In 2016, Gavin Fernback went vegan. Like many people making the switch to a plant-based diet, the decision yielded profound resultsnot just for his health, but his worldview, too. Gavins decision, though, didnt just impact his own life. Hes the owner of The Fields Beneath, a coffee shop located in a residential neighborhood in London, serving 200-300 people every day.

The Fields Beneath had been open for nearly four years when Gavin stopped eating animals; it had a following and a mostly non-vegan menu.

[I]t was only a matter of time before I could no longer slap slices of ham and cheese down on slices of bread, he says. So, in October that year I committed myself to making the cafe vegan. If it didnt work, Id sell up/close down and find something else.

But it worked.

The caf began to serve vegan croissants, breakfast pots (porridge, granola, muesli, chia seeds etc), we make amazing hot dishes, Gavin says of the tagines, curries, even burgers. After several years, theonly thing not vegan on the menu was milka staple for many coffee drinkers. Thats all changing in a few days, when the caf will officially replace all cows milk with plant-based milks like oat, almond, and soy.

[Half of] our sales are from coffee, Gavin says, so the milk thing was always going to be the last to go for us, and the one that brought a little concern. But with signage that went viral on Instagram and earnest conversations with his customers, Gavin thinks the transition will be smooth even for his non-vegan customers.

Were talking to them as much as possible, Gavin says. Very few have challenged it, although one has gone as far as to buy his own espresso machine so he can make milky coffees himself from Sunday.

As sales of plant-based foods continue to rise and dairy and beef sales continue on a steep decline, the industry is rapidly changing. Restaurants are offering more plant-based options than ever before; Starbucks also just announced the addition ofvegan items to its menu. Supermarkets are no longer segregating out plant-based food, but finding homes for them next to meat and dairy products.

Last year, El Segundo, Calif. based Beyond Meat gave Whole Foods Market a deal it couldnt pass up: an exclusive launch on Beyond Meats pea-protein-based Beyond Burger, but only if it would merchandise it next to the meat counter. The nearly indistinguishable from beef product was a huge hit with vegans and omnivores alike. The brand got the attention of Tyson Foods, the largest producer of beef, chicken, and pork products in the world, which invested into Beyond Meat for a five percent stake in the business.

Plant-based proteins are definitely a critical part of the food system moving forward, Beyond Meat founder Ethan Brown told Organic Authority in a recent interview. We think theyre the future of protein.

Elmhurst Dairy, a 90-year-old dairy producer out of Queens, New York, has reinvented itselfnot necessarily out of a vegan ethos, but out of sheer necessity. The brand, now going by simply Elmhurst, debuted a line of vegan nut milks earlier this month at the Natural Products Expo in Anaheim, Calif. It stopped producing dairy milk last year.

In the 1980s, Elmhurst, like other dairy producers in New York, took a hit after a federal court deregulated milk sales, which led to price wars throughout the region.

That was the beginning of the end, CEO Henry Schwartz, who ran the family dairy business, told the New York Times last August. Elmhurst Dairy scored a deal with Starbucks in 2003, but that ended in 2011, and from there it seemed its days were numbered as the company kept taking losses from rising production costs and declining dairy salesbut as the last dairy in New York City, it held on as long as it could. Last October, Elmhurst Dairy found new homes for its cows and prepared to shut its doors for good.

And then, a revelation. If you cant beat em, then Elmhurst was ready and raring to join emstepping into the $1.4 billion plant-based milk industry with four delicious varieties: almond, cashew, hazelnut, and the surprisingly outstanding walnut milk.

The brands sleek cartons bear its historysimple cursive lettering hardly seen on todays sans-serif-obsessed styling, and a stamp that reads Est. 1925, which is when it began selling cows milk throughout the city.

With the help of award-winning culinary innovator Cheryl Mitchell, Ph.D., Schwartz now applies his knowledge about the process of dairy-making to create creamy plant-based milks that use four times more nuts per serving in their formulation than competing brands, reports VegNews.

While the shift from cow to walnut is certainly significant from a production standpoint, the rest is second naturefor Elmhurst. Milk is milk, after all, even if the dairy industry is contesting that issue;and today many customers love to experiment with different milkseven enjoying regularly switching between cow and nondairy milks.

Theres no telling what the future holds for Elmhurt 2.0, but the brand is off to a strong start with placement in more than 1,100 Publix supermarkets across the Southeast next month, and a warm reception at the Natural Products Expo where the nondairy milk category was among the shows top trends.

For The Fields Beneath, the caf has become more than just a coffee shopits taking the opportunity to embrace veganism and talk about the state of our food industry, our health, the planet, and the plight of factory farmed animals.

I think you cant deny the logic of veganism, Gavin says, but theres a lot in between that logic and any of us making the choice to become vegan. And for the sake of a glass of milk ora steak, he says, we dont need to kill cows.

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Jill Ettinger is a Los Angeles-based journalist and editor focused on the global food system and how it intersects with our cultural traditions, diet preferences, health, and politics. She is the senior editor for sister websites OrganicAuthority.com and EcoSalon.com, and works as a research associate and editor with the Cornucopia Institute, the organic industry watchdog group. Jill has been featured in The Huffington Post, MTV, Reality Sandwich, and Eat Drink Better. http://www.jillettinger.com.

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