“But that can be perceived as an elitist argument,” Schoenberg said, “and nobody wants to get dragged further into the culture wars.”

Actually, maybe don’t

Rachel Konrad, former head of communications at Impossible Foods and now chief brand officer at VC firm The Production Board, isn’t convinced that a coalition or a mainstream ad campaign would be effective for brands in the space, most with low household penetration and premium prices.

Instead, companies should get hyper-proactive and laser focus on earned media, she said, “speaking out whenever there’s an attack ad from animal agriculture and refuting everything, commenting all the time for news stories, putting out massive amounts of thought leadership, being at the U.N., at Davos, Ted Talks, creating viral videos and contests for fans, picking up user-generated content, using AI to generate ads for virtually nothing.”

A well-trod path like a professional consortium is a legacy move, not one that will serve the nascent plant-based industry, she said. “Following the incumbent industry’s playbook is a mistake because the game is rigged against you. It will not work.”