The fight over meat-free meat pits Europe’s traditionalists against foodie innovators

Whereas Americans indulge in soy milk or vegan yogurt, Europeans have to make do with “soya drink” and something ominously called “oatgurt”. Imposing this odd nomenclature on non-dairy substitutes mattered little in the 1980s, when the European Union first caved in to lobbying by farmers dealing in actual mammaries. (Peanut “butter” and ice “cream” were among the few exceptions tolerated.) These days supermarket shelves are stuffed not just with oatgurt but with vegan burger patties and “no-fish fingers”. Having convinced politicians Champagne must hail from the eponymous French region and Parmesan cheese only from Parma, Big Farm has tried to extend its grip even to generic agricultural terms. A bid to outlaw vegetarian sausages—or at least calling them sausages—made headway at EU level in 2020 but narrowly failed. Now individual countries have taken over the task. France revived a previously shelved ban on meaty terms, which it unveiled (not uncoincidentally) at the height of farmers’ protests earlier this year. A few months earlier Italy earmarked “salami” for pork products; Poland has considered a similar move.