Saving the Planet, One Burger at a Time: The Communicative Strategies of Plant-Based Meat

This article reviews some of the communicative strategies of plant-based meat, a food innovation that promises an experience akin to that of animal meat, but devoid from its harmful consequences relating to the well-being of humans, animals, and the planet. Mobilizing a constitutive approach on communication, we trace the founding narrative of the Beyond Meat firm using various documents, which enables us to highlight the main communication strategies developed in them. Beyond Meat positions itself in continuity with the prevalent meat culture. Minimizing the responsibility of cattlemen, meatpackers, and animal meat consumers, it rather targets livestock for their inefficiency to transform plants and water into meat and engages to eliminate this intermediary by producing meat directly from plants. Recruiting various collaborators in restaurants, grocery stores, and celebrities to help normalize plant-based meat, Beyond Meat further calls upon consumers as members of a social movement whose engagement would save the planet, one burger at a time.