Vegan Burgers Are Losing the US Culture War Over Meat

Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. Instead, sales have plunged and worse, a surging pro-meat trend is making a big comeback. It is even claimed that the Trump administration are behind this nefarious move to thwart vegetarianism! 

In any case, this year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75 million fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022. 

Despite hopes that burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans would curb Americans’ love of eating butchered animals – thereby reducing the rampant deforestation, water pollution and planet-heating emissions involved in raising livestock – these alternatives languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US. 

“It’s not our moment, we recognize that, you’d be crazy to think it is”, Ethan Brown, chief executive of Beyond Meat, the plant-based business that was valued at $10 billion a few years ago but have suffered a 97% drop in their share price since, lamented. “Meat consumption is on the rise, the political culture is different. We just need to get through this period”. 

The meat industry “did a masterful job, convincing people that there was something wrong with the products, or that they were ultra-processed or things of that nature”, Brown added. 

To try to keep pace with the culture shift, Beyond recently dropped “Meat” from their name and unveiled a new product that is primarily a protein-based food (made of fava beans) rather than mimicked beef or chicken. They have laid off workers, missed revenue expectations and have had to deny they are struggling to pay their bills. 

Their big rival, Impossible, meanwhile have scrambled to align with meat rather than oppose it, even floating the idea of a hybrid plant-beef burger. 

“We’re not here to win over the salad eaters”, reads their website. “We’re here for the meat stans”. 

The meat industry’s attack upon veg competitors as unhealthy has been successful, if rather misleading – research shows that plant-based products generally have less saturated fat, more fibre and about the same protein as processed meat. 

Also, many of the increasingly popular high-protein bars, milks and other products are very processed, without suffering any of the stigma that plant-based meat has. 

“If you walk into grocery store there is a protein enhanced version of almost every product, even though Americans are getting enough protein”, said Kate Stanley, a food researcher at Duke University. 

Crucially, studies have found that while most Americans understand the benefits of eating more plants, only a quarter are willing to do so and the vast majority don’t view the environment as a priority when choosing meals. 

“There’s a disconnect between the mounting evidence on meat’s environmental footprint and what’s actually driving consumer behavior”, said Shauna Downs, who has studied Americans’ views at the Rutgers School of Public Health. 

Food remains a deeply personal and cultural part of our lives and for most people that involves meat – a fifth of all Americans still eat red meat five times or more every week. 

Herbivore imitations may have improved from previous iterations of veggie burgers but remain more expensive than meat. 

“Sustainability is a consideration for only a very small portion of the population – taste and price are the biggest things and plant-based products need to deliver on those”, said Jody Kirchner, associate director of market insights at the Good Food Institute, which have researched the plant-based sector. 

“Inflation has had a big impact across the food sector and that’s a big challenge for plant products because they cost two to three times more than traditional meat. A lot of progress will need to be made on taste and cost to become feasible for customers – a lot of people just don’t see the need for these products”. 

Regardless of the ebb and flow of various dietary fads, and rising alarm over the destruction of the natural world, Americans have been immovable when it comes to becoming vegetarian or vegan. Just 4% of people in the US identified as vegetarian in 2023, a proportion that is actually down from the 6% that said the same in 2001, according to Gallup. A mere 1% are vegan. 

Christopher Gardner, a nutrition expert at Stanford University says, “Not everyone has to become vegetarian but we will have to eat a lot less meat – at some point people will wake up and say ‘where have the rainforests gone?’. We are heading to the point we don’t have the land or water to support the amount of meat we want to eat. I hope people finally get it. They have to get it. We are facing an existential moment here”.

Me, I love my meat! 😋😋😋