Interesting, but I’m not sure this captures the main potential benefit of adding plant-based meat options. These options improve the experience of being a vegan—thereby increasing takeup/retention of veganism—rather than being appealing to meat-eaters in the moment. I would be way more likely to be vegan if there were vegan meat alternatives everywhere I went (including meat-heavy experiences like Christmas, BBQs, holidays), as opposed to just salad and lentils. Even when they aren’t that tasty, the fake meat makes me feel less “left out”.
The fact the fake meat options are displacing the pure vegetable options at all, is a sign that they are improving the experience of being vegan.
Obviously, this study does still tell us something about how appealing/unappealing vegan meat options are to people, and the results have updated me downwards a bit. But not by a huge amount. I very rarely see my meat-eater friends order vegan options (whether vegetables or fake meat); and I very rarely see my vegan friends break their veganism because there was only a vegetable option rather than a fake meat option. So I think I would have predicted broadly similar results.
It is possible that this will have transformative effects! Two pieces of counter-evidence worth considering:
The plant-based meat market grew rapidly in the 2010s—beyond meat was introduced in 2009, Imposisble in 2016 -- and more or less peaked around 2021 and has been declining since. Meat is back on the menu, culturally and politically; Beyond Meat might go through bankruptcy in the next few years; and the percentage of vegetarians and vegans has remained constant over time at about 4-5% of the population. So to me, the story here is that plant-based meats hit a wall of market adoption, at least at their current point of price/taste/convenience. Basically they were starting to appear in more places but eventually demand didn’t keep pace.
Some evidence that some people say they won’t try lab-grown meats under any circumstances. Maybe they’ll get used to it, maybe they won’t. Maybe the issue gets polarized and some people love it and other people say it threatens core values.
P.S. on the subject of meat-heavy celebrations, I’m going to a pig roast tomorrow and expecting to eat nothing there...but I’m used to this dance 😃
Thanks that’s really helpful. You’re right it doesn’t seem like increased prevalence of fake meat options is leading to any significant increase in % of vegans. I do find this quite hard to marry with my personal experience—I am way more vegan in my home city (where there are good, widespread vegan options) than when travelling abroad. And I’m fairly sure I would not choose to identify as vegan/veggie at all if I lived in a country where there were far fewer options. But the stats would suggest that veganism is in fact quite inelastic to this. Strange!
Hope your hog roast wasn’t too difficult—sending solidarity! I had a jackfruit hog roast alternative once, I appreciated the effort but it wasn’t very nice...I’m sure Beyond could have done a better job.
Interesting, but I’m not sure this captures the main potential benefit of adding plant-based meat options. These options improve the experience of being a vegan—thereby increasing takeup/retention of veganism—rather than being appealing to meat-eaters in the moment. I would be way more likely to be vegan if there were vegan meat alternatives everywhere I went (including meat-heavy experiences like Christmas, BBQs, holidays), as opposed to just salad and lentils. Even when they aren’t that tasty, the fake meat makes me feel less “left out”.
The fact the fake meat options are displacing the pure vegetable options at all, is a sign that they are improving the experience of being vegan.
Obviously, this study does still tell us something about how appealing/unappealing vegan meat options are to people, and the results have updated me downwards a bit. But not by a huge amount. I very rarely see my meat-eater friends order vegan options (whether vegetables or fake meat); and I very rarely see my vegan friends break their veganism because there was only a vegetable option rather than a fake meat option. So I think I would have predicted broadly similar results.
It is possible that this will have transformative effects! Two pieces of counter-evidence worth considering:
The plant-based meat market grew rapidly in the 2010s—beyond meat was introduced in 2009, Imposisble in 2016 -- and more or less peaked around 2021 and has been declining since. Meat is back on the menu, culturally and politically; Beyond Meat might go through bankruptcy in the next few years; and the percentage of vegetarians and vegans has remained constant over time at about 4-5% of the population. So to me, the story here is that plant-based meats hit a wall of market adoption, at least at their current point of price/taste/convenience. Basically they were starting to appear in more places but eventually demand didn’t keep pace.
Some evidence that some people say they won’t try lab-grown meats under any circumstances. Maybe they’ll get used to it, maybe they won’t. Maybe the issue gets polarized and some people love it and other people say it threatens core values.
P.S. on the subject of meat-heavy celebrations, I’m going to a pig roast tomorrow and expecting to eat nothing there...but I’m used to this dance 😃
Thanks that’s really helpful. You’re right it doesn’t seem like increased prevalence of fake meat options is leading to any significant increase in % of vegans. I do find this quite hard to marry with my personal experience—I am way more vegan in my home city (where there are good, widespread vegan options) than when travelling abroad. And I’m fairly sure I would not choose to identify as vegan/veggie at all if I lived in a country where there were far fewer options. But the stats would suggest that veganism is in fact quite inelastic to this. Strange!
Hope your hog roast wasn’t too difficult—sending solidarity! I had a jackfruit hog roast alternative once, I appreciated the effort but it wasn’t very nice...I’m sure Beyond could have done a better job.