The Urgent Need for Sustainable Protein in India

India will become the most populous country, the largest economy, and experience the greatest rise in meat consumption.

I recently completed an internship at GoodDot, India’s largest plant-based meat company.

I set out for this summer to work with startups reducing the environmental impact of protein production. Before traveling to Udaipur, India, where GoodDot is based, I spent May and June interning for Solar Foods in Helsinki, Finland.

When I told friends and family about my plans, I heard a similar response: “But isn’t basically everyone in India vegetarian anyway?”

This is a major misconception a lot of Americans, and perhaps Europeans, hold about Indians. The majority of Indians eat meat. In fact, about 71 percent of Indians older than 15 when polled reported that they are not vegetarian. This varies significantly by region. I am writing this from the state of Rajasthan, GoodDot’s home, where almost 75 percent of inhabitants are vegetarian. Meanwhile, people living in West Bengal, for example, are about 99 percent non-vegetarian.

Meat Consumption Trends

71 percent of Indian’s eating meat is shocking if you thought practically everyone was vegetarian. But if you break it down, this stat tells a slightly different story. At present, Indians eat very little meat, especially compared to the average American consumer. The World Resource Institute reported that in 2006 Indians ate an average of 184kcal/day from livestock whereas Canadians and Americans ate 907.

When Indians do eat meat, they mostly eat chicken. Chicken has the lowest environmental footprint of mainstream meat options, but the poultry industry is growing and industrializing rapidly. It is estimated that Indian consumption of processed chicken is increasing 15 to 20 percent annually. Mutton is another popular option, which has a similar environmental footprint to beef. India is 80 percent Hindu, and eating beef is off-limits per Hindu beliefs, for cows are considered holy. From my experiences, eating beef seems pretty removed from the culture even if you aren’t Hindu. You can’t even order dishes with beef at most places. I traveled to a few cities while here, and I don’t recall seeing beef on a single menu. The data on Indians who do eat beef also is pretty unclear. National polls show about 7 percent, but others estimate it is actually about 15 percent due to people underreporting.

Side note: I recently watched this short Vox doc about the rise of India’s cow vigilantes. After learning about this, I understand why some beef-eaters keep a low-profile.

These trends are changing:

Over the next 30 years, India will experience the largest percent increase in meat consumption of any region in the world.

By 2027, India is expected to be the world’s most populous country, surpassing China. The predicted population is about 1.5 billion. This population growth paired with economic development will position India’s GDP as the largest in the world. So, even slight rises in meat consumption will have major consequences for the environment and food system.

Plant-Based Meat in India

I’ve heard more than one Indian here say “Most Indians eat meat but are vegetarians at heart.”

So, are Indians ready to embrace plant-based meat?

There isn’t a lot of data on this.

A Survey of Consumer Perceptions of Plant-Based and Clean Meat in the USA, India, and China conducted by The Good Food Institute, the University of Bath, and the Center for Long Term priorities, found that 63 percent of Indian consumers reported that they were very or extremely likely to purchase plant-based meat and 32 percent said they were somewhat or moderately likely. The survey notes that the Indian participants were disproportionately urban, high-income, and well-educated. This sounds really promising, but it isn’t that simple.

I chatted to a few young people here, and my general impression is that many who were raised vegetarian are now trying meat for the first time whereas there isn’t a comparable shift to vegetarianism.

Based on my experiences, it seems that GoodDot, and other alt-protein entities, face a series of communication challenges. These are takeaways from conversations I’ve had with the those at GoodDot and other Indians I met during my time here. This is pretty informal, so if you disagree or have added thoughts, I would love to hear from you! I recently watched an episode of Sex and Love Around the World on Netflix about India, and a quote that stuck out to me was something like “everything you say about India is probably true, but the opposite is likely true too.”

