ENCORE: Beyond Meat vs Impossible Burger | Beefing Up, Chowing Down | 3

0:00This series originally aired in 2024.

0:10It's a warm summer's day, 2019, in Redwood City, California. Inside a brightly lit conference room at Impossible Foods headquarters, a sweaty Pat Brown tugs at the collar of his T-shirt. It's emblazoned with a No Cows logo. Pat, the biochem professor who is this company's founder, isn't just hot. He's bored. He and a team of executives are attending an employee review. The executives want to promote some employees who have been working hard to get the Impossible Burger into grocery stores for the first time. But Pat just wants to get back to his research. Hey, let's move this along. We have a lot of work to do in the lab that's more important than yammering about job titles.

0:54Pat's outburst momentarily silences the meeting's leader. He's Dennis Woodside, a square-jawed, gray-haired, middle-aged attorney-turned-executive who left his job as chief operating officer at Dropbox to become president of Impossible Foods and ramp up the company's operations ahead of its grocery store debut. Woodside glares at Pat. I'm sorry, Pat, but this management stuff is important, too. We've got ten people who've done a great job here and need to be recognized with raises and new titles. But why do we need tiered titles at all? That's how IBM does things. We're not IBM. No, we're not IBM, but we can still be a professional organization.

1:33I mean, just look at the working title you chose for this year's annual report. That's not exactly what IBM would choose. A wry smile comes across Pat's face. I love that title. F*** the meat industry. And that's exactly what we're trying to do here. We're on a mission to push the beef industry into a death spiral. And after we do that, we'll tell pork and chicken that they're next and send them into bankruptcy too. Pat pushes his chair back from the conference table and stands up. He points at Woodside. What we should care about is making sure we double our production every year for the next 15 years.

2:11To beat the meat industry and become the most impactful company in the history of the world, we need to scale up 30 ,000-fold. An exasperated Woodside clasps his palms together and squeezes tight as he tries to keep his cool. After just a few months on the job as Impossible Foods president, he's already learned that his boss loves to start an argument. He tries to diplomatically defuse the situation. Pat, we're all on board with your big ambitions. But if we're going to achieve all that growth, we should probably start by wrapping up this meeting, huh? Can you please, please just approve these new titles?

2:51If I say yes, can I go back to the lab? You can. Then fine. Yes, I approve. Pat picks up a white lab coat and quickly heads back to his research. Whether in spite of or because of his unusual academic approach to business, Impossible Foods is really cooking. But as his plant-based burgers enter their next phase of growth, Pat may find that he's bitten off more than he can chew.

3:26From Wondery, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

3:55In our last episode, celebrity chefs put the Impossible Burger on their menus, and Burger King debuted an Impossible Whopper. Demand for Pat Brown's plant-based patties was so big that Impossible Foods couldn't keep up. But while Pat's company struggled, Ethan Brown's Beyond Meat soared. It got its Beyond Burgers into the meat case at supermarkets across the country. And on Wall Street, Beyond Meat's initial public offering was one of the biggest in decades. But all the hype surrounding both brands drew the attention and the ire of beef lobbyists and cattlemen. Now they're gunning for plant-based meats.

4:35As Pat prepares to fight back, Ethan sets his aim on both his competitors and a deal with the biggest burger seller in the world. This is Episode 3, Beefing Up, Chowing Down.

4:55It's summer 2019 in El Segundo, California. Inside the test kitchen of Beyond Meat, a chef is grilling up the newest prototype for the company's Beyond Burgers. Beyond Meat's CEO, Ethan Brown, pulls up a chair at a small table. and folds his six-foot-five frame into the seat. Across from him, a journalist from The New Yorker named Tad Friend also pulls up a chair. What do you like on your burger, Tad? Just the usual. Lettuce, tomato, mayo if you got it. Sure. It's vegan mayo, though. 56-year-old friend nods his head of sandy blonde hair in approval. He's here today to interview Ethan for an article.

5:32But the focus of the story isn't Ethan Brown and Beyond Meat. It's actually about Pat Brown and Impossible Foods. The chef arrives and slides two Beyond Burgers onto the table. They're both served on toasted buns and have been topped with a generous slather of mayo, a crisp piece of lettuce, and a thick slice of beefsteak tomato. Dig in, Dad. Friend picks up a knife and cuts his burger in half. Juices run out of the center. We get that bloody effect by putting beet juice in our burgers. And over at Impossible, they get the same effect by using heme, right? Yes. Heme is their main coloring agent.

