Plant-Forward Challenge 2025

The way our different generations think and act around sustainable behaviour, when it comes to eating and buying food, is extremely diverse, and trends keep appearing and disappearing, year by year, and are influenced extremely by public opinion, 

similar to the politic opinion and behaviour of our global population.

With a growing  global direction in the past few years, towards more conservative thinking in the western world, the sustainable goals for 2030 and 2050, the reduction of global warming, and the plant-forward movement have nowadays many more challenges as maby 5 years ago, although global catastrophes, like the wildfires in LA 2025, should wake us up again and show us that we are heading in a wrong direction and that global warming is really all around us.

Global warming is here, and we should accept this and start working on attempts to change this, instead of trying to search for reasons to not acknowledge this, as many conservative and right.minded politicians try to convince us of.

Our planet is under extreme pressure, and we need to start doing something today then it is an unmistakably fact, that we don't have a planet B

The food industry and our personal diet behaviour can play a big part in reducing global warming. Reducing meat consumption is one of the very controversial discussion points amongst our population, and i would like to share some interesting but also alarming data around this fact in this blog.

To be able to dive deeper into plant-forward opportunities, we need to understand consumers eating habits / behaviours, and understand how to increase the reliance in opportunities to make plant-forward meals and -products more appealing and focus on how we can educate people in understanding the necessity of a tasteful plant-forward approach, by reducing the usage and production of meat and dairy.

Here some data based on questionnaires and polls from global sources

In 2024 a more sustainable approach in our food industry and personal diets have decreased slightly, which makes it much more challenging to achieve our global sustainability goals for 2030 and 2050

An Increasing “Me-First” attitude in 2024, wich we see in many European countries, and especially in the USA endanger our plant-forward approach, as visible in the following data

• Only a quarter, 24% of our population, limit or reduce meat in their diet.

Meat limiting is driven mostly by Women and Boomers (1945-1964) although Boomers most likely say they are flexitarian.

Generation Z(1996-2010) are likeliest to avoid meat entirely, being either vegetarian or vegan

Unfortunately the % of people that ate meat regularly in 2024 lie by 78%,

which is 5% more than in 2023

and the % of meat limiters, people who eat less meat, has decreased from 27% in 2023 to 22% in 2024

So by reading these numbers it's obvious that we are heading in a wrong direction, and our western society is really incorporating this "Me First" attitude as long as they still can.

• How open are we for plant-forward foods and products?

In 2024, 44% of our general population were open to plant-forward diets, which is a reduction of 8% compared to 2023, where 52% were still open to a plant-forward diet

so we see 8 % of our western society have changed their mind last year which realkly concerns me. and i will come back to this in another blog.

• How open are we to spend more on plant-forward menu items then on meat.

here we go in a different direction

In 2023 31% were not willing to pay more for plantforward menu items, as in 2024 this % decreased to 26 %, although the amount of people not eating or ordering any plant forward meals grew in 2024, compared to 2023 from 14% to 19%.

nearly a third of consumers though are willing to pay more for plant-forward menu items

which are mainly Gen Z, Millennials, Foodies, High Income consumers and meat limiters

• Taste Satisfaction is the most outstanding barrier to eating Plant-forward menu items and less meat in restaurants.

This means that especially the restaurant and food industry need to go back to the drawing boards to increase the quality and food satisfaction of plant forward menus.

Therefore its very interesting to see what consumers really think about this,

so the next question was asked

“What concerns do you have with eating less meat and more vegetables, whole grains, legumes and other plant-based foods?

here the answers from a poll executed in 2024 amongst all different generations

Not satisfied with the Taste	45 %
Not getting enough protein	40 %
Being hungry again in 2-3 hours	35 %
Too High prices for Vegetables and plant-based products	30 %
worried about too processed plant-based foods	20 %
Plant based foods are not providing enough energy	18 %
Plant based foods dont fit in the mood of the occasion	15 %

Seeing many of those facts, and the direction where we are heading towards, which is not great, it's very clear to me, that we have to start acting asap.

In case we want to increase the amount of  our global population towards more plant-forward diets, we have to look at the following points.

Why do still 78% of global population eat meat?

1. is it because of the easy availability in our society? (Supermarkets and discounters are full of cheap and accessible meat products.

2. is it because of its price?, prices of meat have decreased over the last decades and especially convenience meat products with reduced amounts of original animal protein used in those products

3. is it because of livelong habits?, for generations like Boomers, Generation-X and Generation-Y, meat consumption was very normal and part of their daily diets over their years growing up.

Taking these points into consideration, nudging our population towards a more plant-forward diet and eating less meat takes a lot of conversation and explanation,

although the advantages for our planet and also for our personal health are undeniably and statistically proven.

"People are creatures of habit, and changing these habits, even if they make sence, is most likely the biggest challenge we have in 2025".

look out for my next Blog, where I will focus on one the most sustainable foods on our planet

them being pulses

PFJ / 02.2025