Beyond Meat, one of the world’s leading plant-based meat producers, has released a new documentary aimed at addressing the challenges and criticisms it faces amid a shifting food landscape in the United States. The nine-minute film, titled Planting Change, confronts the health and environmental claims associated with plant-based meats, the future of farming, and the impact of the livestock industry’s response.

The company, headquartered in El Segundo, California, positions the current tactics of American beef producers as reminiscent of strategies once employed by the tobacco industry. Dr Robert K Jackler, a professor at Stanford University’s School of Medicine and founder of the Stanford Research Into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising group, asserts in the documentary that “American beef producers are following a very similar playbook to the tobacco industry – of undermining science and of creating counternarratives that suggest that plant-based products are somehow harmful.” According to Dr Jackler, the primary concern of the meat industry is financial, focusing on preventing plant-based meat from eroding their sales and profits.

Beyond Meat’s rise had coincided with a growing consumer interest in health and sustainability. At its peak, the brand was valued at $14 billion and enjoyed widespread celebrity endorsements. The period around the Covid-19 pandemic saw a surge in sales of meat alternatives, bolstered by more health-conscious consumer behaviour and a reduction in conventional meat consumption by approximately 4kg per person in the US. Investment in plant-based food companies also peaked significantly during 2020-21.

However, the market has shifted in recent times. With a changing socio-political environment, meat consumption experienced a resurgence in 2024, reaching record sales, while purchases of vegan alternatives began to decline. Beyond Meat has, correspondingly, experienced nine consecutive quarters of declining sales until the latter part of 2024.

In response, Beyond Meat’s founder and CEO, Ethan Brown, highlights the decline in American consumer perceptions of plant-based meat healthfulness—from over half in 2020 to 38% two years later. The company initially responded with marketing campaigns focusing on farmers, before shifting its emphasis more firmly onto health messaging. “We faced a fundamental choice, and that was to either bang our fists on the table and explain the health benefits of our products. Or, to take a look inward and say: ‘How do we make our products even healthier? How do we make them unassailable from a health perspective?’” Brown explains in the film.

Beyond Meat has collaborated with medical and nutrition experts, including Stanford professor Dr Christopher Gardner and dietitian Joy Bauer, to reformulate its core products. Packaging changes now prominently feature health claims, such as ‘75% less saturated fat’ and ‘no cholesterol’ compared to beef.

Dr Kristi Funk, a breast cancer surgeon and advocate of whole-food plant-based nutrition, comments on the safety of cooking plant-based meat compared to animal meat. She notes that carcinogenic compounds, often formed when meat is cooked at high temperatures, do not significantly develop in Beyond Meat products due to their plant-based ingredients like peas, lentils, brown rice, and faba beans. Additionally, Dr Matthew Nagra, who conducted research on heart health impacts of meat and vegan alternatives, states: “One of the underappreciated aspects of plant-based meat alternatives is that we can reformulate them. You can’t do that with a cow.”

The documentary also demystifies the process behind producing Beyond Meat’s faba bean steak. Ethan Brown explains that the process begins with planting and harvesting the crop, followed by milling. The natural separation of protein and starch occurs in an air chamber, after which the protein is blended with wheat and subjected to heating, cooling, and pressure to restructure it into a form resembling animal muscle. The product is then mixed with natural flavours, colours, and plant-based oils to create the finished steak.

Addressing concerns about the impact of plant-based proteins on farmers, the film includes perspectives from agricultural producers themselves. A Montana farmer highlights the introduction of red lentils as beneficial both economically and environmentally, noting their lower water needs and lack of requirement for synthetic fertilisers. Similarly, a fava bean farmer in North Dakota shares that returns on investment have been significantly higher than traditional crops. The narrative underscores the environmental limits of beef production, particularly the extensive land and water resources involved, and the associated biodiversity loss due to habitat conversion.

Princeton researcher Timothy Searchinger emphasises the necessity of reducing beef consumption to tackle climate change, stating, “For us to solve climate change, beef consumers have to consume less. Not none, but less.” Yale University ecology professor Oswald Schmitz suggests that ranchers might shift their perspective from traditional livestock production to becoming “carbon ranchers”, integrating climate-friendly practices into their business models.

Planting Change offers a nuanced look at the future of protein consumption in the US, including the challenges posed by cultural preferences for beef and growing distrust of ultra-processed foods. Ethan Brown concludes the documentary with a message of optimism: “[If] you fearlessly confront the questions of our time and refuse to go numb in defeat, there is truly hope and a path forward in eating closer to the sun.”

Source: Noah Wire Services