Building a Market for New Meat Alternatives: Business Activity and Consumer Appetite in the Netherlands

This chapter provides an overview of developments in the Netherlands on new meat alternatives with a focus on plant-based meat substitutes and lab-grown meat. It devotes attention to both the supply side of the market (business activity) and the demand side (consumer appetite). The first concerns developments in the meat substitutes' innovation system since the 1990s until now. It concludes that the Netherlands has become a major player. The latter concerns the supportive purchasing power of consumers regarding the building of a viable and strong market for new meat alternatives. It is concluded that available consumer studies provide evidence for being cautiously optimistic. The closing parts of this chapter, however, bring to the fore that a transition from the current high-meat diets to more sustainable and healthier diets with more non-meat sources of proteins is anything but self-evident. However encouraging and energetic modern developments in the Netherlands are, much progress is needed as it comes to consumer acceptance of new meat alternatives, producer capacity to innovate, concentrate strengths, and capture market share, as well as governmental support for reducing the adverse effects of today's meat consumption and production levels in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal 12 concerning responsible consumption and production.