6:08Friend eyes Ethan quizzically. He pulls a reporter's notebook from his nearby messenger bag and flips through some pages. Actually, Ethan, I wrote something down that Pat told me. Where is it now? Yeah, he said that the heme in his plant-based burgers is the exact same molecule that gives meat from animals its beefy taste. In fact, he called it a, quote, magic ingredient. Ethan lifts his burger in one hand and waves it dismissively at the visiting reporter. There's nothing magic about it. Our scientists have studied heme. We don't think it makes their burgers taste like beef. In fact, we don't think it provides any flavor at all.

6:46Ethan takes a big bite out of his Beyond Burger. With his mouth full, he takes another bite back into Impossible Foods. This burger we're eating contains pea protein, mung beans, brown rice, and coconut oil. And we've worked our butts off to get all that to taste as much like beef as possible. Pea protein can have some really off flavors. We've mostly fixed that. But the best thing about pea protein is that it's not soy. Friend flips a few more pages in his notebook looking for something else Pat told him. Now, now, Pat mentioned that soy is the leading ingredient in the Impossible Burger they're selling in stores.

7:21Why does he use it when you don't? Our customers don't want a lot of soy. They're worried about phytoestrogen. That's the stuff that can disrupt hormones and give you man boobs. Friend takes a bite of his burger and makes a mental note that he finds it to be curiously dense. Swallowing hard, he resumes his questioning. Ethan, Impossible's heme is genetically modified, and Impossible has asked the FDA to declare it safe to consume. But you don't use GMOs, even though they're in a lot of foods these days. Why not? I just think there's an evolutionary instinct deep within us to avoid things we don't understand, like heme.

8:00And Impossible Foods must explain to all consumers what genetically modified heme is and why it's safe. My question is, do they have enough cash to stay in business while they try to explain all that? Friend doesn't answer Ethan's question. But when he heads back to New York to write his article, he makes sure to include Ethan's suggestion that Impossible Foods may run out of money while still proving itself. But when The New Yorker hits newsstands, Impossible Foods won't be running out of cash. Instead, it'll be selling out of burgers.

8:38It's September 2019 in Encino, California. Inside a Gelson's grocery store on Ventura Boulevard, John Bagan, the head of merchandising for the California-based chain, wonders if his eyes are playing tricks on him. The gray-haired executive removes his oval-shaped glasses and wipes the lenses against his blue button-down shirt. But when he puts the glasses back on, the scene he's witnessing remains the same. Dozens of customers are plucking packages of the brand new retail version of the Impossible Burger out of a meat cooler. Began approaches one customer who's just put ten packages of Impossible Burger patties into his shopping cart.

9:17Excuse me, sir. Do you mind if I ask, was it just the Impossible Burger that brought you out here today? It sure was. I've never even been in a Gelson's before. But I've been obsessed with the Impossible Burger ever since I had one in a restaurant two years ago. And how do you feel about the price we're charging? Well, nine bucks a package is a lot when you consider ground beef is three times cheaper. But until now, I've had to fill my cravings by eating the Impossible Whopper at Burger King. And now I get to bring it home and cook it myself. I can't wait. Bagan smiles and slides aside as more customers head toward the meat case.

9:53He peers inside and realizes the store is almost out of its supply of Impossible Burgers. Begin heads back to his nearby office and makes some calls to Gelson's store managers in Southern California. Hey, how are you guys doing on the stock of Impossible Burgers there in West Hollywood? We sold out of all of them about an hour ago. Wow, it's flying off the shelves in our other stores, too. There's no way we could have predicted this level of pent-up demand for the Impossible Burger. I think this might become the biggest product launch we've ever had. Begin's guess turns out to be right. Soon after the Impossible Burger's debut, it becomes the top-selling packaged food item at Gelson stores.

10:33And that sales success is repeated across the country when shoppers at 100 Wegmans stores on the East Coast also quickly eat up the supply of Impossible Burgers. The successful rollout generates headlines around the country. But Impossible Foods isn't just making news. It's also made a powerful new enemy.

11:01In the offices of Impossible Foods, the company's communications director, Rachel Conrad, places a stack of papers on Pat Brown's desk. Conrad is a gray-haired former journalist who penned hard-nosed stories on the car industry. Later, she led the communications team at Elon Musk's Tesla. A few years ago, Pat lured her to Impossible Foods by convincing Conrad that plant-based meats could do more for the environment than electric vehicles. Conrad taps her fist on the top of the stack of papers. Here are the latest press clippings, Pat. There's a lot of good coverage of our launch in grocery stores, but check out the way Bloomberg wrote about it.

11:39Pat picks a couple of pages from the top of the stack and starts reading through them. This story says Impossible Foods joins rival beyond meat in supermarkets. Not that story, Pat. Check out the other Bloomberg story on that other piece of paper. Pat tosses the printout of the first story onto his desk and sees a different story headlined, Critics Challenge Health Benefits of Faux Meat. Let me guess, these critics are actually just the same group that's been attacking plant-based meats through newspaper ads. You got it, Pat. The story quotes the non-profit Center for Consumer Freedom, the very same group that's been after us for months.

