Plant-Based Meat Has Our Attention. Now What?

“I wish we had vastly more capacity than we do right now because the demand is high…. Having more big customers right now doesn’t do us any good until we scale up production.” – Pat Brown, CEO, Impossible Foods, Reuters

Phase One: Make a Damn Good Product

In 2017, I led an exploratory project to map the technologies, opportunities, and challenges within the plant-based meat industry — the first effort of its kind. At the time, “plant-based meat” was barely a recognizable phrase, much less a recognizable industry. We still had to convince investors and food companies that these were not your grandma’s veggie burgers.

If the taste and texture of next-generation meat alternatives hadn’t already convinced them, Beyond Meat’s unbelievable IPO undoubtedly did the trick. Since the time of our preliminary mapping of the plant-based meat industry, consumers have seen wave upon wave of new plant-based meat product launches, fast food-partnerships, and prominent headlines.

The plant-based meat industry has gotten our attention. Now what?

Plant-based meat is not competitive with animal meat. It has not led to an overall reduction in the consumption of animal meat (in fact, meat consumption is at its highest point on record). Plant-based meat has, therefore, not achieved its goals of improving public health*, reducing animal suffering, or cutting down on meat-production’s climate impact.

But, as even the meat industry acknowledges, it can. Whether or not it will depends on how the industry approaches this next phase of its development.

Phase 2: Make a Scalable Process

The once niche market of plant-based meat has achieved legitimacy and captured significant consumer demand. But hidden in the numbers behind the plant-based meat industry’s exciting rise, there are clues about what could make or break its chances of deep food system change.

(As a founder of a plant-based meat startup myself, I can confirm that deep, systemic change is a goal for many startups in the space. My team is in this to change the food system, not just to change recipes.)

At a Glance: