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Drew Barrymore says plant-based meat should be accessible and affordable for all.
The actor, entrepreneur, and talk show host says she hardly ever eats animal meat, and instead, seeks out plant-based alternatives.
After reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, Barrymore vowed to reduce her chicken intake. Eating Animals shines a light on the morals surrounding boycotting meat, and exposes the animal cruelty involved in intensive farming. It’s also part of the reason why Barrymore recently partnered with Quorn.
The UK-based vegetarian food brand is known for making realistic-tasting meatless nuggets, wings, fillets, and more using mycoprotein (which is derived from fungi). At the end of last year—as Quorn launched its Meatless ChiQin Cutlets and Wings in the US—Barrymore took on a position with the company titled “Chief Mom Officer.”
The actor, who shot to fame as a child after playing roles like “Gertie” in 1982’s E.T., is also a passionate cook and cookbook author. In her role with Quorn, Barrymore is helping to develop new products and recipes for its website.
While plant-based meat has, historically, been more expensive than conventional meat products, brands like Quorn are helping to bring prices down. Last year, a study analyzed several vegan meat products on sale in the UK and found that Quorn had some of the cheapest options on offer.
‘Easy, Findable, Affordable’
In the US, Quorn is also trying to keep its products’ prices as low as possible, according to Yahoo! Finance. All of its suggested retail prices sit below the $5 mark.
“I just want it to be easy and findable and affordable,” Barrymore told the publication. “Families cannot be expected to go to a farm stand and cook a full meal all of the time. These aspirations are not true to life. You have to find people where they are and find out what they need — and be gracious and thoughtful about it.”
Other plant-based meat companies, like popular US brands Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, are also trying to reduce the prices of their products as much as possible.
In August of last year, Dennis Woodside, the president of Impossible Foods, told CNBC: “We’ve lowered our retail prices and our foodservice prices twice in the last 18 to 20 months, each time by 15 percent to 20 percent, so pretty meaningful price drops.”
“Currently, our product on the shelf is priced a little higher than organic grass-fed beef, so that’s still a premium price, and we know we need to get that down over time.”
