Faux meat had already catapulted to the zeitgeist last year, captured in the blistering initial public offering for Beyond Meat. More Americans have dubbed themselves flexitarians - people who regularly substitute other foods for meat - and vegan products have shown up on menus of nationwide chains including TGI Fridays. Even traditional giants like Tyson Foods have move toward offering alternatives.
Even then, meat demand remains strong, said Sarah Little, spokesperson for the North American Meat Institute, which represents companies that process 95 per cent of America's red meat. Despite tight supplies and purchase limits in place for popular cuts, sales volume grew 5 per cent for the week of May 24 compared with a year earlier, according to data from researcher IRI.
Still, the pandemic has highlighted longstanding issues in the country's food-supply chain that many people are seeing for the first time, Balk of the Humane Society said. That is prompting consumers to look for alternatives to industrialised meat, he said. There have been at least 44 meatpacking worker deaths and more than 3,000 workers tested positive for Covid-19, according to estimates from United Food & Commercial Workers International Union. The slowdowns in processing also led to the largest pig culling effort the US has ever seen as hundreds of thousands of animals were backed up on farms.For daily updates on weekdays and specially selected content for the weekend.
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