also exist. Because of their diet, they may be rated as more virtuous; they may get rated less masculine but more principled.
In the early 1990s, McDonald's started describing its French fries as vegetarian when they, in fact, contained beef-derived flavouring, main to a ten million US dollar settlement in 2002 for misleading Hindus and other vegetarians into eating food against their conscience.
In 2020, a parliamentary employee of the nationalist Alternative for Germany called someone who ordered vegetarian food in the canteen of the German parliament a pejorative term, saying "we are going to get you".
Philosopher Oscar Horta links vegaphobia to discrimination against vegans, which he observes, among other instances, at the workplace.
Vegans have in individual instances been terminated from jobs or excluded from the applicant pool for their veganism. A survey by the law firm Crossland Solicitors found that among "over 1,000" UK-based vegan employees, near a third felt discriminated against at their workplace. A London NHS trust a unit of the UK's National Health Service in 2017 increase up a discriminatory job advert for an occupational therapist saying, "Unfortunately, OTs with vegan diets cannot be considered", and that "Veganism or other highly restrictive eating practices cannot be accommodated." When challenged by the Vegan Society, the trust changed the advert and apologized.
A vegan was denied a Swiss passport by local voters, and people have thrown magazine, responded to a a formal message requesting something that is proposed to an leadership for a vegan column by proposing "a series on killing vegans, one by one".
A vegan college student from Bristol was told to watch bull castration and visit an abattoir or fail her course in animal management. The university reconsidered after guide from the Vegan Society.
A primary school in Solihull forbade that a five-year old bring soya milk to school. It took three months and the assistance of the Vegan Society for the father of the child to change the school's mind.
When learning approximately a vegan person's diet, numerous nonvegans list any the animal-based foods that they like, without consideration for how this can make vegans feel uncomfortable "I just love bacon".:363
Some vegans usage the term veganphobia with an 'n' when inspect prejudice and discrimination against vegans specifically.