Plant-based meats, which once seemed destined to help us reduce our consumption of slaughtered cows and lower the vast ecological damage that the beef industry is inflicting on our planet, seems to have failed.

Beyond Meat, which is the only publicly traded company in this space, has seen its stock price drop from $200 per share to $0.90.

What happened is a matter of speculation, though two things are certain:

a) The beef industry tried to sue, claiming that the word “meat” meant specifically “the flesh of dead animals.”  But the courts sided against them, on the basis that there are a variety of other legitimate uses of “meat” in the contexts of “the meat of the matter,” “the meat of the avocado,” etc.

b) They then launched a g0-for-the-jugular PR campaign against the competition, spending uncountable millions of dollars in an effort to convince consumers that plant-based meat was essentially toxic.

Sadly, it appears that the campaign has been successful.  Many fast-food chains have dropped their burger options based on the products from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

FWIW, I remain a fan, particularly of Burger King’s “Impossible Whopper.”

Hard Times for Plant-Based Meat