We’re happy to see the growth of food made with plant-based ingredients. It’s never been easier to be a vegetarian. Our choices and access to plant-based foods continues to grow and grow. Here are the latest four pieces of news:

Plant-based food – the leading trend

At a recent Natural Products Expo, plant-based foods was the leading trend in the food industry.  Environmental, health and ethical concerns related to the production and consumption of animal products has moved purposefully plant-based foods, once relegated to the vegan and vegetarian minority, into the mainstream. Innovative new meat and dairy alternatives are improving upon taste and texture all the time, therefore widening the appeal of a plant-based way of eating.

Whole Foods no longer whole paycheck.

You’ve probably heard by now that Amazon has just bought Whole Foods, one of the biggest sellers of vegetarian food in the country. Changes are starting right away. Amazon promised that it would cut prices when the deal closed so that Whole Foods — whose natural and organic products often carried premium prices that resulted in the upscale chain being derisively dubbed “Whole Paycheck” — would instead start to become “affordable for everyone.”

Store displays showed the “new lower price” on items along with the prior price, along with signs that said “We’re Growing Something Good — Whole Foods + Amazon.” There have been immediate price drops on a wide selection of foods ranging anywhere from about 30%-45%.

Amy’s set to challenge McDonald’s

Look out McDonald’s and Burger King, because the all-vegetarian chain of fast food restaurants, Amy’s, is ready to take you on! Amy’s Drive Thru is aiming to become America’s first vegetarian national fast-food chain, competing with giants like McDonald’s and KFC.

Fast food is a guilty pleasure many Americans find impossible to avoid. But Amy’s Drive Thru is a first-of-its-kind restaurant serving up organic, local, vegetarian, and non-GMO fare. Two years after the company opened its first location in Rohnert Park, California, business is booming. Six new Northern California locations are currently in the works and the plan is to go national.  Amy’s is already a favorite of vegetarians all over the country with their line of vegetarian food products widely available.

Here comes Benevolent Bacon

We’ve been watching big food companies acquire smaller vegetarian food companies with some trepidation. But, overall they have continued selling the same products except now they have wider distribution. Nestlé’s, sensing the rising popularity of vegetarian food, has just acquired the vegetarian food company, Sweet Earth.

Sweet Earth specializes in turning tofu, lentils and beans into alternatives that resemble meat. It uses them in frozen and chilled breakfast sandwiches, burritos and burgers. The company’s 48 menu items includes offerings like “General Tso’s Tofu,” “Meatless Sausage, “Benevolent Bacon” and “The Curry Tiger.”

Watch out for more good news, as we’re sure this trend is set to continue!