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PaperclipPerfector  2d ago (text post)   1510 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for November 3, 2024

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Yeah last I checked Beyond Burgers was near bankruptcy.

The problem is there is no market for these foods.

They taste bad, they are expensive, and they are unhealthy. Who is the imagined customer for this product?

I was genuinely curious, not because I'm interested in going full vegetarian, but because I thought it's an interesting thing to try. But I didn't like the taste at all, so I gave up on the thing.

So historically the key to mass-marketing a meat alternative, at least in the US, has been Catholics in lent. That's why you see fast food fish sandwiches/fried fish baskets advertised heavily in February and March(Here's an article on lent in fast food business planning: https://www.mashed.com/441836/why-lent-is-big-business-for-long-john-silvers/). And beyond burgers could easily have chosen to do this, they just didn't. Instead it seems like they legitimately thought there were lots of people who could be convinced to go vegetarian by marketing, and this turned out not to be the case. In other words they were high on their own supply.

I think oatly has a similar issue but manages to at least make enough sales to stay in business off of the lactose intolerant.

I drink a gallon of dairy milk a week and nearly always have oat milk in the pantry for coffee when I run out of milk. I prefer dairy, but I'm fine with oat or almond, and I can't not have milk on hand.

Plant based milks are fairly popular and much more successful than meat alternatives.

https://foodinstitute.com/focus/deep-dive-the-state-of-alternative-milk/.

According to the National Consumer Panel, 41% of U.S. households purchased plant-based milk in 2022, with a repeat purchase rate of 76%.

Many people especially in my experience (non vegans, non lactose intolerants) prefer plant milk in coffee over dairy.

Makes sense. I tried meat-based milk and didn't like it at all.

meat-based milk

It's fucking milk

They're not that much more expensive where I am than the meat equivalents, and i find the taste for a lot of dishes is pretty good, and don't care about the healthiness of my food. So I could easily see new vegetarians (who still want their sausage rolls and cottage pies) going for it.

Institutions facing internal pressure from vegan activists demanding "mandatory meatless Mondays" and the like (plus external threats from Climate Social Responsibility Rating Agencies that suddenly seem to have control over literally everything).
I linked an activist plan for banning meat recently, and they literally said this was step 2 (after "we're just asking for vegan options, not trying to force anyone, why are you resisting bigot?).

If sexual and then racial grievances hadn't overwhelmed everything else for the last decade, I suspect we would have seen more vegan activism in colleges and tech pushing them to buy this stuff. We may still if it becomes the Next Big Thing after renaming birds for black-trans-palestinians dies down. But hopefully the companies will have burned through their VC money by then.

I linked a lesswrong activist plan for banning meat recently, and they literally said this was step 2 (after "we're just asking for vegan options, not trying to force anyone, why are you resisting bigot?).

Could you link it again? I tried to find it on your personal page, but gave up on page 21.

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