We need to transform our food systems in the next few decades. In most countries, meat consumption is still growing. Globally, it’s growing quickly.

I think price is one (of several) explanations for this. Meat substitutes are still too expensive.

There are two options to change the price differential: make meat more expensive, or meat substitutes cheaper.

On the former, governments could implement a ‘meat tax’. The point of that being that the total cost of meat – in terms of its environmental and social costs – is not reflected in the market price. A tax would try to capture at least some of these ‘externalities’. Seems rational, but would be a bold step for a government to take.

The latter is harder to comment on without good cost breakdowns for meat substitutes. What costs so much: the ingredients, the energy for processing, is it a problem of scale? Some meat substitutes seem like they should be relatively cheap to make: we’re not talking about lab-grown meat here, we’re talking about turning pea, soy, or wheat protein into a patty. Maybe I’m underestimating the costs involved: a full breakdown would be useful to see which levers can be pulled to get them down.

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