Christie Lagally, CEO of Rebellyous Foods, explains in this edito that tafter the alternative meat industry faced considerable turbulence in 2025, a central issue is the sector’s struggle with profitability, often prioritized after scaling rather than being integrated into product unit economics from the start. Current strategies, such as expanding into unrelated product categories, are seen as attempts to salvage companies instead of addressing core problems. Consumers consistently demand price parity and quality, yet production technology for plant-based and cultivated meat remains significantly outdated compared to conventional meat. Investing in advanced production technology is crucial for lowering costs and achieving market impact, offering high short-term returns. Despite these challenges, the alt-meat market is projected to grow, but it must accelerate efforts by 2026 to meet consumer demands, advance technology, and drive profitability to effectively compete with growing global meat production.
Source: The alt-meat reset. Scale won’t fix broken unit economics