Market for Fake Meat Booming

The meat-substitute industry is reportedly booming—and mainstream media sources are taking note. According to an NPR article published this week, 110 new faux-meat products have been introduced since 2010, with frozen items earning $267 million in sales last year. NPR says the mounting mainstream appeal of plant-based meat products is partially due to innovations in taste and texture—an observation echoed by The New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman, who recently described how increasingly palatable fake-meat products are becoming a viable solution to the adverse effects of the meat industry. He asks, “Would I rather eat cruelly raised, polluting, unhealthful chicken, or a plant product that’s nutritionally similar or superior, good enough to fool me, and requires no antibiotics, cutting off of heads, or other nasty things?”