Why vegan burgers are losing the US culture war over meat: ‘Not our moment’

Once seen as a climate fix, vegan burgers now languish at 1% of the US market amid rising meat culture

Plant-based burgers were supposed to help wean Americans off their environmentally ruinous appetite for meat. But sales have plummeted amid a surging pro-meat trend embraced by the Trump administration, raising a key question – will vegetarianism ever take hold in the US?

This year has been a punishing one for the plant-based meat sector, led by companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, with sales of refrigerated products slumping 17%. This follows a difficult 2024, during which sales fell 7%, furthering a multi-year spiral – last year Americans purchased 75m fewer units of plant-based meat than they did in 2022.