I'm vegan. I became vegan because my partner is vegan, and I started eating vegan food (like Beyond) when I was at her house, out of respect. I gradually transitioned to a non-strict vegan diet for health reasons (my Dr. said she's never seen such a turnaround in Cholesterol w/o statins), and then became fully vegan for environmental and animal welfare reasons.
None of this would have been possible without meat substitutes like Beyond and Impossible, as I would not have had the discipline to stick with the diet. I've had previous generation veggie burgers which tasted like fried cardboard. I think these nasty tasting products of the past have left people with the impression that vegan food just tastes horrible, and vegans have to be crazy to eat them (Boca, I'm looking at you). I certainly expected the worst the first time I had a Beyond burger, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I even evangelized it to a guy at the next table who was asking the waiter if it was good. I think once more people try these products, they'll really take off.
I think part of the problem with Beyond uptake is the way that these fast food restaurants test their products, and the way they package them. These chains are national, and they assume that demand for products will be similar across locations, but that's just not true. Like it or not, Vegans live in mostly "Blue" metro areas, not fly-over states. So if you're McDonalds, and you test your products in Dayton OH, or middle-of-nowhere Alabama, then you're setting them up to fail. They should be tested in LA, SF, NYC, Miami, Chicago, etc, and they should gradually spread out from there.
The other problem is how fast food chains package their plant based products so that vegans can't eat them. The Impossible Whopper is an example. Since I'm vegan, I can't eat eggs and dairy, which means I need to order the Whopper w/o cheese and mayo. This means that I almost never get an Impossible Whopper, since I like cheese (and mayo) on my burgers. I'll instead order from a local vegan place that actually offers vegan mayo and cheese. Similarly, McDonalds in the EU has a plant-based chicken sandwich, but the BREAD contains dairy. So I have to order it w/o the bun, meaning I almost never order it, and instead order something fully vegan from a local place. There's a Qdoba just down the street that has an Impossible Burrito. But again, no vegan cheese, so I tend to order from a smaller local place.
My feeling is that once these 2 things are corrected, vegan meat alternatives will take off. I talked to a grocery store manager a few weeks ago in a middle-sized US city (Richmond, VA), and he said that Beyond products are flying off the shelves, and often backordered. After that conversation, I invested in Beyond stock. I figure if they are doing well in Richmond, then there is a huge market opening up.
None of this would have been possible without meat substitutes like Beyond and Impossible, as I would not have had the discipline to stick with the diet. I've had previous generation veggie burgers which tasted like fried cardboard. I think these nasty tasting products of the past have left people with the impression that vegan food just tastes horrible, and vegans have to be crazy to eat them (Boca, I'm looking at you). I certainly expected the worst the first time I had a Beyond burger, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I even evangelized it to a guy at the next table who was asking the waiter if it was good. I think once more people try these products, they'll really take off.
I think part of the problem with Beyond uptake is the way that these fast food restaurants test their products, and the way they package them. These chains are national, and they assume that demand for products will be similar across locations, but that's just not true. Like it or not, Vegans live in mostly "Blue" metro areas, not fly-over states. So if you're McDonalds, and you test your products in Dayton OH, or middle-of-nowhere Alabama, then you're setting them up to fail. They should be tested in LA, SF, NYC, Miami, Chicago, etc, and they should gradually spread out from there.
The other problem is how fast food chains package their plant based products so that vegans can't eat them. The Impossible Whopper is an example. Since I'm vegan, I can't eat eggs and dairy, which means I need to order the Whopper w/o cheese and mayo. This means that I almost never get an Impossible Whopper, since I like cheese (and mayo) on my burgers. I'll instead order from a local vegan place that actually offers vegan mayo and cheese. Similarly, McDonalds in the EU has a plant-based chicken sandwich, but the BREAD contains dairy. So I have to order it w/o the bun, meaning I almost never order it, and instead order something fully vegan from a local place. There's a Qdoba just down the street that has an Impossible Burrito. But again, no vegan cheese, so I tend to order from a smaller local place.
My feeling is that once these 2 things are corrected, vegan meat alternatives will take off. I talked to a grocery store manager a few weeks ago in a middle-sized US city (Richmond, VA), and he said that Beyond products are flying off the shelves, and often backordered. After that conversation, I invested in Beyond stock. I figure if they are doing well in Richmond, then there is a huge market opening up.