Plant-based meat alternatives are trying to exit the culture wars – an impossible task?

A person holds an Impossible brand meatless burger in California in 2021. Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images by S. Marek Muller, Texas State University and David Rooney, The University of Texas at Austin Increasingly, vegans, vegetarians and others looking for meat alternatives are seeing a new option on the menu: patties that look, taste and even appear to bleed like beef hamburgers, but are actually made of soy, pea protein and other ingredients. Now, a leading plant-based meat company called Impossible Foods plans to rebrand, in order to reach a wider audience. From now on, Impossible Foods says that all of its green cardboard packaging will be switched to red, in a bid to “appeal to the carnivorous cravings of meat eaters,” according to a March 2024 news release. Big-name, plant-based meat alternative brands like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are losing revenue at an alarming pace. Multiple brands, like the vegan chicken nugget brand Nowadays, are going out of business. And Impossible Foods’ private share value has dropped 89% since 2021. Some of the plant-based meat substitute industry’s woes can be attributed to politics. Many consumers associate plant-based meat substitutes with veganism, animal rights activism and left-wing politics. Impossible’s CEO, Peter...