Where's the beef? most still ask; plant-based burgers turned out to be more trendy than upending; sales plummet

(Photo by Akiira, Bloomberg Businessweek)

With names like Beyond and Impossible, the makers of plant-based meat appealed to consumers' curiosity and desire for healthier diets. Ethan Brown, the founder of Beyond Meat, "said his goal was to replicate the 'blueprint of meat.' By the time he appeared at Builders & Innovators Summit 2019, he explained that his mission demanded the urgency and scale the U.S.  mustered for World War II," reports Deena Shanker of Bloomberg Businessweek. "And that his products would simultaneously help solve heart disease, diabetes, cancer, climate change, natural resource depletion and animal welfare. Just like technology had rendered the horse-drawn carriage obsolete. . . . so, too, would his system of breaking down plants transform the protein at the center of the plate."

After that intro, fame and fortune followed. Shanker writes: "Along with the venture capitalists came investors from every corner of culture—Leonardo DiCaprio, the Humane Society of the United States and former McDonald’s Corp. Chief Executive Officer Don Thompson. Even Tyson Foods Inc., the biggest maker of real meat in the US, invested and then invested again. . . . Bill Gates wanted in, too, backing not one but two companies with veggie burgers that “bleed” like real beef."

Pat Brown, who founded Impossible Foods, took his plant-based burger on the TEDMd circuit. Shanker writes,"while an assistant sizzled an Impossible Burger onstage beside him, Brown said, 'I know it sounds insane to replace a deeply entrenched, trillion-dollar-a-year global industry, but it has to be done.'”

Shanker notes that once launched, thousands of Americans, traditional meat eaters along with vegetarians and vegans, tried plant-based meats. The taster responses varied from "ultra-processed," to "mixed" to "this meat-eschewing Bloomberg reporter spit them out." Dr. David Katz, founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center, noted to Shaker that Beyond Burger and its ilk are “ultraprocessed” and said, “At worst. It’s a lateral move.”

Since the 2019 Summit, though, plant-based product sales have wilted: "Supermarket sales of refrigerated plant-based meat plummeted 14% by volume for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 4, according to retail data company IRI. Orders of plant-based burgers at restaurants and other food-service outlets for the 12 months ended in November were down 9% from three years earlier, according to market researcher NPD Group," Shanker reports. "What remains looks more like a niche category than a meaningful displacement of an entrenched industry. After Beyond, Impossible and their copycats spent years trying to seduce everyone away from meat, it appears their best customers are, well, the 5% of the population who didn’t eat meat in the first place."