The Earth is currently facing multiple, negative environmental consequences due to the increase in animal agriculture. A plant-based diet will give our planet a breath of fresh air as well as new options for consumers who are willing to try out something different.
Companies such as Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and Like Meat are a few of the options in the market providing meat substitutes, offering variety, quality, and healthy plant-based diet selections.
Beyond Meat’s main aim, for example, is to address and improve four growing global issues starting with human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources, and animal welfare. It’s slogan – The Future of Protein – highlights how these products can not only act as a substitute for meat but also offer the human body nutrients which meat itself lacks.
The ingredients the company uses as a replacement for protein come from peas, mung beans, fava beans, and brown rice. Similarly, alternatives to fats include cocoa butter, coconut oil, sunflower oil, and canola oil.
Beyond Meat’s major competitor is Impossible Foods. Similarly, the essence of their brand lies with saving the Earth and protecting animals by ‘making meat from plants’. The underlying message the brand is highlighting is sustainability as they promote the concept of eating meat as problematic, a destructive technology and a habit which throughout history humans have gotten used to.
Destruction of rainforests and killing wildlife are the two elements which have been targeted by organizations throughout the years as they act as a barrier to the meat industry’s growth. Plant-based brands form a creative, smart strategy to attract meat lovers instead of vegans and vegetarians, urging them to switch and shift their dieting habits. Since meat lovers account for a greater amount of the population, attracting these consumers would automatically mean an overall greater impact as they would be eager to try out these products.
The careful research undertaken by these companies, and the use of ingredients which create a sense of similarity with meat in terms of texture, smell, and juiciness, is what enticed new consumers to buy and try out their products. Advertising and marketing are major components of brands such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods as people are not as familiar with their products initially, but a careful marketing strategy could expand their popularity.
The goal is for these brands to enter the market for good and contribute to making a bigger difference for the environment. Consuming such products contributes to the greater effort of saving the environment. Change should be adopted and become a necessity for the world to survive, beginning with something as simple as a plant-based diet.
