Meat sales on the wane, right? Maybe not

Analysis shows demand rising, even as how we eat meat is changing

Impossible Burgers at Disney Parks. Beyond Meat breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks. The proprietary Plantiful burger at Wendy’s. Another day, another plantbased product rollout, or so it would seem.

Add the frequency of cattle rancher counterattacks into the mix, and you’d be forgiven for assuming meat was in trouble. But as recent analysis shows, demand for animal protein is rising.

The Power of Meat 2020 reveals that sales in the U.S. exceeded $69 billion in 2019, according to the annual trend report conducted by The Food Industry Association (FMI), the Foundation for Meat and Poultry Research and Education, and the North American Meat Institute.

Household spending on the whole is up, with beef and chicken propelling meat department sales in value and volume.

In the face of mounting scientific evidence — including a recent University of Oxford examination of the environmental impact of 29 foods, which identified beef, lamb, mutton and cheese as generating the most greenhouse gas emissions — the study found that 49 per cent of consumers think animal agriculture doesn’t harm the planet, “if done properly.”

Forty per cent of participants reported an interest in learning more from meat companies about their environmental impact, 46 per cent wanted to hear about animal care practices, 57 per cent about safety practices and 58 per cent about nutrition.

As previous studies have shown, The Power of Meat 2020 found that flexitarians are higher in number than those who identify as vegetarian or vegan.

The report put the number of flexitarians at 12 per cent; a 2019 survey conducted by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph found that nearly 20 per cent of Canadians are eating less meat or cutting it out altogether.

“One of the most compelling storylines in the analysis is that 85 per cent of shoppers purchase specific cuts of meat and they are eating smaller portions, but with total volume sales up slightly, that means they are eating less more often,” Rick Stein, FMI’S vice-president of fresh foods, said in a statement.

The U.S.’S National Cattlemen’s Beef Association says sales reached a peak in 2019, and are only expected to keep increasing.

Meanwhile, plant- based alternatives account for just one per cent of all retail meat sales, according to the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that promotes plant-based meat and dairy alternatives.

To make its patties more financially competitive with beef, Impossible Foods announced it would cut prices by 15 per cent earlier this month.

Ethan Brown, CEO of competitor Beyond Meat, expressed a similar intention this time last year, telling Forbes, “There’s no reason ( plantbased protein) shouldn’t be cheaper than meat.”