When someone punches us in the nose, our usual reaction is fight, flight or freeze. We start to sweat, our heart rate increases, we breathe more rapidly, all of which is because our bodies are expecting some sort of action and have released adrenaline into our systems. So, we either punch back, retreat or freeze in response.

In my view, these reactions mimic the meat industry’s response to plant-based and cell-cultivated “meat.” How so? There were/are five stages of this meat industry response mimicry:

1. Ignore – When the plant-based folks first started their research and product development phases, the meat industry was indifferent under the guise of “so what” we are the consumer preferred meat and no “faux meat” alternative is going to replace us.

2. Ridicule – Ignorance was soon replaced by ridicule as the plant-based fledgling companies were joined by the cell-cultivated start ups, and now the conventional meat industry had a two-front war. But still their reaction was, “Ho hum, we are the big guys, and they won’t hurt us much if at all.” Besides, who wants plant-based, or lab produced meat — yuck — when they can have the real thing from us — “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner”.

3. Attack – The first two stages were also the times of “adrenaline release” and the meat industry was primed for a fight. Nutritional comparisons were made showing that plant-based “faux meat” items were just like the real thing when it came to fat, protein and calories, implying the question, “Why buy fake when you can have real with the same nutrition?” Damned by faint praise, I suppose. Cell cultivated products were ridiculed for being produced in huge laboratory vats, implying, “Is that the 'meat' you want to eat?”

4. Copy – However, somewhere in the denizens of the big four beef behemoths were lurking the supporters of faux meat who were saying we might want to make an investment to cover all bets. And, so they did, with the largest US meat company buying stock in a fledgling plant-based company. Other big boys followed suit and either bought into or started their own “faux meat” divisions. These companies copied the faux meat startups because they did not want to be seen as stodgy or out of touch with consumer interest. Why? Well, they had had enough of consumer blow back from the green house gas (GHG) polemics about insidious cattle belching “methanizing” the environment. They didn’t need to be viewed as lacking consumer empathy as well.

5. Claim as their own – Although this has yet to fully happen, I predict that the beef big boys as well as other meat and poultry companies will soon be touting their own plant-based or cell cultivated product efforts or marketing a combination of real meat or poultry with faux meat. These will be their latest and greatest items assuring their consumers that they can be trusted to always offer them innovative “meat or poultry” products. Of course, this will take a concerted marketing effort with an implied mea culpa of convincing the consuming public that they really didn’t mean all the bad things they may have said about “faux meat” in the past, since they were now making it themselves or combining their real meat with faux meat.

If the automobile industry can flaunt a full-throated endorsement and adoption of electric vehicles, which they, too, denigrated in their infancy but now have embraced, why can’t the meat industry do likewise? The auto industry recognized that fossil fuel powered autos will be their main product line for a while, but EVs present them with a potent future. They have reacted to the punch in the nose from EVs with a “let’s not fight ‘em but join ‘em.” Shouldn’t the meat and poultry industry do so similarly?

Consumers will always want beef, pork and poultry — at least I hope they will — and there are few signs of them not wanting to despite fluctuations in supply and demand. These protein consumers must be embraced by the respective industries—not fought. If you listen closely enough, these consumers are telling the meat and poultry industry what they desire. It may not always be “Beef it’s what’s for dinner,” as it may become “Where’s the beef?”

Fight or Flight Meat Marketing

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