In 2026, grocery aisles will reflect “back-to-basics” eating and a “return to real” when it comes to meat and dairy.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
As the calendar flips to 2026, shoppers are doubling down on the real deal.
Despite the globalist narrative drive and the mainstream media push, consumers are choosing real meat and dairy products and passing on lab-grown steaks and cricket protein snacks. After years of hype around futuristic food tech, signs show that people aren’t buying what the experts are selling.
Some recent stories show that 2026 will see the return to real food options. To begin with, Ÿnsect, once the largest insect‑protein producer in Europe, is essentially bankrupt after failing to secure the financing needed to continue its operations and execute its restructuring plan.
Ÿnsect said via a statement that it “has been unable to secure the necessary financing for its continuation plan within the required timeframe,” citing “difficulties faced by startups in climate-related or agricultural sectors in raising funds.”
Ÿnsect will close its industrial-scale facility near Dole. The Keprea facility will continue, with a new focus on producing fertilizers from insect waste.
In a statement, Emmanuel Pinto, president of Ÿnsect, said the company “now has solid technologies and an operational model, even though the required funding could not be secured in time.
“We hope that the significant technical and industrial skills developed by the teams at Ÿnsect, along with the established business relationships, will find productive use and contribute significantly to both Europe’s protein independence and the fight against climate change.”
As PJ Media’s Catherine Salgado notes, it is at least one positive sign that the population of Europe has not completely rolled over to the globalists yet:
But when people have a choice, only a very small number of them will willingly eat worms and scorpions and ants instead of hamburgers and roast chicken and bacon. Certainly, the elites never follow their own advice by cutting meat entirely in favor of crickets and grasshoppers. And globalists have not yet succeeded in so impoverishing and crushing European citizens that most of them cannot afford meat and have to grub up alternatives. So naturally, the insect production company went out of business.
Eerst Meatable en nu dit. Wat een geweldig nieuws zo laat in het jaar.
— Ing. Drs. Willy Wokkelworst (@noescom1977) December 30, 2025
Next on the list of related stories is an Israeli‑founded cultivated meat startup that developed cell‑based meat products, which also ran out of funding.
A lab-grown cultivated chicken breast made by Israeli-founded startup Believer Meats. (Courtesy)Israeli-founded startup Believer Meats, a biotechnology firm that creates chicken, lamb and beef products made from animal cells, has been forced to shut down its operations after running out of funds.
The decision was announced by Believer Meats global HR & talent leader Anne Schubert, who wrote on LinkedIn: “After two years of building something truly bold and special, Believer Meats made the difficult decision last week to cease operations.”
“While the outcome is not what any of us hoped for, I am incredibly proud of what we accomplished together,” Schubert said.
Believer Meats, formerly known as Future Meat Technologies, which has operations in Israel and the US, did not explain or share further details about the closure, and did not respond to requests for comment when contacted by The Times of Israel.
Italy and Hungary have Banned Lab-Grown Meat.
“Our land is fertile, livestock healthy, our people will not be poisoned with fake meat.”
Do you support Meloni and Orbán? pic.twitter.com/bPdQkgvF2b
— Based Hungary (@HungaryBased) December 30, 2025
Finally, over the last week, Meatable (a Dutch cultivated meat startup) is closing after failing to secure sufficient new financing.
The company was founded in 2018 in Delft and later moved its operations to Leiden. Agronomics, which invested millions of euros in Meatable, said the startup faced a mix of expected and unexpected risks and uncertainties this year and was unable to obtain adequate funding from existing shareholders or new investors.
“Although this outcome is disappointing, we believe the decision has been taken responsibly and in the best interests of all stakeholders,” Agronomics CEO Jim Mellon said in a statement.
Meatable launched seven years ago with plans to bring lab-grown meat to the market as a sustainable and animal-friendly alternative to farms and slaughterhouses. The company staged the European Union’s first-ever cultivated meat tasting, which was held in 2024 in the Netherlands, but it struggled to get its food on the shelves over safety concerns.
The European Union does not yet permit the sale of lab-grown meat, prompting Meatable to focus on the Singapore market. It also intended to bring products to the United States, but has had difficulty overcoming concerns about cultivated meat.
I predict that in 2026, grocery aisles will reflect “back-to-basics” eating and a “return to real” when it comes to meat and dairy.
Hopefully, the American cattle and poultry markets will be protected and expand in 2026 to meet the needs of the “return to real” meat. https://t.co/FQu2vgGAvo
— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) December 31, 2025
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