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Business Wars Episode Notes: Beyond Meat vs. Impossible Burger | Pressure Cooker | 1
Podcast Overview Title: Business Wars Host: David Brown Description: Business Wars explores the intense competition between major companies, their leaders, and how these rivalries shape consumer behavior and market trends.
Episode Summary In this first episode of the series "Beyond Meat vs. Impossible Burger," we delve into the origins and early challenges of two prominent players in the plant-based meat industry. The narrative alternates between the founders of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, highlighting their shared vision for combating climate change by creating plant-based alternatives to traditional meat products.
Key Characters
- Ethan Brown: Founder of Beyond Meat, originally from the fuel cell industry.
- Pat Brown: Founder of Impossible Foods, a biochemist and professor at Stanford University.
Episode Timeline
June 2024
Competitive Eating Controversy
- George Shea, commissioner of Major League Eating, confronts champion Joey Chestnut over his endorsement deal with Impossible Foods.
- Shea argues the conflict between competitive eating (animal-based) and the plant-based movement, reflecting broader tensions in the industry.
Origins of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods
- 2008: Both founders, unaware of each other's endeavors, begin contemplating the environmental impact of animal agriculture.
Ethan Brown's Journey
- Transition from the fuel cell industry to exploring plant-based meat.
- His frustration with friends' meat-eating habits leads him to envision a profitable vegan meat alternative.
- Collaborates with researchers to create meat substitutes using a food extruder.
Pat Brown's Journey
- Initiates a sabbatical focused on solving climate change by eliminating cows, and subsequently, meat.
- Identifies the key component (heme) that gives meat its flavor, aiming to replicate it in plant-based alternatives.
Key Developments
- 2010s: Both companies face challenges in scaling production and perfecting taste, leading to significant financial investments and innovations.
- Pat Brown experiments with genetically engineered yeast to produce heme, while Ethan Brown struggles with developing a plant-based burger that meets taste expectations.
Competitor Dynamics
- The rivalry is defined not only by their products but also by their contrasting business strategies:
- Beyond Meat focuses on a marketing narrative that appeals to health-conscious consumers and environmental advocates.
- Impossible Foods aims to create a product indistinguishable from meat to lure traditional meat eaters.
Market Impact
- Plant-based meat sales surge, reaching nearly $1 billion in 2019 and doubling by 2023, showcasing a growing market for meat alternatives.
- Both companies grapple with rising costs and the challenge of maintaining profitability amid changing consumer behaviors.
Key Takeaways
- The episode illustrates how both entrepreneurs' personal beliefs about health and the environment led to innovative solutions in food technology.
- The conflict between traditional meat consumption and plant-based alternatives symbolizes broader societal shifts towards sustainability and health.
- The competition between Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods highlights the importance of innovative thinking and scientific research in developing new products.
Conclusion This episode sets the stage for an intense rivalry that not only reshapes the food industry but also poses critical questions about environmental sustainability and animal welfare. As the series progresses, the stakes will rise, revealing how these companies navigate challenges and opportunities in the quest for dominance in the plant-based market.
Next Episode Preview The upcoming episode will delve into the advancements made by both companies as they introduce their flagship products to the market, and how the meat industry responds to this rapidly evolving landscape.
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Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:07It's June 2024 in New York City. In his office on bustling Fifth Avenue, George Shea fiddles with his smartphone. The thin, gray-haired 59-year-old is the commissioner of Major League Eating, the world's biggest competitive eating league. And right now, he's sick to his stomach. Shea searches his phone for a video he hopes will make him feel better. He calls up one showing last year's Nathan's famous international hot dog eating contest on Coney Island. In the video, Shea himself dramatically introduces the defending champion of the hot dog eating contest, Joey Chestnut. And the guards shine down on us still because of him alone.
0:48Because of him alone. The Nathan's famous 4th of July champion of the world,
0:59Joey Chestnut!
