Pork Magazine Learns Lesson from Vegan Drive-Through

Meat industry media outlet Farm Journal’s Pork (FJP) published an op-ed last week entitled “Lessons Learned from an All-Vegan Drive-Through.” Writer JoAnn Alumbaugh was prompted to cover the topic by a feature published in Forbes that highlighted the success of San Diego-based vegan chain Plant Power Fast Food. While Alumbaugh dedicated a portion of her feature to bashing Forbes contributor Katrina Fox—an ethical vegan journalist—for being biased, the writer turned her attention to urging the meat industry to evolve to suit the changing food industry. “We also need to listen to what proponents of the vegan lifestyle have to say,” Alumbaugh wrote, “and ask them questions about their food choices, as opposed to writing them off as uninformed, uneducated followers.” Alumbaugh advised readers to re-think their marketing strategies given the change in consumer demands among the growing plant-based food industry. “Let’s pay attention to what restaurants offering alternatives are doing,” Alumbagh concluded, “and take a lesson or two from their marketing book.” FJP is not the first meat-centric publication to acknowledge the impact of plant-based foods on the animal agriculture industry. Meatingplace magazine—a publication whose target demographic is animal farmers—promoted plant-based meat alternatives on the front cover of its March 2016 issue.