1. Explaining plant-based meat: While you can buy “soya chunks” from some grocery stores and restaurants, the most popular vegetarian alternative is paneer (cheese). The way paneer is prepared in many dishes here often gives it a taste and texture similar to tofu. Most Indians are unfamiliar with the concept of plant-based meat, and the term “meat “ may actually confuse consumers. I don’t say this to validate any of the nonsense that the American meat industry and lawmakers are trying to generate about consumers not understanding plant-based meat and dairy in the American food market.
2. Gaining interest from meat-eaters: Plant-based meat isn’t a mega-trend in India like it is in the U.S. (yet). So alt-protein needs to take innovative approaches to catch the attention of meat-eating Indians. There doesn’t seem to be great info on what messaging resonates most with Indian consumers. My best guesses are celebrity and athlete endorsements, trendiness, novelty, health, environment, and animal rights in about that order (but only if the cost and taste are on par with animal meat).
3. Not scaring away committed vegetarians: Many Indians who are vegetarians are life-long vegetarians AKA they’ve never tried meat and don’t really want to. As a result, a product claiming to imitate meat and that even has the word meat in it can be a turn-off. This may not ultimately matter in the scheme of saving the world since these consumers already have a small footprint. But, if they are making the switch from paneer to plant-based meat, which they likely would be, that would make a serious dent in the environmental impact of the dairy industry.
4. Explaining veganism: This is a bit more specific to my experience at GoodDot because all GoodDot products are vegan and that is a central part of their mission. Even though vegetarianism is a major part of Indian culture, veganism is not whatsoever. Only a small fraction of Indians are vegan, and most dishes I ate had ghee or cream in them. Even though vegan products are vegetarian, it can confuse consumers here to lead with veganism in a culture where the concept of vegetarianism is so well-known.

GoodDot’s Strategy

I am pretty familiar with the alt protein world and what other startups are doing. I believe that GoodDot’s strategy is unique from the majority of other plant-based meat companies.

Photo credit to GoodDot

The key aspects of GoodDot’s strategy that stood out to me:

1. Bottom-up approach: Alt-protein startups in the U.S. tend to launch in premium venues. For example, Impossible Foods introduced the Impossible Burger with Momofuku Nishi. GoodDot has pretty much taken the opposite approach. GoodDot partnered with RCM to launch its products. RCM is a multi-level marketing grocery store company. Its average customers are low to mid-income, and they are dispersed all over India, both in rural and urban areas. Since then, GoodDot has expanded to pricier venues like some of the country’s nicest hotels. I’ve noticed a trend of plant-based companies experiencing the most success when they plug into pre-existing infrastructure. For example, I found Josh Tetricks’s story of JUST’s best partners being traditional egg companies super interesting. At the end of the day, these big companies want to make money, so it doesn’t seem that killing animals is too embedded in their ethos.
2. Price parity: Several of GoodDot’s products are at price parity with meat from animals. This would be a big deal in the U.S. market, but it is an Extra Big Deal here as the Indian consumer is very price sensitive. Affordability was one of GoodDot’s founding principles because they wanted the products to be accessible for all consumers.
3. Shelf stability: GoodDot products are shelf-stable. They don’t need to be refrigerated, and they maintain their quality for a year. This helps keep prices low because GoodDot doesn’t have to pay refrigeration costs when transporting products. Also, this is a big plus for consumers, especially low-income customers, who may not have access to refrigerators. Less than a third of Indians have refrigerators in their households, so shelf-stability is a major benefit.
4. GoodDO: So before I came to India, I didn’t even know about GoodDO, but I think this is one of the most interesting aspects of GoodDot’s work. Since the majority of Indians are unfamiliar with plant-based meat, GoodDot faces the challenge of consumers preparing it well in addition to them knowing of the products. GoodDot didn’t want to wait for consumer validation nor to risk its products gaining a bad reputation due to poor preparation. So, the founders created GoodDO, a vegan fast-food chain and sister company of GoodDot. GoodDO offers a variety of popular Indian dishes as well as items you could expect at say a McDonalds, with prices to match. GoodDO is growing quickly with locations popping up all over India and plans to open over 50 more.
5. Created for Indians: The GoodDot founders created GoodDot products to cook well in Indian cuisine because plant-based meats made for western consumers didn’t hold up well when cooked into Indian dishes. They also offer a product with a flavor and bite similar to mutton, which is very popular in India. That said, GoodDot’s products still cook well in other types of cuisine.

A screenshot of a video from GoodDO’s Instagram of their Udaipur outlet

In my very humble opinion, I think GoodDot is seriously underrated in the world of alt protein! I’m so energized by all the innovation from startups, but I believe the global movement is definitely not expending enough effort on India. In the meantime, we also need more data on Indian animal product consumption- something on which the very cool team at the Good Food Institute is focused. I was able to visit them in Mumbai and learn about the projects they’re doing to gain a better understanding of the Indian consumer.

When I look at the trends for meat consumption, I am pretty overwhelmed. If you’re reading this post, you probably know that eating meat from animals is an incredibly inefficient use of resources. If we don’t act now to make alternative protein widely available and appealing in India, what are things going to look like in 2050?

Already, 21 Indian cities are expected to run out of groundwater by 2020, and 600 million Indians face acute water shortage. In a world where water is running out and a growing population needs to eat, why would we waste such obscene amounts of resources on producing meat from animals?