Despite popular culture pushing meat alternatives and legacy media insisting that Americans are “consuming less red meat,” Americans are eating more beef today than five years ago.

Americans are refusing to ditch red meat in defiance of fad diets and plant-based meat substitutes like the Impossible and Beyond lines of burgers taking over space on restaurant menus.

The New York Post reported that the average American consumed 58.6 pounds of red meat in 2021. In 2017, Americans recorded an all-time low by consuming an average of 54 pounds of red meat that year.

Americans are eating roughly five more pounds of red meat than five years ago.

The New York Post suggested that veganism is a fad that might be on the way out. The Post said that New York City’s exclusive dining scene has even pulled the plug on restaurant projects featuring meatless menus.

The Post said, “The owners of a new skyscraper, 425 Park Avenue, pulled the plug on a planned new restaurant there by EMP chef/owner Daniel Humm because he insisted on an all-vegan menu.”

Humm also “got the boot” from the Claridge’s hotel in London over the same issue.

The Post also suggested that figures in popular culture continually insisting that a meatless diet is the future is an example of them being “hilariously out of touch with the masses.”

“The media-propelled notion that Americans have turned from red meat to fake meat is a case of Park Slope talking to Park Slope — elites hilariously out of touch with the masses,” the Post said.

The New York Times recently suggested that Americans were increasingly moving towards meatless diets by citing a 2019 Gallup poll indicating that one-quarter of its respondents ate less meat. The Times said that respondents to the poll primarily did so “for health reasons.”

The Post, however, insisted that “Big Apple steakhouses are thriving and adding locations” and that the “ban-the-beef movement is part of a ban-anything-that-tastes-good mindset that holds sway in woker-than-thou circles.”

Outside of New York City’s exclusive dining scene, people might simply be eating more beef than faux beef for economic reasons.

Buying beef — at $5.99 a pound — to feed a family of four or five is more affordable than buying Impossible Burger meat substitute packages for nearly $8 — before sales tax — per pound.

Contrary to the popular cultural narrative, for the time being, at least, the working man eats steak while the rich man eats planted-based steak substitute.