12:16Pat wads up the paper and tosses it toward his office wastebasket. He misses. Have you figured out who's funding this group? Is there money coming from the beef industry? I don't know for sure, Pat. What I do know is that the Center for Consumer Freedom has been the mouthpiece for every evil industry you can think of. Among other things, they've defended cigarette makers, and they've even attacked the Humane Society. And now they're coming for us. Well, maybe we should be flattered. Conrad starts frustratedly pacing in front of Pat's desk. You know, Pat, 60 Minutes profiled this group's executive director a while back.

12:51They called him Dr. Evil. And now he's writing op-eds in a bunch of newspapers and creating a few websites that claim ridiculous things like our plant-based products are just full of chemicals. I want to fight back so we can make sure people understand that our company is on the right side of history. Pat stands and retrieves the wadded-up paper from his floor. He slams it into the bin. Rachel, go for it. If these people attack us again, let's take the gloves off when we fight back. Conrad leaves the room preparing for a brawl. Instead, she's about to get into a food fight, and it will kick off on Super Bowl Sunday.

13:49It's Super Bowl Sunday 2020. On one of the biggest burger-eating days of the year, Americans gather around TV sets to watch the San Francisco 49ers fight it out with the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs are led by quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelsey. 20-yard penalty, a first down, first and goal, pass, open, touchdown. Down, Kelsey. Chiefs are back in it. During breaks in the action, viewers across the country see ads from big brands like Hulu, Bud Light, and Jeep. And in one local market, viewers also see an ad featuring children taking part in a fake spelling bee. The ad isn't promoting good grammar.

14:30It's attacking the contents of plant-based meats. And it was produced by Impossible Foods' nemesis, the Center for Consumer Freedom. Spell propylene glycol. Propylene glycol. What's that? Propylene glycol. It's a chemical used in antifreeze and synthetic meats. P-O. You might need a PhD to understand what's in synthetic meat. Fake bacon and burgers can have dozens of chemical ingredients. If you can't spell it or pronounce it, maybe you shouldn't be eating it. The ad only airs in the influential local market of Washington, D.C., so Impossible Foods workers watching the game in California don't get a chance to see it live.

15:18But the next day, Impossible Foods communication chief Rachel Conrad is scrambling to fight back with a commercial of their own. Within days, she's constructed a film set inside the company's offices and has assembled a handful of Impossible Foods employees and their children to star in their own mock spelling bee. In the leading role as the bee's moderator, Pat Brown is about to utter a dirty four-letter word. And our first word is... Poop. What? Are you supposed to say that? Poop. The stinky brown stuff that comes out of your butt. Poop is a mixture of incompletely digested food and billions of bacteria expelled from the bowels of animals.

16:02There's lots of poop in the places where pigs and cows and chickens are killed and chopped to bits to make meat. And there's poop in the ground beef we make from cows. Poop. Poop. P-O-O-P. Poop. Yes! In 2015, Consumer Reports tested 300 samples of ground beef. They discovered that all of it, including grass-fed and organic ground beef, contained fecal bacteria. Just because a kid can spell poop doesn't mean you or your kids should be eating it. The clapback generates just the kind of buzz Conrad has been hoping for in her bare-knuckled brawl with Impossible Foods's shadowy foe. Still, Impossible Foods has to square off with its closest competitor, Beyond Meat.

16:54and Beyond Meat is about to get a puncher's chance of landing a deal with the real king of burgers, McDonald's.

17:08It's January 2021, El Segundo, California. Standing at his desk in Beyond Meat's offices, Ethan Brown unfolds a large blueprint. A broad smile comes across his face. He's happily perusing plans for a new manufacturing and headquarters facility that he's hoping to build nearby to the space that Beyond Meat is already outgrowing. His moment of reverie is interrupted when one of the company's top finance executives drops by unannounced. Hey, you got a minute, Ethan? I've got the preview of last year's financials ready for you. Yeah, come in. Are those the plans for the new headquarters? Yep. We haven't signed the deal for the space yet, but the plans call for leasing 300 ,000 square feet.

17:51That's six times bigger than the space we're in now. Ethan grabs a pencil off his desk and taps the eraser onto a corner of the blueprint. Look here. This is where the fitness center will go. And over here, we've got research pods where we'll use machine learning and AI to help drive innovation. And here, we've got this massive living interior wall that'll be covered in plants. I'm going to ask the designers if we can grow edible plants on the wall. The finance executive rubs his chin as he studies the vast plans. Then he puts a single sheet of paper covered in numbers on Ethan's desk. Many of the numbers are written in red ink.

