The burger giant has just announced that it will launch a fully vegan meal in January, 2020 (Picture: McDonalds)

Veganism has gone mainstream, so its easy to forget what life used to be like for us plant-munchers.

In restaurants we had to endure awkward conversations with bewildered waiters, who would disappear to the kitchen and return saying they could do us the salad with the cheese picked out and the dressing left off. Wed go home hungry.

Now virtually all chain restaurants and cafes offer delicious vegan options and we can dine almost as happily as everyone else and McDonalds is about to join the party.

The fast food chain will be rolling out its first fully vegan meal on 2 January a year on from the much-hyped launch of Greggs vegan sausage roll and just in time for the annual Veganuary gimmick.

As the burger giant becomes the latest brand to try to seduce vegans into its restaurants with a carefully-targeted product, you might think it wouldnt have a hope in hell. Vegans in McDonalds? No chance!

But despite criticism of the chain over animal suffering,as outlined in a report by World Animal Protection, the seduction will succeed.

Why? Because a lot of vegans believe that spending money at chains like McDonalds will show a demand for plant-based products and bring an end to the slaughter and exploitation of animals.

On social media, vegans post photographs of overflowing supermarket baskets or restaurant tables groaning under the weight of vegan meals, proudly boasting that theyre showing the demand for these dishes, and changing the world.

And when the likes of KFC and Burger King launch plant-based products, they are, astonishingly, given uncritical publicity by vegan publications.

Once McDonalds launches its plant-based meal, lots of vegans will undoubtedly pour through the doors, believing that by handing money to cow slaughterers they will somehow help bring the slaughtering of cows to an end.

Likewise, when Burger King launched its plant-based Impossible Whopper, many vegans said that it would encourage meat-eaters to stop eating meat but thats not what happened.

As Jos Cil, CEO of Burger Kings parent company, Restaurant Brands International, said: We arent seeing guests swap the original Whopper for the Impossible Whopper its attracting new guests.

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In other words, meat-eaters continue to buy beef burgers and they still account for most of Burger Kings profits.The only difference is that vegans and vegetarians have started to come through the doors, too.

That sound you can hear is burger bosses laughing all the way to the bank.

It was the same story at Greggs. When the bakery giant launched its vegan sausage roll, it enjoyed a 58 per cent rise in profits and a surge in customer numbers, but if it had just been Greggs regulars who switched from meat to the plant-based sausage roll, profits would have stayed much the same.

Vegans arent changing the world by buying plant-based products from big chains, theyre just making animal slaughterers even richer.

And this successful seduction from big business has left many small, independent vegan businesses struggling to stay afloat.

They cant compete with the hype of Greggs or KFC, so they watch on broken-hearted as vegans stampede to bankroll animal slaughter.

As veganism becomes increasingly trendy, I suspect that a lot of vegans are secretly vegan for the trendiness or vegan for the consumerism

This all comes down to why you are vegan.

Some in the community say they are vegan for the animals, or vegan for the environment or vegan for health. If you fall into any of those camps, I cant see why youd eat in a McDonalds.

As veganism becomes increasingly trendy, I suspect that a lot of vegans are secretly vegan for the trendiness or vegan for the consumerism.

If you are either of those, then sure, go and eat a vegan meal in McDonalds if youd like to.

But if you are vegan because you want animal exploitation to actually end, and if you hope that a fairer society for animals could lead to a fairer society for people, then handing money to McDonalds, a company that exploits humans as well as animals, would be heretical.

Lots of vegans say they are activists, but their activism is just tapping credit cards against the contactless machines of big corporations.

That isnt activism, its capitalism and talk of ethical capitalism is as laughable as the meat industrys claims of humane slaughter.

Im not lovin it

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You can't be a vegan and still eat at Mcdonald's - Metro.co.uk