1:06Shea pauses the video. and reluctantly reaches for his office's landline. He dials 40-year-old Joey Chestnut's number and prepares for a confrontation with the biggest star in competitive eating. Hey, George, we're going to talk about Impossible Foods again? I'm afraid so, Joey. Chestnut recently agreed to become a brand ambassador for Impossible Foods, a maker of plant-based meat products. Shea wants Chestnut to chew that deal up and spit it out. Now listen, Joey, you're the hot dog eating champion of the world. I can't have you out in public endorsing another hot dog brand and a plant-based one at that.
1:44Are you going vegan or something? No way. I ate 62 beef hot dogs in last year's contest, and I'll do it again this year. Besides, Impossible Foods doesn't even market to vegans and vegetarians. They want meat eaters to buy their stuff. Why do you think a meat eater wants vegan meat? Well, it has no cholesterol. It's better for the environment. Raising animals takes more resources in growing plants. Shea shakes his head. Oh, for God's sakes, Joey, the Fourth of July contest is a beef-only event, and competitive eating celebrates overconsumption. Plus, we've already offered you a lot,$300 ,000 a year to stick with us.
2:21So, this is the last time I'm going to ask you. Will you drop your deal with Impossible Foods? Chestnut takes a deep breath, opening his mouth wide to reveal a sharp set of teeth that have earned him a fearsome nickname, Jaws. George, Impossible Foods is paying me way more than 300 grand. I am not going to quit. Joey, if that's your final decision, then I'm afraid you're banned from this year's hot dog eating contest. Stay off Coney Island on the 4th of July.
2:55Chestnut is gutted by the ban. But for his new sponsor, Impossible Foods, the public beef with a hot dog brand is a huge opportunity that comes at just the right moment. Impossible Foods and its closest competitor, Beyond Meat, exploded like fireworks when they debuted their plant-based meat substitutes less than a decade ago. But consumers have cut back on plant burgers and dogs since then. That's left Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat on the brink of implosion. Now, if the companies can use chestnut as an example of the power of plants, they just might be able to save their hides.
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6:13In grocery stores these days, there are all kinds of products that promise to be both good for you and good for the planet. Restaurants are in on this trend, too. Many chefs at fancy eateries have pulled back on meat and fish out of environmental concerns. In their place, they've made vegetable entrees the star of the show. Meanwhile, chain restaurants have amped up their vegetarian and vegan offerings, too. At some of those restaurants today, diners can order plant-based meats like chicken and pepperoni and burgers. Those same kinds of meats are now in supermarkets around the world. But go back in time by just a decade, and those options wouldn't have existed.
6:54Plant-based meat that looks, chews, and tastes like real meat only became widely available starting in 2013, when California-based Beyond Meat debuted its Beyond Chicken strips. Three years later, the Beyond Burger debuted. It was joined that year by the Impossible Burger from another California company, Impossible Foods. Plant-based meat sales then skyrocketed, reaching nearly$1 billion in sales in 2019 and doubling that amount in 2023. The two California companies that pioneered the industry are led by two men who have much in common and yet couldn't be more different. Both share the same last name, Brown.
7:39Both spent their early years in Washington, D.C. Both were meat eaters when they were young, but became vegans because they abhorred the slaughter of animals. But Beyond Meat's founder is a tall jock who played college basketball, while Impossible Foods founder is a skinny college professor. The companies have sold their fake meat by offering a real promise, that buying it could change the world. Both companies say their products require fewer environmental resources than animal agriculture. And both suggest that replacing meat with their burgers and sausages will make the world a cleaner, better place.
8:16The beef industry has pushed back on those claims through a testy lobbying battle. But the bigger problem for these pioneering firms is that their costs and prices have spiraled up. That's threatening to bring their entire fortunes crashing down. In our new four-part series, we'll uncover the secret recipes that led to the rise of the two dominant plant-based meat makers and reveal how their fight for the planet became a fight with each other. This is Episode 1, Fresher Cooker.
