News Reporter: Climate Coach: I tested plant-based bacons to find the best

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Climate Coach
Down-to-earth advice for life on our changing planet.

The Washington Post conducted a taste test of plant-based bacon varieties. (Photo by Scott Suchman for The Washington Post; food styling by Lisa Cherkasky for The Washington Post)

By Michael J. Coren

Welcome. This week, water wars and Romanian bison. But first, on the hunt for the best bacon without the pig.

Savory, crispy, crunchy, fatty, smoky, salty.

Bacon embodies the pinnacle of meaty perfection for millions of people. It's both highbrow and down-home: a star at fancy brunch spots, and a staple on 68 percent of fast-food restaurants' menus. Its aroma can recall childhood Sunday mornings, and enhance everything from salad to scallops.

Yet bacon is, shall we say, not the best for you — or the planet.

The World Health Organization classifies it, along with other processed meats, as a carcinogen. Most pork is produced in factory-like livestock farms generating roughly 15 percent of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions, and many of the farms have been known to subject pigs to extreme confinement and overcrowded conditions.

A pork-free version of bacon could change the game, unlocking methods to make all plant-based meats rival the real thing and put a much bigger dent in emissions. Ethan Brown, chief executive of Beyond Meat, which has pursued a plant-based version for years, has called it a "holy grail" for the company.

But few things are harder to replicate than a rasher of bacon.

Flavor is the easy part. It's the anatomy of protein and marbled juicy, crispy fat that melts in your mouth that's hard. It's an experience nearly impossible to replicate with plants.

So I teamed up with The Washington Post's Food Lab to answer a crucial question: Does today's plant-based bacon stack up against the real thing?

Our taste test compared eight common varieties of plant-based bacon on supermarket shelves and one we made ourselves against the original. We sandwiched them in a classic BLT with slices of toasted sourdough bread, fresh beefsteak tomatoes and iceberg lettuce with a schmear of mayo.

Newsroom colleagues rated the samples from 1 to 10 based on taste, texture and their conception of the exemplar BLT, because food is often as much about memories as sensory experience.

John Farrell, video editor for The Post's climate team, recalls the perfect BLT from childhood summers on the Chesapeake Bay: "Bread, tomato and lettuce from the Eastern Shore farm stands with some Old Bay seasoning. Best served with a sunburn and jellyfish sting … chef's kiss."

The main categories were based on mushrooms, soy, wheat and rice. While some failed to impress — "It should be illegal to call this bacon," protested one tester — others came close to satisfying that craving (hello, MorningStar).

To see how they ranked, and what's next for plant-based meat, click on the blue button to read my column below.

Write me with your questions at climatecoach@washpost.com. I read all your emails.

Click here to read the column

Field Sample

A dangerous phenomenon is reshaping the South: Storms are meeting rapidly rising seas to create epic floods that threaten lives, property and livelihoods, write Chris Mooney, John Muyskens, Kevin Crowe and Brianna Sacks, as part of The Post's series, The Drowning South.

A rapid burst of sea level rise is overwhelming outdated infrastructure from Texas to North Carolina.

The Post also worked with Bret Webb, a coastal engineer at the University of South Alabama, to closely study the 2023 flood in the Fowl River region as higher seas turbocharge floods.

"Our canary in the coal mine for sea level rise is stormwater flooding," said Renee Collini, director of the Community Resilience Center at the Water Institute. "Each inch up of sea level rise reduces the effectiveness of our stormwater to drain and the only place left for it to go is into our roads, yards, homes and businesses."

Read more to explore how sea level rise is transforming the region.

Snapshot

Violent storms slammed Houston on Thursday, a mix of downbursts and tornadoes with winds comparable to those from a Category 1 or 2 hurricane.

Record-warm land and ocean temperatures from the Florida Keys to Mexico primed the atmosphere for the exceptionally intense storms, killing at least four people, downing trees, cutting power to more than 870,000 customers and blowing out skyscraper windows.

Conejo Malo, a club in downtown Houston, was severely damaged during the storm. (Danielle Villasana for The Washington Post)

The Second Degree

Ron Savage in Albuquerque described having a pollinator garden on the edge of natural areas — and neighbors who hire services to spray pesticides regularly. "This presents a dilemma," he writes. "Am I merely luring in wildlife to be poisoned?"

It's true pesticides can drift between yards, wiping out insects. But when applied sparingly, or not at all, insects can quickly repopulate — if given the chance. "There needs to be more of a 'whole of society' approach since urban wildlife habitat is becoming more and more critical to the conservation of many species," he writes.

And you had so many stories of epic backyard wildlife after my column on discovering urban biodiversity in your own city. One of my favorites was this American black bear in Northwest Washington, D.C.

"He knocked down some birdfeeders and snuffled around looking for food," says Lisa Natanson, who said animal experts assured her the bear was migrating on his way to Western Maryland. "He did come back three nights in a row, but I did not see him last night."