We illustrated how the ingredient lists of these products were similar to dog food . We pushed for accurate labels . More importantly , we were able to prove their claims about our environmental impact were absolutely false and misleading .
From the CEO
Colin Woodall
In July ’ s edition of National Cattlemen , NCBA president Mark Eisele talked about the work we have done in fighting back against lab-grown protein . This has been a priority issue for us , and Mark did an excellent job recapping recent developments . As I read his article , it got me thinking about all the work NCBA has done on the issue of fake meat , so I wanted to build on the piece he wrote .
In early 2019 , Beyond Meat , Incorporated , was listed on NASDAQ with an initial public offering price of $ 25 per share . It started trading at almost twice that number and , given the hype around their products , the stock price quickly rose to almost $ 235 per share by the end of July . Just a few weeks later , Burger King introduced their Impossible Whopper and it seemed that was all we heard about for weeks . You , as our membership , made it clear that NCBA needed to step up and start punching . Thanks to the policy direction you gave us , we began our campaign and made the term “ fake meat ” one that was used in daily conversation . We illustrated how the ingredient lists of these products were similar to dog food . We pushed for accurate labels . More importantly , we were able to prove their claims about our environmental impact were absolutely false and misleading . From news stories to working with Congress , we were able to protect and defend beef .
The interesting thing about Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods is they built their entire marketing campaigns around disparaging real beef . They forgot about the need to create a product the consumer actually wants and is willing to pay for . That became painfully clear to them during the pandemic when the consumer was cleaning out the beef case and leaving behind fully stocked displays of Beyond products . As I am writing this , Beyond Meat ’ s stock is trading around $ 6 per share . That is a drop of more than 95 % from its high . As I was looking at the historical stock price chart , an article popped up about Beyond Meat with the title “ Some Ideas Are Too Bad To Invest In .” That pretty much sums up the state of plant-based fake meat .
As Mark wrote about , though , we ’ re still in the game of defending our industry from lab-grown protein . We ’ re not willing to call this stuff “ fake meat ” because we don ’ t know how it is produced . We know they take cells from cattle and put them in a bioreactor along with a lot of other stuff that NCBA Past President Todd Wilkinson famously calls “ goop .” It is a good name since the companies have not disclosed what it ’ s comprised of . Do you find it interesting that many of the people funding these companies are also the ones who
NOTHING BEATS THE REAL THING
are firmly against conventional agriculture and love to use the terms “ factory farming ” and “ industrial agriculture ?”
These companies have yet to create a product that imitates beef , but they haven ’ t given up . In the meantime , we have been successful in securing USDA ’ s role in inspecting these products . Lab-grown protein companies like Upside Foods only wanted FDA to have jurisdiction over their manufacturing process . FDA uses a riskbased inspection process which means you might see an inspector once a week , once a month or possibly once a year . Beef processing plants must have inspectors on the job every day . Since live bovine cells are being used in the bioreactor process , there is no reason to believe they would not be subject to many of the same food borne threats we are . We succeeded in securing USDA ’ s role in the inspection process . That is a huge win for us . We must still work on ensuring these products are labeled accurately for the consumer , but that has not been an easy task with the Biden administration .
In the meantime , the lab-grown protein companies aren ’ t finding much love . Upside Foods cut its workforce and restructured its leadership team . SCiFi Foods , a California company focused only on lab-grown protein from cattle cells , went out of business . Earlier this summer , we discovered that the U . S . Department of Defense ( DoD ) was preparing to spend your tax dollars to fund another California company called BioMADE in developing a lab-grown protein that would provide nutrient-dense military rations for our men and women in the armed forces . There is no way NCBA was going to allow our troops to be treated like lab rats when beef is already a nutrient-dense food available today . NCBA was on just about every news station talking about this waste of tax dollars and mistreatment of our armed forces personnel . We had a long line of Senators and Members of Congress offering amendments to stop this . Retired Air Force Brigadier General Don Bacon represents the 2nd Congressional District of Nebraska and made it clear this action by DoD was unacceptable to him as a Congressman and an Air Force veteran . I ’ m pleased to let you know NCBA killed that DoD project .
Nothing beats beef the way nature intended it to be . The consumer knows it and is showing their support through strong beef demand . The fake meat and lab-grown companies continue to learn this lesson the hard way . This fight is far from being over , but NCBA will continue to lead in defending you .
We illustrated how the ingredient lists of these products were similar to dog food . We pushed for accurate labels . More importantly , we were able to prove their claims about our environmental impact were absolutely false and misleading .
6 NATIONAL CATTLEMEN www . NCBA . org