8:54It's June 2008. At a restaurant in Vancouver, Canada, four executives from a Canadian fuel cell manufacturer take seats at the bar. A bank of big-screen TVs above them is playing game two of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. 36-28. Celtics with an eight-point advantage. Nearly five minutes gone by here in the second. Brian again. Hand in his face and nails it. One of the executives takes special note of the game. He's Ethan Brown, a 6-foot, 5-inch, 37-year-old American who fondly recalls his days as a college basketball player at Connecticut College. Hey, Ethan, you think you could take Kobe Bryant one-on-one?
9:38Kobe's only an inch taller than me. So, yeah, on my best day, I could have kept the pace with him. But he'd probably beat me with his fadeaway jumper. The executives order a round of beers. They've just closed a deal to provide their company's environmentally friendly fuel cells to an electric bus manufacturer. That's what led Ethan to take this job. Since he was a student, he's wanted to combat climate change. When the drinks arrive, Ethan stands. Towering over his colleagues, he holds a glass aloft. Here's to us saving the world. One electric bus at a time. Ethan sits back down and his colleagues place their orders.
10:16I'll take the ribeye, medium rare. Yeah, same here. I'll take the ribeye too, but make mine rare. I like it bloody. Ethan goes in a different direction. I'll have the vegetarian meatloaf, please. The vegetarian meatloaf, Ethan? That sounds gross. Ethan gets this kind of ribbing about his vegan eating habits a lot. And he's growing tired of it. He runs one hand through his reddish-brown hair and fires back at his colleagues. Look, I used to love meat. When I was a kid, I took my first date to McDonald's. But I also spent a lot of time on my dad's farm in Maryland. And once I learned the environmental costs of raising animals for meat, plus the violence involved in slaughtering, I just couldn't eat them anymore.
11:00And honestly, maybe you guys shouldn't eat them either. Ethan, if you want to take my steak away from me, you're going to need to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. Ethan can feel his temper rising. I don't get you guys. Our fuel cell business creates clean energy sources to help the climate. And whenever we go out, you eat all this meat. But the worst thing for the planet isn't cars, it's livestock. Well, what are you going to do, Ethan? Quit and go open a tofu factory? In the days to come, Ethan's colleague's indifference gnaws at him. He rethinks his entire professional future and eventually decides that a business making meat alternatives could be both profitable and have a huge impact on the climate.
11:45The problem is, he has no idea how to make fake meat. So he begins a hunt to find someone who can help him cook up a change.
12:00It's summer 2008 in Northern California. Two top scientists sit down for lunch at a cafe. One of the scientists is 54-year-old Pat Brown, a medical doctor turned biochemist whose genome breakthroughs earned him membership in the elite National Academy of Sciences. He's recently begun a long sabbatical where he hopes to find a way to change the world. Across the table from Pat is 41-year-old Michael Eisen, a computational biologist from the University of California, Berkeley, who's one of Pat's good friends. A server arrives to take their order. Can I get the brown rice bowl with the broccoli, corn, and spinach and sweet chili sauce?
12:41Eisen tops his rice bowl with tofu, cucumbers, and fried garlic. As they wait, the men discuss Pat's future. So, Pat, you wanted to talk about your sabbatical. I'm betting you're planning on studying something big while you're away. After all, you're the guy who invented the DNA microarray and figured out how retroviruses like AIDS integrate their genes into the genome of cells they infect. Nothing big. Pat nerdily pushes his oval-rimmed glasses up on his face with one finger. Well, I want to do something even bigger now. As their rice bowls arrive, Pat scoots himself closer to the table. He's thin and wiry thanks to a vegan diet and marathon training.
13:22Picking up his fork, Pat queries his colleague as if he were a student. Let me ask you this, Michael. What's the biggest problem we could work on? Climate change, Pat. I mean, duh, that's obvious. Okay, but what's the biggest thing we could do to affect climate change? I guess if we got rid of fossil fuel-burning cars and swapped them with electric vehicles? Nope, not big enough. You know, I haven't eaten a hamburger since 1976. I really believe that animal agriculture is our biggest problem. If we want to solve climate change, we have to do one thing. Get rid of all the cows. All the cows? Yes, all.
