Plant-based Foods May be on track to replace Meat-based foods

The rise of plant-based foods may have positive ramifications in the future.

Credit, Spartanburg Regional Healthcare

In the past three years, vegan burgers increased sales by 252 percent in Switzerland, while the market of vegan meat alternatives jumped by 350 percent, with vegan burgers responsible for a fifth of all burger purchases at Coop, according to a report carried out by Coop Market Research and LINK.

Meanwhile, a shift occurred in the global population in 2018, as 70 percent of it chose food choices away from meat and towards vegan options, with plant-based foods assuming the status of a trend, within an environment where veganism in the United States grew by 600 percent in just three years, according to an article published by Forbes.

Also, the average amount of meat consumed each day per person in the U.K. fell from 103.7g to 86.3g – a total reduction of 17 percent – between 2008 and 2019, including a 13.7g drop in daily red meat usage and a 7g reduction in processed meat, according to the U.K. National Diet and Nutrition Survey.

Seen within the context of the fall in the average daily amount of meat consumed in the U.K., the trend in the world shows a shift away from meat, a view confirmed when more than 70 percent of the global population embraces food choices towards vegan options, and the 252 percent rise of burger sales in Switzerland.

Young consumers assume a frontline position in the trend towards vegan and vegan meat alternatives, as 79 percent of millennial eat meat alternatives, 30 percent consume meat alternatives every day, 50 percent eat meat alternatives a few times a week, and 37 percent planning the purchase of more meat alternatives in the near future.

Fifty one percent of the worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions come from agriculture in relations to cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and pigs raised and killed for food, with global emissions due to agriculture standing at 9.3 billion tons for carbon dioxide in 2018, methane and nitrous oxide emissions from both crop and livestock activities contributing 5.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide or 0.14 percent growth since 2000.

People who consume meat help towards fuelling greenhouse-gas emissions from agriculture, as they show responsibility for almost twice as many dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day as vegetarians and about 2.5 times as many emissions as vegans, with people who eat more than 0.1kg of meat per day generating 7.2kg of carbon dioxide equivalents, while vegetarians and and vegans generating 3.8kg and 2.9kg of carbon dioxide every day.

Aware that a vegetarian or a vegan lifestyle reduces the dietary greenhouse-gas emissions per day, young consumers embark on a shift from meat to plant-based food, fuelling the trend away from meat, hoping to reduce the harm caused by climate change through the large contributions of agriculture to worldwide greenhouse-gas emissions from methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide.

Though the market value of plant-based meat worldwide will be worth $10.11 billion dollars, the figure will show an increase in the next few years, reaching roughly $33.99 billion in 2027, while the plant-based burger market will grow by $650.86 million during 2020-2024, rising at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 percent.

Meanwhile, growth beckons in the plant-based protein market, as experts forecast a rise from $18.5 billion in 2019 to $46.4 billion in 2025, just as the global meat alternatives market could rise at a CAGR of 7.9 percent in the coming years.

Fifty percent of U.K. consumers may avoid meat by 2040, with 15 percent becoming fully vegan, while only 40 percent of the world’s population will eat meat, and 60 percent of meat eaten by the year could be vegan or cultured meat, instead of animals.

In essence, therefore, the trend in the shift from meat today could result in only 40 percent of the global population eating meat in the near future, a trend to expand the plant-based protein and meat alternatives market, propelled by young consumers who are aware of the consequences of animal agriculture, especially millennials, currently driving the shift away from the consumption of meat.

The phase out of animal agriculture over the next 15 years, along with the adoption of plant-based diet, could lead to a 68 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through the year 2010, providing a 52 percent of the net emission reduction to slow global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Still, 333 million tons of meat were produced worldwide in 2020 to satisfy the hunger for meat, while on  average, 86 percent of people surveyed for the Statista Global Consumer Survey in 39 countries said that their diet contained meat, meaning eating meat remains the norm almost everywhere in the world. To achieve the threshold needed to prevent a disastrous climate change, a plant-based diet must be a food trend in the coming years. In other words, meat must disappear from plates, with the proportion of vegans and vegetarians having to increase to drive the change.

What to Eat

Colombian potato soup, Credit, Vegan Huggs