The PROBLEM with Vegan Meat

In the last few years, fast food chains have been backing out of deals with alternative meats, shares are dropping for companies like Beyond Meat, and the industry hasn’t even put a dent in beef sales. So what happened, and is there any coming back?

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Script: Holly Maley
Editor: Matthew Veal
Project Manager: Lurana McClure Rodríguez
Host: Levi Hildebrand

[Alias_Anybody]

Selling it as an expensive lifestyle product will never change anything. It needs to be store brand and actually undercut the real thing in price by a significant margin to have a chance. That's the only way other replacement products (like margerine vs butter or corn syrup vs cane sugar) were ever successful.

[nawwk]

Price is number 1 reason why they failed.
Beef burger: $2.99
Impossible burger: $4.99

[nata]

I missed the memo somewhere, I fully thought this product was for vegans. As a meat consumer, there's no reason for me to pay more for vegan meat when I can buy real meat for less

[MichaelPybus]

That poor Monstera plant behind you is begging for some water.

[ClassicGamer]

i think the biggest problem is the price, beef is cheaper then beyond

[theconstitarian]

On the subsidy point, Beyond also benefits a lot from farm subsidies. It is made from rice, potato, avocado, etc., all of which are subsidized.

[Cometski]

The price of Beyond meat is beyond normal meat

[GreatSageSunWukong]

they are too expensive, a block of tofu or beans is cheaper, I used to buy them but everything is too expensive now

[blankadams]

I distinctly remember the time I tried an Impossible Whopper. Took one bite and immediately said, out loud, "No mistaking that for meat. It's not even close."

[vatsilvsgi]

I remember, back after the pandemic when eggs were 1, 000, 000 dollars a dozen, beef got affected eventually and suddenly beyond and impossible foods flew off the shelf here in my tiny rural town because it was cheaper. I don't eat meat, and thus am hyper aware of non-meat products availability, and that was a fascinating look at what would happen if it really WAS cheaper.

[pjschmid]

In addition to the price, the problem I always had with it is it just made no sense to me to replace meat with yet another ultra-processed food. The last thing I want to add to my life is more ultra-processed food made out of a list of ingredients that I would never normally eat.

[Housewarmin]

The biggest issue is that Most meat eaters, are eating all kinds of cuts of chicken, beef, pork, duck, lamb etc. There are entire cities known for their barbeque, there are people who pride themselves on cooking the best steak... An expensive beyond burger will never take over the meat industry.

[ParanoidPixel]

The cost is too damn high!

I don't understand how you have a plant based product that is made in half the time with less than half the resources it takes to make meat burgers... and then costs twice as much.

[stefannilsson]

Price is not an issue with plant based meat. The ingredients cost almost nothing. They could sell it for half the price and still have larger profit margins than the normal meat industry. They just want to have their RnD costs recovered as quickly as possible, but end up shooting themselves in the foot.

[mchenrynick]

All the "bad talk" about eating meat, reminds me of how the public was influenced to use "vegetable oil" instead of lard back in the 80s & 90s.

[deRykcihC]

only problem is they are way more expensive than real meat, why would anyone hurt their wallets unless you're pretty rich already

[ichadc]

People often forget that the meat industry isn't just about the meat itself. There are whole other spinoffs like shoes don't last), gelatin(used in a lot of things, not just jello), and even paint pigment(called bone black or ivory black). The meat industry has multiple outputs, faux meat only has a single output.

[Aoskar]

Honestly I think if they hadn't marketed themselves as a replacement for meat but as an alternative to eat a more balanced diet with more plants that you have once or twice a week, it could have worked

[beachpone]

honestly I think the biggest problem with vegan and vegetarian diet promotion is that they focus on meat replacements, rather than focusing on the fact that other ingredients can be extremely delicious too in their own ways

[jessip]

Yeah it was the price for me. At my grocery store 2 beyond burgers are $10. I can get 10 beef or chicken patties for that price.