In a beefy moment, beans?

Here we are five and a half years later, amidst a jumble of very different realities: a carnivore upswing (a meat backlash, some might say) interlaced with a broader cultural protein obsession; colliding climate crises with various outcomes including drought on cow-grazing land that has led to sky-high beef prices; and the demise of ultraprocessed fake meat — turns out most meat eaters simply don’t want it. And what of beans?

The Rancho Gordo Heirloom Bean Club, which offers quarterly shipments of dried beans and is often pointed to as a barometer for beans’ rising popularity, has grown from 8,500 members in 2020 to 30,000 today, with a waiting list of 25,000 more. In 2023, a dense bean salad was one of the most popular viral recipes on TikTok. At the end of that year, according to Eater, butter beans hit their stride as a newly “glamorous” food. All the cool culinary people showcase beans, from Julia Turshen to Alison Roman, Samin Nosrat to Justine Doiron. Could it be that, even in the midst of carnivore babies and beef tallow fries, beans are still ascendant?

Why beans?

The thing about beans is that they are very good for you! And satisfying. And versatile. They are also culinary mainstays for a huge number of people from a wide variety of cultures. If we all ate less meat and more beans, it would be a terrific win for the environment. Beans are a better choice than beef, for example, which carries a heavy greenhouse gas load, and is a top contributor to climate change. Beans are better than chicken, since chicken production heavily pollutes both air and water. No need for all of the technology and investment in imitation meat burgers or burgers grown in labs. Beans have all the protein that the protein obsessives want right now. And they are very affordable during a time of true economic hardship. Also, they’re delicious.

There’s a small but growing number of people who are passionate about beans’ many amazing qualities, but that number needs to grow. In our latest podcast episode, we went looking for the bean freaks, to learn from them how we can get everyone as excited about beans as they are. Can they help us persuade the world to fall in love with beans?