Plant-Based Meat is In Trouble
The pandemic created a bubble that fake meat may not be able to survive
Here’s a piece of news that’s curiously absent from the news cycle: one of the two darlings of the plant-based meat world, Beyond Meat, is streaking toward bankruptcy.
It’s hard to believe. Beyond Meat went public just three years ago, securing partnerships with Taco Bell, Subway, KFC, and Dunkin Brands, among others, with shares in the company skyrocketing some 450% within the first nine months.
Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown boldly claimed he’d shut down the meat industry within 15 years. His company was on its own stratospheric trajectory, securing partnerships with Starbucks and Burger King (among other chains), and flirting with an IPO or SPAC merger of their own that would value the company at $10B or more. The space was so hot that large meat integrators like Tyson started making their plays in the space as Beyond and Impossible (and any number of smaller competitors) made their way into tens of thousands of outlets, and the sky appeared to be the limit.
There was one holdout, however, that probably should have been cause for concern from the very beginning: McDonald’s. The golden arches kept a level head on imitation meat, concerned about both the enormous cost of menu changes and, importantly, the long-term viability plant based meat.
