The media's anti-vegan bias seems to be growing.
There has been a spate of recent nasty headlines and hit pieces on the plant-based sector, despite the fact that veganism and meat-free diets are becoming increasingly popular.
The most recent example is a Bloomberg article. An article titled “Fake Meat Was Supposed to Rescue the Planet” was just published by a worldwide news organization. That Was Nothing More than the Latest Fad.”
The post featured a major photo of a frozen vegan burger that didn't look very appealing, and it used selective data. As well as “editorialized framing” and “one-sided stories,” as described by Impossible Foods.
We're sick of hearing all the misinformation that's been spread about this field, and it's about time that the truth be told.
A simplification of business and consumer life
To begin, let's discuss the people who choose vegetarian alternatives to meat. The Bloomberg article makes it seem as though only vegetarians and vegans buy them, which is a bogus claim that the meat industry has made repeatedly without providing any facts to back it up.
It was shown in a 2022 survey that 86% of consumers who purchased plant-based meat also purchased traditional meat products. Yet only 2.7% of those who buy vegetarian or vegan meat are actually vegetarian or vegan. Recent media pieces have recklessly and incorrectly propagated the assumption that plant-based meat substitutes are some sort of uber-niche particularity serving a small percentage of the population.
The article constantly brings up Beyond Meat's stock price decline without providing any background on the larger ecology surrounding meat. A multibillion-dollar market can't be dictated by a single stock price.
That's right; sales of Beyond have dropped by 76%. Stock in Tyson Foods, the largest meat firm in the United States, hit a three-year low last month, partly due to the avian flu epidemic, the greatest worldwide outbreak in history. The cost of both turkeys and eggs has soared significantly in preparation for Thanksgiving. Indeed, rising food prices are a worldwide problem that affects every sector.
Bear Big Meat's poor performance in mind if you want to claim that plant-based proteins are a fad based on stock performance. Stocks negatively impacted by future pandemics, droughts, and inevitable meat shortages will not be well received by investors in the long run.
False alarms about health
The Center for Consumer Freedom's (CCF) campaigns discouraging people from eating plant-based meat are mentioned briefly in some articles. However, this is a much larger problem than is suggested in the article.
Meatpacking corporations and cigarette firms provide the bulk of CCF's funding. For years, it has relentlessly spread misinformation about plant-based meat by funding dozens of studies to back up its bogus claims. Does it make sense that CCF would spend $5 million on a Super Bowl ad claiming that plant-based meat is unhealthy just a few short months after Beyond Meat had the largest IPO in two decades?
Contrary to popular belief, the chicken nugget is not the most popular meat product in America (in fact, one in three Americans consumes chicken nuggets on a regular basis). Compared to, say, a lentil patty, a Beyond Burger might not be the healthiest option, but no one eats lentil patties. Meat and dairy products make up the vast majority of the “hyper processed” foods consumed daily by Americans. Indeed, four out of the top five best-selling meat products in the United States are ultra-processed meats. Let's not hide the truth about where our food comes from.
What's more, the health benefits of plant-based meats have been scientifically proven by a large number of separate research.
Ignoring the Reality of the Climate Crisis
The climate problem is the proverbial elephant in the room when it comes to meat-based diets. When this was being written, Bill Gates and other world leaders were meeting in Davos to examine ways to lessen the impact of the climate issue.
Besides, they have company. As the Dutch government just realized that the EU would not be able to achieve its anticipated climate targets without reducing meat production, it has shut down a number of cattle farms. There are 57 percent more greenhouse gas emissions from livestock than from any other agricultural source. Meat substitutes, which generate far less greenhouse gas emissions, should be discussed as part of any solution to the climate issue.
Vegan alternatives to meat are the most practical and productive climate investment. Putting money into plant-based meats is four times more successful than putting money into green buildings, according to a new research. and 11 times more efficient than electric cars.
Taking on a century-old business
The phrases in Beyond and Impossible were, without a doubt, lofty. The company's founders, for instance, promised they would completely “replace beef” within a decade. That seemed like an impossible claim to make; after all, how could one business topple a $1.4 trillion industry that had been there for a century?
But, this idealization of the distant future is not limited to these businesses. At the beginning, nearly every founder says something similar when they first start a company. Every business needs investors in order to stay afloat, and they are attracted to companies with grandiose plans to change the world.
Contrary to what the author of the Bloomberg article would have you believe, the plant-based industry is not driven by profit or fleeting fads. The goal is to alter the basis of our food supply to make the world livable, secure against inflation and pandemics, and lessen the emission of harmful greenhouse gases.
