Has the vegan movement been effective?

Hey HN,

not directly a tech topic, but maybe one that could be interesting to the crowd here.

People have different reasons to go vegan, but my understanding was always that one of the most prominent reasons would be the idea to reduce animal suffering in the long term. Basically, if enough people become vegan, the demand for meat and other animal products would be reduced so much that it would be uneconomical for ranchers to keep lifestock for slaughter - or at least reduce the number of lifestock kept.

I think this is interesting, because this would make veganism I believe the largest consumer boycott movement in history and also the largest case study if "voting with your wallet" can actually work.

So by now the movement has been around long enough and has entered large part of the mainstream in many countries that it could have an effect.

So my question would be, are there any studies or other information if it had actually caused a drop in demand for animal products or reduced the number of lifestock?