14:03Cows are a big source of methane and nitrous oxide, greenhouse gases that are more potent than carbon dioxide. Cows also outweigh every other wild vertebrate on land by more than a factor of ten. I mean, if we get rid of these friggin' cows, nature can recover. Come on, but how are you going to accomplish that, Pat? Brown stabs at a piece of broccoli and ponders his answer. After decades of successfully tackling some of the toughest problems in science, he's not used to being stumped. I honestly don't know how. Not yet, anyway. But I've got the next 18 months to figure it out. Just weeks later, Pat's sabbatical is underway.
14:43He begins his big mission of change in a very small way, by digging up little plants from the dirt that's just outside of his office. Pat has a long way to go if he wants to save the world. And across the country, another vegan, also named Brown, is about to get a head start on the same mission.
15:09It's fall 2009, Columbia, Missouri. Inside a research lab at the University of Missouri, Ethan Brown looks over the control panel of a refrigerator-sized food extrusion machine. For the past year, he's spent much of his time searching for someone who could answer a big question. Can you build a piece of meat from plants? And he thinks he might have found that someone in work being done by two Mizzou professors, Fu Hung She and Harold Huff. Huff presses a button, and the machine turns on. Ethan, follow me over to the mixing bowl. Six-foot-five Brown squeezes himself between a two-foot-wide canister of liquid nitrogen and a wall filled with pipes and gauges of various sizes.
15:52He meets the balding, mustachioed 58-year-old Huff at the other side of the machine. This thing looks like a giant KitchenAid stand mixer, Professor. Well, it is similar, but bigger. This is technically called a twin-screw food extruder. It has the mixing bowl, and then this metal box, it acts just like a pressure cooker. You know, Kellogg's uses this same kind of machine to make Froot Loops, but in my lab, we use it to make chicken out of dried soybeans. Huff smiles as he slides on a pair of white rubber gloves. He hands another pair to Ethan. This lab's director, Fu Hung Shea, and I worked for more than a decade to finally get this process to work.
16:31Here, let me show you. Huff rolls up the sleeves on the white lab coat and grabs a large white bucket with both of his hands. The bucket is filled to the brim with an unappetizing gray substance that looks like concrete mix. Huff pours it into the extruder's mixing bowl, then dumps a big bucket of water in. He leads Ethan back to the extruder's control panel. Now hit that green button, Ethan. That turns on the mixer. The soybeans, seasoning, and water combine in the mixer. The machine then forces everything through a long metal box. Inside, the soybeans mix into a firm long patty that slowly slides out of a small gap at the front of the extruder.
17:11Huff rips small pieces off and lays them on a sheet tray. Now this is plant-based chicken. It's cholesterol-friendly. Ethan picks up a strip and studies it carefully. Hmm. It actually looks a little like chicken, Professor. But it's a little too gray. Ethan pops the strip into his mouth, chews for a while, and swallows. Then, a huge grin spreads across his bearded face. I really taste like chicken. It even chews like chicken. Professor, I want to license this technology from you right now. If we can use it to make plant-based chicken, then we can use it to make a plant-based burger, too. Having found the tech he was looking for, Ethan quits his fuel cell job and signs a licensing deal with Huff, Shea, and the university.
17:58He's ready to bet everything he owns that the future of plant-based meats will be a profitable one. But that bet will nearly cost him everything.
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20:40It's November 2010 in Washington, D.C. Inside a drab, gray-walled hotel conference room, dozens of academics and policymakers are watching a speaker give a slideshow presentation about livestock. Well, the next slide shows hundreds of cows in a feeding barn. Now, globally, agriculture accounts for a significant amount of methane emissions. In the back of the room, Stanford professor Pat Brown stands by himself. His arms are folded across his chest, and he's scowling. Pat has organized this conference. He's invited some of the country's top minds, asking them to bring proposals for blunting animal agriculture's impact on the climate.
