I firmly believe that plant based foods will ever more replace meat and dairy, and that at some point in the future, people will hardly even believe there was a time when we ate animals.

Now and then, we come across something that gives us a glimpse of how this future is unfolding. We may read about all kinds of amazing innotative plant-based products being created. We may read about unlikely people going vegan, like athletes or farmers. But the most amazing testimony of things to come… comes from meat companies that are actually giving up on meat.

Say what?

Yes, it’s starting to happen. Here’s a short tale of two companies.

Investing meat profits in plant products

The Dutch Bobeldijk Meat Company started up as a butchery in 1975. They added vegetarian products to their range in 2008. In 2015, the company changed its name to Bobeldijk Food Group. They announced that meatfree products were the future, and that they would no longer invest in meat. Factory space used for meat production was freed up to give the meatfree division room to grow. All turnover from meat products was invested in the development and expansion of the plant-based product line (called Vegafit). Bobeldijk CEO Remko Vogelenzang expects that the meatfree division will be able to finance itself by the end of 2019, so that Bobeldijk will be able to get rid of their meat activities. While they have still have lacto-ovo vegetarian products in their range, they aim to make the whole line vegan.

Selling of the meat division

Another example, again from The Netherlands, is the company Enkco Food Group. Founded almost sixty years ago as a sausage company, it was initially a cooperation between ten different butchers. In 2003 Enkco acquired another company, which included the vegetarian brand Vivera. Along the way, Enkco extended its vegetarian range, to the point that presently, sales of vegetarian and vegan products are responsible for more than half of their 100 million euro turnover. Enkco will now sell off its meat branch to a larger meat company, and will itself continue under the name Vivera, as a meatfree company.

Roadmap for the future

In the case of Bobeldijk, we’re not sure what will happen to the meat division, but unless it disappears altogether, it will be continued by another company (that’s definitely so in Enkco’s case). Consequently, one might make the cynical comment that the net result remains the same. However, these examples are significant in that they show that transformations from meat business to meatfree business – from butcher to meatfree company! – are possible. The companies in question are creating a roadmap that other companies can follow. They also illustrate a pragmatic point: that the new system may have to be built with money from the old system. Finally, they illustrate that, contrary to the fears of some vegans, the money spent on on veg products produced by a meat company does not (or at least not necessarily) go to strengthen their meat activities.

Animal products are on their way out. It’s just a matter of time.

Sources articles (Dutch) here and here.h