It wasn’t long ago that next-generation plant-based meats — products like Impossible and Beyond burgers — were supposed to be the future of food, promising to topple the politically powerful, culturally entrenched animal meat industry within a couple of decades. But several years in, the plant-based meat industry hasn’t come anywhere within striking distance of that goal.
Much of the media has moved on, writing off plant-based meat as a passing fad. But in this new story, Vox senior reporter Kenny Torrella makes the case for taking it seriously as a solution to the meat industry’s environmental, public health, and animal welfare problems. Right now, he explains, plant-based companies face a defining choice: Should they clean up their ingredient lists to appease widespread (and largely unfair) complaints that they’re too processed? Or should they ignore the haters and double down on making their products as delicious and meat-like as possible?
It can feel like an impossible choice. “A decade of whiplash, from meteoric rise to slow decline, has left plant-based meat firms trapped: damned if they do, and damned if they don’t,” Kenny writes. But if we’re serious about cutting the meat industry’s massive toll on the planet and its inhabitants, we can’t afford to give up trying. This searching solutions reporting is what Vox’s Future Perfect does best: We don’t just chase trends or follow the herd. We cover what matters long after the spotlight has moved on. If you value independent, mission-driven work that outlasts the news cycle, help keep it going by becoming a Vox Member today.
—Marina Bolotnikova, deputy editor, Future Perfect
