Great Facts: How Thanksgiving kickstarted the meat alternatives boom

A red box of Tofurkey sits on a blue plate

Wildly popular plant-based, alternative meats like the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat can trace their origins to Thanksgiving.

As one of the most meat-centric holidays, Thanksgiving traditionally left vegetarians without a comfortable seat at the holiday table. That is, until the introduction of Tofurky quietly introduced the world to “meat” for people didn’t eat meat.

Here, Jan Dutkiewicz, a political scientist at Johns Hopkins University and an expert in the alternative meat industry, explains:

How the history of the Impossible Burger and other popular alternative meats can be traced to Thanksgiving;
Why despite the current plant-based meat craze, there is not yet a turkey option that’s created as much buzz;
How in the future Thanksgivings, with lab-grown meat soon to be available, people might be able to buy turkey created in a petri dish.