21:19But Pat doesn't like what he's hearing. Now, my proposal to slash methane emissions from livestock is to create a new paradigm for manure management. If we can store manure better, we can make a real impact on the climate. Brown rolls his eyes. He mumbles under his breath. Bulls**t. Manure management isn't enough. We need to do a whole lot more. Brown walks briskly to the exit, then through the lobby and out the front door. As tourists and taxis pass by, Pat paces. Moments later, he's joined by his friend and Stanford colleague, Michael Eisen. Hey, what's up, Pat? I saw you storm out. Michael, I put this event together because I wanted to find new innovative ways to enact change.
22:06But all we're hearing are the same old, typical, misguided academic approaches to this problem. But Pat, come on, this is an A-list gathering. What were you expecting? I think these are the best ideas in all of academia. And that proves we can't solve this from our ivory towers. I think I might have another way to go about it. You know, the capitalist way. Pat reaches into the pocket of the navy blazer he's wearing and pulls out a folded piece of paper. He unfolds it and hands it to Eisen. You know, the only way to beat big beef is to give people something better to buy. And I think I might have found a way to make something better, something I could build a business around.
22:44That paper shows a sketch of a dissected soy plant. You see these little roots? Yeah. Well, during my sabbatical, I had this hunch there might be a component in root nodules, similar to what's found in meat. So I've been digging up little plants around my office and slicing their roots open. In all of them, I found a compound called leghemoglobin, or just heme. It's the same thing you find in animal tissue, except in animals it's called myoglobin. It gives meat its red color, and I think it's the thing that makes beef so delicious. So how do you build a business out of that? Well, I want to use heme to make beef substitutes, something made from plants that taste identical to beef.
23:26That way meat eaters will buy it and they won't have to give up eating burgers. And because plant-based meats will require fewer resources than cows require, I'll have a big cost advantage. I mean, hell, I'll pull the economic rug right out from under big beef. It'll be a form of legal economic sabotage. Eisen hands the paper back to Pat. Where are you going to get the money for this plant burger business? It'll be easy. I work in Silicon Valley. You can't walk down the street there without tripping over a venture capitalist. The next day, Pat heads back to California and starts drafting his pitch to venture capital firms.
24:02If he gets the money, he'll still have one big problem. This Stanford genius has no clue how to run a business.
24:16It's just after sunset in late 2010. At the Columbia Regional Airport in Missouri, a private jet touches down on the runway. Moments later, the plane arrives at the airport's private air terminal. Its owner, 64-year-old venture capitalist Ray Lane, walks down the air stairs. There, he's greeted by the man who invited him here for a critical taste test, 40-year-old Ethan Brown. The pair hop into Ethan's car and begin a short drive to the University of Missouri's lab of Harold Huff and Fu Hong Shea. Inside, Ethan leads the gray-haired Lane to the lab's food extruder. Ray, I've been working with this machine for the past two years trying to make plant-based chicken that tastes and chews like the real thing.
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25:01I hope you'll find the results worth your investment. Well, plant-based meat is a far-out idea, Ethan. But I'm hearing you out today because my firm has invested in a lot of far-out ideas, including backing Twitter back when it was just a startup. Ethan smiles and slides on a pair of rubber gloves. I think I've got something in common with Twitter, actually. Twitter disrupted old modes of communication. I want to disrupt the oldest food technology there is, the animal, by replacing it with plants. Now, are you ready to taste some chicken strips? Yeah, let's go. Ethan turns on the extruder and notices that his hands are shaking.
25:40Everything is on the line for him. To fund his research over the past two years, Ethan has sold his home, cashed out his 401k and drained the college savings accounts he'd set aside for his two children. He desperately needs investor help. Ethan tries to calm himself as he pulls white strips of meaty material out of the extruder and offers them to Lane. Let me get you a fork. I don't need one. I want to find out if this chicken is finger-licking good. Lane's eyes widen with each bite. Mm, this is good. It really does taste just like chicken. But a few minutes later, Lane finds himself still chewing.
26:22Hey, Ethan, do you have any toothpicks? This chicken is sticking to my teeth. Ethan feels like he's been hunched in the gut. He tries to salvage his pitch. Ray, I'll admit it. We've got a way to go. But I really need your money to perfect the taste and texture. Lane shrugs his shoulders. I don't know. Let me think it over.
