Why Persuading People to Give Up Meat Is So Hard

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For many years, choosing to give up meat meant choosing to stop experiencing its taste. Vegan and vegetarian food had many merits, but tasting like meat was not one of them. In the past half decade, though, some new meat substitutes have come impressively close to the original. When plant-based meat companies and independent testers conducted blindfolded tastings in recent years, my colleague Annie Lowrey reported, they found that many tasters couldn’t tell the difference. Even some chefs have gotten confused.

But despite science’s breakthroughs in developing juicy, delicious meat substitutes, persuading Americans to go vegetarian or vegan still isn’t easy; even many people who claim to believe in the ethical value of vegetarianism persist in eating meat. Today’s newsletter explores the future of meat, the prospects of its competitors, and what giving it up would mean for Americans.

On Meat

The Meat Paradox

By Peter Singer

Vegetarianism is more popular than ever—but so is meat consumption. How can this be?

Open Your Mind to Unicorn Meat

By Annie Lowrey

Entrepreneurs have invested billions in plant-based and lab-grown meats, and the possibilities are endless.

If Everyone Ate Beans Instead of Beef

By James Hamblin

With one dietary change, the U.S. could almost meet greenhouse-gas emission goals. (From 2017)

Still Curious?

Other Diversions

P.S.

This past spring, the Australian lab-grown-meat company Vow unveiled a food stunt that my colleague Yasmin Tayag couldn’t stop thinking about: the woolly-mammoth meatball. “Meat from a long-extinct behemoth that lived during the Ice Age—how could I not want to try it?”

— Isabel