How Meat Became Cool Again in 2025

Plant-based meats and veganism had notable market and cultural success for over a decade, until 2025, when meat gained renewed attention, buoyed by influencer and political messaging and industry-backed campaigns and research. The once-scrutinized protein source — charged with compromising health, climate and animal welfare — is now cool again. However, this rhetoric contradicts scientific studies showing a global need to eat more plant-rich foods to mitigate the impacts of the animal agricultural industry on public health and climate.

The strategic relaunch of meat, from industry-aligned influencers to lawmakers declaring meat alternatives as threats to tradition, positions it as more natural, essential and all-American (not to mention “good” for the environment). And it’s working. Americans are poised to eat more meat in 2026 than ever before. 

Meat’s Political Reciprocity  

In 2024, Sentient reported on how Big Meat rebranded by leveraging disinformation-based PR campaigns to undermine the plant-based alternatives market, and by providing funding for public university research, in part to position industrialized meat as natural, eco-friendly and necessary for global food security. That year, meat processing lobbyists also collectively spent $5.5 million in Washington, D.C. to influence policy in the meat industry’s favor. 

These efforts were galvanized in 2025 by shifting U.S. politics when climate-change denier President Donald Trump returned to office. Trump subsequently appointed Robert F. Kennedy Junior, leader of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, to his cabinet as Secretary of Health and Human Services. 

While Kennedy cannot be given full credit for meat’s 2025 comeback, he and other MAHA supporters had a significant influence. Early in the year, his endorsement of regenerative and organic agriculture — and his earlier vow to “reverse 80 years of farming policy” — painted an old-fashioned vision of small farms that contrasts sharply with the reality of factory farming operations today. The scalability of this concept is in question. Experts told Sentient that a shift back to small-scale pasture-based farming in the U.S. would only be possible if Americans substantially reduced their meat intake. 

These political and cultural shifts are reinforced by longstanding structural advantages. Through 2024, Big Meat lobbyists spent $5.5 million in Washington, D.C. to move federal regulations in their favor. A Stanford analysis found that between 2014 and 2020, meat and dairy received roughly 800 times more public funding and 190 times more lobbying dollars than plant-based and cultivated meats. 

By the end of 2025, the meat industry’s political advantages were years in the making, leaving novel meat alternatives at a clear disadvantage going into 2026. 

A Symbol of Patriotism

The year 2025 also saw multiple states — including Texas, Nebraska, Montana and Mississippi — enact laws banning the production, sale and/or distribution of lab-cultivated meat, also known as cell-cultured or lab-grown meat. In June, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said, “Texans have a God-given right to know what’s on their plate, and for millions of Texans, it better come from a pasture, not a lab.” 

The positioning of cultivated meat as an existential threat to the American way of life echoes earlier arguments about plant-based meat alternatives. But this year, political figures and influencers continued to elevate meat — especially beef — as a symbol of U.S. patriotism. 

Going into 2026, look for meat advocates to continue framing meat as core to the American identity, despite climate, health and animal welfare concerns.

Meat-fluencers 

Adding to meat’s rising success, 2025 also saw an even bigger surge in high-protein diets, promoted by social media ‘meat-fluencers.’ High-protein diets have long cycled in and out of popularity in Western culture, from the low-carb fads of the nineties to today’s carnivore diet trend pushed by podcasters and social media influencers. 

These meat-fluencers — some trained and funded by the meat industry — tout meat as natural, healthy, manly and American. Many have argued against plant-rich diets, inaccurately labeling vegetables as toxic, fiber as unnecessary and soy as an ingredient that feminizes men. Because of their large followings, meat-fluencers can reach audiences beyond those of nutritional science experts, who have shown that Americans are consuming too much protein. 

In 2026, expect to see more meat-fluencer messaging and an increase in food and beverage brands adding protein to their marketing and ingredient lists, all to capitalize on this latest iteration of the cyclical protein craze.  

The Bottom Line 

The political messaging, influencer amplification and industry-backed campaigns that fueled meat’s 2025 resurgence show how powerful interests can shape public perception, whether or not there is scientific evidence to support them. But despite its cultural momentum, meat is being overproduced and overconsumed in the U.S., contributing significantly to environmental harms, public health risks and animal suffering. 

Going into 2026, meaningful reductions in meat consumption remain critical, both to meet climate goals and improve public health, even as U.S. political and cultural forces continue to endorse it.