26:48On the flight back to California, Lane calls Twitter's co-founder, 37-year-old Biz Stone. Hey, Biz. I need your help vetting an unusual startup. It's from a guy who's a vegetarian just like you. I'll email you this guy's business plan. He calls it a Prius for the plate. A couple of hours later, as Lane's plane begins its descent into San Jose International Airport, his phone rings. It's Biz Stone. Ray, my first thought when I started checking this Ethan Brown guy out was, oh boy, here's some hippie who's going to preach that eating animals is mean stuff. But his plan, as I see it, is super practical.
27:31He's going to use big science to make these plant meats scalable. You know, I think it can work. Months later, Kleiner Perkins sends Ethan a check for$2 million. Ethan has his seed funding and gives his new company a name, Beyond Meat. But what he doesn't know is that just down the street from Kleiner Perkins, another VC firm is about to create a powerful competitor by handing a$3 million check to Pat Brown.
28:08It's November 2012 in rural Minnesota. A year after securing seed money and founding a business he calls Impossible Foods, Pat Brown and a team of scientists are in the middle of a soybean field trying to get a truck to start, a street-sweeping truck. A confused farm worker walks up to Pat. Hey, why'd you bring that contraption to a farm? We're turning it into a harvester. We're going to throw a bunch of soy plant stems in there and hope the street sweeper's bristles can knock the root nodules off the plants so we can collect the nodules. Brown reaches down and grabs a stray stem from off the ground.
28:43It's thin and woody, resembling a grapevine. He points to the tiny root nodules. These nodules contain an ingredient we think is the key to making a plant-based burger taste just like a regular burger. It's called heme. The farm worker is still confused. He pulls off his ball cap and scratches his head. Never heard of heme. But why don't you just use regular farm equipment? Pat uses the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe sweat from his forehead. He's not sure if he wants to admit that he rented this street sweeper out of desperation. He and his team have tried almost a dozen different machines to efficiently harvest soy root nodules.
29:23Every one of them has failed. Finally, Pat fesses up. Well, if heme is the key ingredient that we think it's going to be, then we've got to figure out an easy way to efficiently harvest tens of millions of these root nodules. So we use the heme inside to make millions or even billions of plant-based burgers. We haven't had any luck so far, so we're just experimenting with this sweeper. Oh, hey, it's working. Pat and his team start loading piles of soybean stems into the sweeper's bristles. They run to the back of the machine to see the results. Most of the nodules remain attached to their stems.
30:00Damn it, we failed again. The farm worker puts a hand on Pat's shoulder. Fella, I don't think farming is for you. Maybe you ought to go back to your science lab or something. Pat takes the advice to heart. Returning by plane to Impossible Foods offices in California, he scribbles some numbers in a notebook. He realizes that he's burning through his seed money and getting nowhere. He doesn't even have an edible prototype plant-based burger. Then, an idea hits him. If he can't harvest enough heme in the fields, then maybe he should follow the advice of that farm worker and go back to what he knows best and grow it in the lab.
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33:08It's early 2013 in Redwood City, California. Inside the Impossible Foods lab, Pat Brown is joined by his wife and fellow geneticist, Sue Clapholz. Until Impossible Foods came along, Clapholz was happily retired. Pat had to convince her to leave behind her jewelry making and nature photography hobbies to join him in the lab. At the moment, Sue is sticking her nose inside a device called a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer. The machine is analyzing a handful of molecules that make up Impossible Foods' latest burger prototype. And Clapholz is sniffing like a bunny, trying to see what each individual molecule smells like.
33:49Sue, sorry to interrupt. How's the test going? Well, this batch smells a lot better. We seem to have eliminated the diaper pail scent. Well, that's progress. Pat pulls up a nearby chair and sits in it backwards. You know, I think I might have a new idea for harvesting heme. Oh? Well, give me the Clip Notes version. I've got to get back to the sniff tests. Well, basically, I think we can take DNA from soy plants and insert it into a strain of genetically engineered yeast. And when the yeast ferments, it'll produce soy-based heme. If that's right, we can scale that technology up indefinitely without me spending time out on the farm.
