Demand For Meat Rising Despite
Deluge Of Plant-Based Alternatives
Plant-based alternatives account for just one per cent of all retail meat sales.
I
by Laura Brehaut
mpossible Burgers at Disney Parks. Beyond Meat breakfast
sandwiches at Starbucks. The proprietary Plantiful burger at
Wendy’s. Another day, another plant-based product rollout, or so
it would seem. Add the frequency of cattle rancher counterattacks
targeting labeling requirements and language into the mix, and you’d
be forgiven for assuming meat was in trouble. But as recent analysis
shows, demand for animal protein is rising.
Despite the plant-based boom, The Power of Meat 2020 reveals
the appetite for animal protein is strong. Sales in the U.S. exceeded
$69 billion in 2019, according to the annual trend report conducted
by The Food Industry Association (FMI), the Foundation for Meat
and Poultry Research and Education, and the North American Meat
Institute. Household spending on the whole is up, with beef and
chicken propelling meat department sales, in value and volume.
In the face of mounting scientific evidence—including a recent
University of Oxford examination of the environmental impact of
29 foods, which identified beef, lamb and mutton and cheese as
generating the most greenhouse gas emissions—the study found that
nearly half of consumers (49 percent) think animal agriculture doesn’t
harm the planet, “if done properly.”
Forty percent of participants reported an interest in learning more
from meat companies about their environmental impact, while 46
percent wanted to hear about animal care practices, 57 percent about
safety practices and 58 percent about nutrition.
As previous studies have shown, The Power of Meat 2020 found
that so-called flexitarians—flexible vegetarians, or people who take a
non-restrictive approach to meat-eating—are higher in number than
those who identify as vegetarian or vegan. The report put the number
of flexitarians at 12 percent.
“One of the most compelling storylines in the analysis is that 85
percent of shoppers purchase specific cuts of meat and they are eating
smaller portions, but with total volume sales up slightly, that means
they are eating less more often,” Rick Stein, FMI’s vice president of
fresh foods, said in a statement.
In the U.S., consumption of beef in particular has never been
higher: As stated by the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, sales
have been on the rise since 2015, reached an all-time peak in 2019,
and are only expected to keep increasing.
Meanwhile, plant-based alternatives account for just one percent of
all retail meat sales, according to the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit
that promotes plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. Regardless of
the proliferation of high-profile plant-based offerings on the market,
sales of alternatives—typically more expensive than their animal-
derived counterparts—still aren’t in step with meat.
In an effort to close this gap, one of the leading plant-based players is
adjusting its pricing. To make its patties more financially competitive
with beef, Impossible Foods announced it would cut prices by 15
percent. Ethan Brown, CEO of competitor Beyond Meat, expressed a
similar intention this time last year, telling Forbes, “There’s no reason
(plant-based protein) shouldn’t be cheaper than meat.”
• APRIL 2020
75