At Alef Sausage in north suburban Mundelein, owner Marina Mikhaylova makes cold cuts the old-fashioned Ukrainian way, using traditional ingredients like beef and pork. As for vegetarian options, she says, “We don’t do anything plant based. People stopped buying it.” The boom in meat alternatives has fizzled, for multiple reasons. For starters, the marketing efforts behind some prominent brands backfired by scolding the carnivores among us, who far outnumber the vegans. At the same time, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other red-meat-loving conservatives have joined with big cattle producers alar…