34:26Well, good. You belong in a lab coat, Pat, not in coveralls. Weeks later, Pat Brown's experiments are yielding the exact results he'd hoped for. His genetically modified yeast is producing plenty of heme. That's given Impossible Foods the breakthrough flavor component it needs to start building its own burger. But as the weeks go on, the right recipe will prove elusive. And meanwhile, Beyond Meat is about to get a rave review from one of the world's richest men.
35:07It's March 2013, Menlo Park, California. An assistant knocks on the door of a borrowed office inside Kleiner Perkins' headquarters, where Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has spent the morning here answering emails. Mr. Gates, Ethan Brown is here with your lunch. Okay, send him in. Ethan Brown walks through the office door, carrying a plastic tray. On it are two tortillas wrapped around lettuce, tomato, mayo, and chicken. Except one is not real chicken. It's Beyond Meat's chicken strips. Thanks for seeing me, Mr. Gates. I'm excited for this taste test. Great. Set that down here on the desk. Gates clears some space on the desk, pushing aside a pencil cube.
35:50So the folks here at Kleiner Perkins told me that if I tasted your product, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from investing. I hope they're right, sir. Ethan points to the two chicken wraps. One has a red tortilla, the other's wrapped in green. Go ahead and try both. See if you can tell me which one is the real chicken and which is plant-based. Well, I don't think I can be easily fooled, so let's go. Gates takes a big bite of the first wrap. Then he tastes the other. He confidently points to the green tortilla. That's the real chicken, no doubt about it. No, sir, that's... Ethan moves both wraps off the tray and turns it over.
36:29On the back, he's written, Beyond Meat Chicken Strips Green Tortilla. Real chicken, red tortilla. Gates' jaw drops. Mr. Gates, what you've just tasted is a product that we've launched in a handful of Whole Foods stores in California. If our tests go well, Whole Foods will sell our plant-based chicken nationwide. And we think chicken is just the start. Our bigger goal is to build meat, especially burgers from plants. But now, Ethan, my favorite meal is burger and fries. but I've cut back on eating those because I care about the climate and I know beef is responsible for a lot of those greenhouse gases.
37:06Well, our burgers will be better for the planet. Just think about what meat is. It's five things. It's amino acids, it's lipids, it's trace minerals, it's vitamins, and it's water. An animal organizes all those things into the form of muscle. We want to put the same things into plant-based meats, skipping the animal and saving the planet. Well, if you can do that, then what I've tasted today isn't just some clever meat substitute. This is the future of food. I'm happy to pay to be a part of that future. After the meeting, Gates publishes a blog post about Beyond Meat's chicken. Months after that, it becomes public that he's written a check to buy a steak in Beyond Meat.
37:50He doesn't declare how much he's bought, But Gates' investment spurs interest in a new funding round for Beyond Meat. So, too, does Whole Foods' decision to roll out Beyond Chicken strips nationwide. Soon, consumers are crowing about plant-based chicken. But Ethan's appetite is far from satisfied. He's ready to fulfill his craving for a juicy, plant-based burger.
38:23It's 2014, just outside of Los Angeles, California. Ethan Brown tosses several bags of In-N-Out burgers onto a conference room table. He looks around at half a dozen Beyond Meat employees and barks out an order. Let's eat, everyone. A blonde-haired biotech engineer named Tim Geitzlinger looks ill as he picks up his burger. Geitzlinger, like Ethan, is a vegetarian. He's also an amateur athlete who competes in Tough Mudder obstacle courses and rides his bike on the nearby beach almost every night. Geitzlinger was hired away from the Gates Foundation to join Beyond Meat after Bill Gates invested in the company.
