Soybeans as a commodity can be cheap, but that doesnt mean that an end product made out of soybeans will also inherently be cheap.

The market for soybean based meat alternatives is not that huge, so one of the more expensive aspects of trying to have an end product in an actual brick and mortar store is going to be getting space on the shelf in the first place. Packaging design and maybe some marketing, not to mention creating the actual product itself. All that stuff is expensive even if its mostly soybeans that the end product is made from

Laundry detergent is like 95% water, but it costs far more than if it was actually 100% water

Same. I feel like vegans are being taken advantage of. Soy and oat and other grain based replacements for animal products should be dirt cheap. They're marketing to hipsters and pricing accordingly. So all that shit about the economy and whatnot? Marketing trash. Make that shit cost what it should and way more people would buy it. Especially with everything going up.

What am I paying for? Marketing? Corporate profits?

They want to make money by targeting the smaller market of people with more money. It's marketing strategy, usually tied to "wellness" - which is a super huge market (almost entirely grifters.)

A lot of the “meat imitation” products that got lots of press and media attention were highly engineered products with a lot of unique processes involved, as well as a lot of unique technologies. The raw soy protein input wasn’t the expensive part, it was all the additives to make it more “meat like” that required expensive new production lines, in addition to all the marketing and R&D (paying off the VC investors who funded it really).

There is also the grocery store distribution side of things. These products were niche and didn’t sell particularly large volumes, so grocery stores marked them up a lot to justify the opportunity cost of using shelf space on them rather than something that would have sold at a higher volume.

The reality is, you can get plenty of cheap as hell meat substitutes, they’ve been around for decades (millennia really), you just have to go to speciality stores, or order them online, where enough volume is sold to allow for low margins. meat imitations sold as speciality products in mainstream stores are expensive. An example of a substituted as supposed to an imitation would be textured vegetable protein (often abbreviated to TVP)which can be used in the same way as ground meat. It won’t be the same, you will be able to tell the difference, but, it won’t be worse(assuming it’s seasoned properly) just different, like substituting ground pork for ground beef. And TVP can absolutely be found for much cheaper than ground meat, if purchased from the right place.

Impossible, at least to me, is functionally indistinguishable from a ground beef patty. Back when I was vegetarian and before I was vegan, I went to Burger King on lunch to try the Impossible Whopper. I wasn't fond of Burger King, but I was mostly curious enough to see what an Impossible Burger tasted like having had Beyond at home once (where Beyond is pretty easily distinguished from ground beef by its flavor).

Walked in, walked out, took a bite in my car. Straight-up almost went back in and asked for a new one before realizing it wouldn't do any ethical good and that I didn't have the time. This was even after seeing that it was in the Impossible-branded wrapper. I decided to go there another time to "try the real one", and it was the same. I was dumbfounded; it was straight-up just a Whopper – having admittedly not eaten a BK burger in a few years at that point. (They also put mayo on it by default without telling you, so good job, BK.)

The greatly increased sodium content is a concern for my household, though.

Totally. I’m hoping they can get it real close and less expense. Then start the swap out

Same. I tried a Burger King when they had a deal where you could get the regular Whopper and the Beyond (or whatever brand it was, of plant-based meat) Whopper for the price of one, so I figured, taste test. The regular Whopper is your typical trashy fast food burger that is on the better side of decent, without being good. The mayonnaise and ketchup are a bit strong, but between the lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles, it's a well balanced sandwich. I'd like the burger to be thicker, but this is what's keeping it from being a good burger. So then the Beyond one. It tastes burnt, like the most important flavour to emulate was the "char-broiled" feature. Beyond the burnt flavour, it just tastes... bland. They could have seasoned it better, maybe.

I want to believe in plant-based. Not because I want to be a vegan. But because IDGAF about whether it's animal-based or plant-based. I don't think most people should. I have a unique condition (bariatric surgery) where I actually need animal protein. So vegan stuff can't be my main thing, but I can have some of it. But for people who don't actually need animal protein? I wanna see that stuff succeed so much.

Edit: Someone actually beat me to it, and the plant-meat BK uses is Impossible, not Beyond. Still, I disagree with that person — there was a pretty big difference between the two. Maybe Impossible has gotten better over the years?

