The once-powerful beef industry is feeling threatened by the rapid growth of plant-based alternatives, and it won’t go down without a fight! The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association is calling on the United States government to ban plant-based competitors from using the word “meat.” This is a blatant attempt to skew the market in its favor, and restrict the growth of a new industry that has the power to save billions of animals. We can’t let this happen!

The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association claims that consumers aren’t smart enough to tell the difference between packages of traditional meat and their plant-based alternatives, and that future clean meat products are likely to confuse and “mislead” people. But here’s the problem with that theory - the entire selling point of plant-based and clean meat alternatives are their major benefits to the environment and the fact that no animals are cruelly raised or slaughtered for these products. Consumers are actively seeking these alternatives for these benefits; thus, there is absolutely nothing for plant-based or clean meat producers to gain from being "confused” with traditional meat. Quite the opposite!

Another baseless claim the Association argues is that the word “meat” should only be reserved for “naturally” sourced meat products. But this is deeply hypocritical since 99% of meat in the U.S. originates from factory farms that are completely reliant on the use of antibiotics, steroid implants (in the case of cows raised for beef), feed supplements, selective breeding, artificial insemination, and the routine mutilation of animals who are crammed by the thousands into industrial sheds or barren feedlots. All of these things defy any definition of “natural.”

Please join us in urging the Food Safety and Inspection Service to deny the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association’s harmful proposal!
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