39:04He is tasked with developing a plant-based burger. Geitzlinger winces as he bites into the In-N-Out Burger. He hates that he's eating an animal. Worse, he hates how good it tastes. Ugh, this is juicy and it has a great chew. Our prototype plant-based burgers aren't even close to this. Ethan, who is vegan, chews his In-N-Out burger, then spits it out. He looks at Geitzlinger sternly. What are we missing, Tim? Geitzlinger shrugs. I really don't know. Our burgers are made with yellow pea protein, and those get powdery when we grind it down to form the patties. I suppose we could add fat to make it juicier.
39:47Ethan crumples his In-N-Out burger into a ball. The former college basketball player tosses it into a trash can on the other side of the room. Swish. He looks back at Geislinger. More fat won't make our burgers chewier. Tim, you better go back to the drawing board. Weeks later, an exhausted Geislinger is in Beyond Meat's kitchen lab with the company's head chef, Dave Anderson. On the lab's counters, beakers are filled with strawberries, blueberries, beet juice, and fava beans. A plant-based patty that resembles a hamburger is cooking on a flat-top griddle. Anderson uses a fork to cut into it. It takes a bite and throws the fork onto the ground.
40:32This sucks. Geislinger picks the fork up off the ground and tosses it into a nearby sink. You know, I think the problem is that meat protein fibers are long, which gives beef its chew. But yellow pea protein fibers are short, which makes our burgers fall apart in the mouth. Let's try cooking the burger patty under a different kind of pressure. Maybe that'll turn short fibers into long ones. Anderson rubs his gray blonde goatee. I don't know, Tim. We'll lose all the juices by cooking with pressure. At this point, what do we have to lose? After a couple of failed tries to get the heat, pressure, and chemical mix just right, they slap a new patty down the grill and put a heavy press on top of it.
41:19Anderson lets the burger cook for a while and then flips it over to sear the other side. Finally, he slides it off the grill and onto a bun. You go first, Tim. Geitzlinger takes a bite. His eyes widen as he chews. He talks with his mouth still full. Holy hell, this is it. This is it. We did it. The two men rush their new creation to Ethan Brown, who tells them to call up buyers at Whole Foods for a taste test. Those buyers are impressed. And now, after four years of fundraising and hard science, Beyond Meat is finally ready to put the first-of-its-kind plant-based burger into stores. They call it the Beast Burger, because in their lab, they're about to make a breakthrough.
42:07They're making a plant-based burger that bleeds. On the next episode, high-end chefs clamor to serve the impossible burger at white tablecloth restaurants, while Beyond Meat prepares for a blockbuster IPO. But as plant-based meat begins a meteoric rise, the beef industry prepares to fight back.
42:41From Wondery, this is episode one of Beyond Meat vs. Impossible Burger for Business Wars. A quick note about recreations you've been hearing. In most cases, we can't know exactly what was said. Those scenes are dramatizations. But they're based on historical research. For more information, check out stories on these companies by Tad Friend in The New Yorker. Can a burger help solve climate change? And Rowan Jacobson in Outside Magazine. This top secret food will change the way you eat. I'm your host, David Brown. Joseph Guinto wrote this story. Our producers are Emily Frost and Grant Rutter. Sound design by Josh Morales.
43:16Voice acting by Kieran Regan and Kerry Kavanaugh. Fact-checking by Gabrielle Jolay. Our senior producers are Karen Lowe and Dave Schilling. Our managing producer is Desi Blalock. Our senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our executive producers are Jenny Lauer-Beckman and Marshall Louis for Wondery.
43:58and keep everyone focused on the work that matters most. That's how work gets handled. That's Asana. Visit us at asana.com. That's A-S-A-N-A dot com.
From the publisher
It's 2008 and two men, both vegans, ponder what they can do to improve the climate. Though they’re on separate sides of the country and in different professions (but they coincidentally share a last name)— Ethan Brown is in the fuel cell business and Pat Brown is a lauded Stanford biochemist — they land on the same solution. They’re going to try and lessen the climate impact of animal agriculture by making meat from plants. Ethan calls his company Beyond Meat and notches the first commercial breakthrough, a fake chicken strip. Pat is not far behind, and launches Impossible Foods two years later, setting off a heated rivalry.
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