A Meaty Debate About Fair Competition

The battle over how plant-based bacon can be described in France continues to sizzle. On one side is the INAPORC lobby representing French butchers and pig farmers. On the other side are the makers of La Vie plant-based bacon and sausage. What are they fighting over? The issue of whether La Vie’s use of words like ‘meaty’ and ‘bacon’ to describe its product represents unfair competition. La Vie claims that it has found a method to produce a realistic bacon-like product without the pig. France’s pork industry, seemingly agreeing that La Vie’s product is a good substitute for its own, sees the product as a threat.

Among other things, producers of pork products claim that La Vie’s ‘meaty’ description of its product is deceiving to customers and is undermining France’s pork industry. Initially, the French government agreed, indicating that producers of plant-based substitutes would be banned from using words that typically describe products derived from animals. However, on the eve of the new labeling requirements going into effect, France’s high court, the Conseil d’Etat, stepped in to review the ban. La Vie has responded to the temporary reprieve with advertisements highlighting claims by the pork industry of the similarities between the plant-based product and the pork version, suggesting that the pork industry could change its recipe. While those in the pork industry may not be happy about the new competition they face, one has to imagine that at least the pigs will be pleased.

Discussion Questions:

1. What is ‘unfair competition’? In your opinion, should La Vie have the right to describe a plant-based substitute for a meat product as being ‘meaty’?  Is La Vie violating the rules of fair competition?

2. Consider the issue from the perspective of the customer. Is La Vie deceiving customers when it describes its product as bacon? Does the company have an obligation to describe its product using words not commonly associated with meat-based products?

3. Given that there are numerous plant-based substitutes on the market, why do you think this has become such an issue? Are other plant-based substitutes for animal products, such as soya milk, also guilty of unfair competition? Should they also be prohibited from using names associated with animal products? Explain.

Sources| The Telegraph UK: France set to ban vegan food brands from using ‘meaty’ words; Plant Based News: Too Realistic? Pork Lobby Accuses Vegan Bacon Brand Of Unfair Competition; The World: A vegan bacon revolution takes hold in France; Pixabay: Plant based photo