Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. But sales have plummeted amid a surging pro-meat trend embraced by the Trump administration, raising a key question – will vegetarianism ever take hold in the US?
This year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022.
Despite hopes that burgers, sausages and chicken made from soy, peas and beans would curb Americans’ love of eating butchered animals – thereby reducing the rampant deforestation, water pollution and planet-heating emissions involved in raising livestock – these alternatives languish at just 1% of the total meat market in the US.
The meat industry’s attack upon veg competitors as unhealthy has been successful, if rather misleading – research shows that plant-based products generally have less saturated fat, more fibre and about the same protein as processed meat.
Also, many of the increasingly popular high-protein bars, milks and other products are very processed, without suffering any of the stigma that plant-based meat has. “If you walk into grocery store there is a protein enhanced version of almost every product, even though Americans are getting enough protein,” said Kate Stanley, a food researcher at Duke University.
Read the full article on The Guardian
September 12, 2025