Subscribe Third wave of plant-based will move beyond highly processed meat analogs, says Crafty Counter: 'Why aren’t we eating more plants as plants?' By Elaine Watson If high-tech reverse engineering has enabled a second generation of meat analogs that precisely mimic their animal-based counterparts, a third wave of plant-based innovation will meet demand for less processed, more culinary-inspired products featuring a wider array of plants, predicts the founder of Crafty Counter, who sells her lentil- and bean-based nuggets in retailers from Walmart to Central Market. Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods, and other brands targeting meat eaters with their plant-based wares have been key to attracting mainstream consumers by offering one-for-one replacements for the foods they know and love (burgers, sausages, nuggets, tacos), says Hema Reddy, a computer scientist and high-flying IBM executive who packed in the day job in 2016 to launch Sneaky Apron (now