18:28This new headquarters looks amazing, boss, but our 2020 financials don't. Our revenues from 2020 were good. We were up 37 % over the year before, but our losses are huge. Look at this. We lost$50 million last year. Our debts are mounting, and our share price is down almost$100 from late last year. And of course, this headquarters lease will add another$150 million in expenses. Ethan tosses the pencil down onto his desk and folds his arms across his chest. He looks sternly at the page of financials. I'll tell you what. We have a big goal here at Beyond Meat. To change the world by helping people eat less meat.

19:08The only way to achieve a big goal like that is to turn ourselves into a bigger company. That means I'm going to over-invest in research and development, which is what this new headquarters represents. It's true that our debts are growing, but we still need to get bigger. So I'm not going to lose sleep over a$150 million lease. Ethan unfolds his arms and grabs the pencil again. He slaps it against a different part of the blueprints. Now, check this out. This is where the finance offices are going to be. They're going to look so cool. Days later, Ethan signs an agreement to build his gleaming new headquarters.

19:43His building and his debt will now rise together.

19:54It's February 2021 inside Ethan Brown's office at Beyond Meat. Brown's assistant patches through a call from a top executive with Yum! Brands. That's awesome. They're the company behind KFC and Taco Bell. And they're ready to add more plant-based meats to their menus. Hey, Ethan, I wanted to let you know that the top brass here has okayed our trial partnership. We can announce it this month. Wow, that's awesome. We've already done so well together testing Beyond Fried Chicken and KFC restaurants and Beyond Italian Sausage Pizza and Pizza Hut. I can't wait to see what we come up with together this time.

20:30Ethan pumps his fist when the call ends. This isn't the only good news he's gotten lately. Beyond Meat's stock has been on a tear. It's up almost 30 % since the company announced its planned move into a new state-of-the-art headquarters. But Ethan's celebration is cut short by his assistant. Ethan, McDonald's is online too for you. Ethan takes a deep breath. He knows this could be a big moment. He's wanted to do a deal with McDonald's from the time he first founded Beyond Meat. Hey, Ethan, our McDonald's leadership is interested in going ahead with test marketing your Beyond Burger patties inside our McPlant sandwich.

21:08Hey, that's awesome. Well, just hold on. We're not okaying it just yet. Oh, why not? We're just not sure whether patties made from peas and rice are a fit for a McDonald's customer. Ethan's heartbeat speeds up. He can feel beads of sweat building on his forehead. He can't let this deal slip away. He tries a new pitch. I'm going to tell you something embarrassing. Before I founded Beyond Meat, my hope was to open a plant-based McDonald's. But competing with a brand as great as yours was a crazy idea. It makes more sense to be your partner. And if you join with us, you'll join a growing industry.

21:46The entire plant-based meat business is now projected to grow from$4 billion to$74 billion in the next decade. Yeah, Ethan, I've seen the same projections as you have. And we are willing to give you a shot. We just want to be careful. The best I can offer you right now is a limited testing phase over the next three years. And if the McPlant sells well, we'll take it nationally. If it doesn't, we'll part ways. Ethan wipes the sweat from his brow. It's not the deal he hoped for, but he finally has his foot in the door of the Golden Arches. But that comes just as some consumers start to decide that plant-based burgers aren't a happy meal after all.

22:48It's March 2021 in downtown Portland, Oregon. Impossible Foods founder Pat Brown walks into an old industrial building and stares up toward the top of its six-story atrium. There, a small conference room has been suspended from the rafters. Its walls aren't made from glass or plaster. Instead, they consist of twisted wood branches resembling a bird's nest. The 67-year-old Pat marvels at the site before being led to that same conference room for a meeting with the ad agency Impossible Foods has just hired. It's called Whedon Kennedy, better known as Just W &K. And it's the same agency that came up with Nike's Just Do It slogan.

23:30Pat wants W &K to just do something like that for his company, as he explains to the ad executives once he enters the Nestlight conference room. COVID-19 vaccines have just begun rolling out, so Pat tugs at his mask as he begins speaking. I just want to say that this is a big moment for our company. We've partnered with Burger King before on an ad campaign, but we've hired you all to create our first ever solo national campaign. And that comes at a moment when we've faced a lot of questions about the chemical makeup of our meat and about the efficacy of our mission to save the climate. I hope that whatever you all have come up with for us can answer those questions simply and directly.

24:08One of the W &K executives, also masked, walks over next to Pat and takes a seat on a couch that's made out of high-density foam, shaped to resemble a gray rock. Pat, I think we have just what you're looking for. He points a remote control at a large-screen TV that's in the corner of the room. And here's the first ad. The voice you'll hear is from Scott Glenn, you know, the actor from The Right Stuff. Scientists say beef is bad for the planet.