"Meat and two veg" is the arrangement of a standard western dinner plate: The center of the plate protein and two plant-based side dishes, one of them most likely potatoes or other starch. But these long-term veggie sidekicks are doing more to push the animal proteins to the side — or off the plate entirely — than the "plant-based meat" products that the industry has focused its efforts on fighting.

And while overall per capita meat consumption, especially poultry, in the U.S. is up over levels just five years ago, the trend may not be obvious to the meat industry's workers reading inflammatory, anti-meat headlines. In response, many of the industry's players commenting on the Meatingplace website have taken aim at meat analogues: "Read the chemicals used to grow this. People will get sick" is one recent example. "Fake food" and "pink slime" and "Frankenfood" are common terms.

The data show that's not where the real pressure is coming from, in terms of what consumers are putting on their plates instead of animal protein.

Statista, working with the World Economic Forum, notes that the self-reported incidence of vegetarianism among U.S. consumers has risen to 5.1% of the total in 2022 from 2.9% just three years ago. In the U.K., the percentage has risen to 6.5% of all consumers, up from 5.5% three years ago, and in Germany the number is 6.0% up from 4.1%.

(At the same time, the incidence of vegetarianism in countries like India, China and Brazil have dropped, in some cases dramatically.)

In the U.S., restaurant industry research firm Datassential reports that "mushroom" appears on more than three-quarters of all menus in the country and "bean" on nearly two-thirds of all menus. "Cauliflower" is found on 21.4% of menus, but the number of dishes featuring the vegetable have risen 19% in the last four years.

Meanwhile, "veggie burger" pops up on 12.5% of menu, down 12% over the last four years. And as for those meat analogues, well, "plant-based burger" shows up on 6.7% of menus, "Impossible" on 3.3% and "Beyond" on 2.7%.

Think about it: When Chick-fil-A decided to woo flexitarians/vegetarians, they didn't do it with a plant-based faux chick'n — they went with a seasoned cauliflower sandwich. The Culinary Institute of America, where most of the country's most influential chefs got their start, is pushing hard on an initiative called The Plant-Forward Kitchen, launched in conjunction with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Plant-forward cuisine, the school says, is "a style of cooking and eating that emphasizes and celebrates plant-based foods — [produce]; whole grains; beans, [pulses] and soy foods; nuts and seeds; plant oils; and herbs and spices."

When a platter of chicken wings is easily, and inexpensively, substituted with roasted Buffalo cauliflower, is a spicy plant-based chick'n patty really the biggest challenger? When some 16% of consumers are looking to reduce their meat consumption, and lower their costs, by mixing their ground beef with mushrooms, are Beyond Crumbles the biggest threat?

Nobody's going to tell consumers to stop eating their vegetables. Perhaps the meat industry should invest more in playing nicely with these plants, instead of trying to fight back against plant-based.

'Plant-based'? Or face plant?

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