Is The Plant-Based Food Sector Really Too Woke? - CleanTechnica

The article discusses the challenges faced by the plant-based food sector, particularly focusing on the marketing and positioning strategies of companies like Impossible Foods. CEO Peter McGuinness argues that early efforts to promote plant-based meat substitutes as a climate solution alienated potential customers by being overly political and divisive, which contributed to declining sales in the US market. He emphasizes that targeting meat eaters without offending them is crucial for broader adoption, noting that the sector’s messaging was “mismarketed and mislaunched” and struggled against the well-funded public relations efforts of the animal agriculture industry. McGuinness also acknowledges that plant-based foods are currently “not in vogue” culturally. The article further explores the broader context of the food sector’s role in climate change and nutrition. Jessica Fanzo, a climate and food expert at Columbia University, highlights the sector’s evolving focus from merely alleviating hunger to addressing nutrition and planetary health. Despite challenges such as widespread misinformation and climate change denial, there is potential