Yep

1. tell me it's not meat clearly
2. make it taste pretty good

If you do the above 2 things and its 29% cheaper than mince, you best believe I'll be eyeing up the plant stuff

When burger king launched their plant based whopper, it was legitimately better tasting than their normal beef whopper.

I don't really see the point in them though. Why would I buy plant meat to make a not chicken wrap when I could just make a mixed bean wrap.

Like so much else, it seems to be a useful innovation predicated on a certain degree of professionalized cultivation and expert engineering. I predict I'm going to enjoy the loss-leading rollout and hate the post-market-saturation enshittification.

Now in Belgium, a fake chicken meal with 2 fake chicken fillets is <4€

The cheapest chicken fillets at aldi are 6.50 € for 2.

Here real meat has been increasing for years while plant based stays the same. Ground pork is still cheaper though.

The actual chicken fillet is like 1.5x the protein still, but not too bad. My girlfriend is not veggie and I feel financially bad now also when I get meat for her, but she needs very calorie dense foods sometimes because she can't eat a ton.

non-meat stuff to be cheaper

Beans and lentils are dirt cheap and a great source of protein and fiber.

You might be able to incorporate more lentils and beans. They're dirt-cheap and fill you up similar to meat.

I always get pre-cooked beans, and red lentils are my go-to for lentils, because they cook quickly and don't need pre-soaking for reducing their fartiness.

Lentils, beans, tofu, chickpeas. Much healthier, cheaper.

If the meatless option is 29% cheaper, the meat option is .29/(1-.29) = 41% more expensive, not 29%. Meatballs in the article are .41/(1-.41) = 69% more expensive than plantballs, which is close to your target number.

I remember the days when a veggie cheeseburger was a grilled cheese sandwich. Progress.

Same with alcohol-free beer and other drinks. Somehow they always cost considerably more than regular ones.

Don't forget the cross subsidies from co-products.

If ground beef (aka beef mince in the UK where this story is running) is the cheapest trimmings that remain after all of the expensive cuts have been processed, it's entirely possible that the low price for this byproduct is partially subsidized by the high prices for the premium product (expensive steaks, moderate expense whole cuts). Plus things like hides for leather.

For now, the plant-based competition is aiming at the types of meat that are easier to mimic or replace with plant-based foods. And unfortunately, those happen to be the cheaper types of meat. If we get to the point where there is significant plant-based competition to filet mignon, that product will have a lot more room to work with in being price competitive.

Pricing inputs get complicated, and government subsidies are only a piece of the picture.

meat and dairy subsidies

That has been proven to be incorrect: https://hannahritchie.substack.com/p/meat-subsidies

Removing the subsidies would rise the prices by cents.

Raw food - any food - is dirt cheap. Most of the costs is the chain of logistics (and that every middleman takes their cut).

its similar to the catfish organizations who demanded foreign catfish to be marketed as swai or basa because they couldnt compete.

Extra form tofu.

taste may be great but for me it’s sometimes the “mouth feel” that gets me with tofu. wish i could fix that. (it’s a me thing)

Which is great if you live anywhere near a Costco.

Sadly my closest Costco is a two hour drive away. And that's not actually counting any city driving that I'd need to do.

I haven't successfully made tofu :(

Idk how but it gets a weird tangy taste when I make it

Man I wanted so much to love tofu but it seems that it isn't it for me. They say that tofu is like a blank form that soaks up the flavor of whatever you through at it but for me every time I tried it seems that the flavors is not deep enough or it gets too salty and in any case it kind tastes like plain flour with salt and seasoning. Granted, I am not really good at cooking but solving cooking with throwing seasoning at it is right up my alley. In any case I always try tofu when I see it "in the wild" and always got the same experience. Granted again, never went to a place that is focused on tofu, but had tofu with miso soup for example and stuff like that.

I know it is a me thing, but the way I see online how awesome tofu is described I thought that I would just fucking love it. I still eat it though, but more like to bulk up something else and add a little nutritional variety, but I hoped it could be it's own thing for me.

On a Side not, the silken variety really impressed me, feels like good substitute for cream, mayo or cream cheese to mix with stuff like ground beef and have it less dry almost with a thick sauce.