ENCORE: Beyond Meat vs Impossible Burger | Flame Broiled | 2

0:00This series originally aired in 2024.

0:10It's a chilly June morning, 2015, in Redwood City, California. Bill Maris pulls into the parking lot of Impossible Foods headquarters. The 40-year-old, who runs Google's venture capital business, steers his car into a space between two electric vehicles. Hopping out, Maris zips up his hoodie, walks past a full bicycle rack, and heads inside. There he finds Pat Brown, Impossible Foods' 60-year-old CEO and founder, taking notes. As he watches a burger patty cooking on a griddle. It's a little early for lunch, isn't it, Pat? I'm not sure you'd want to eat this thing, Bill. Our recipe for plant-based meat isn't perfected yet.

0:48But it does look just like beef, and we're getting closer to the right taste and texture. Oh, and check this out. Pat grabs a spatula and flips the burger over. He presses the spatula gently on top of the patty. Red juice flows out onto the griddle. Whoa, the burger is bleeding. How did you make it do that? I can't tell you, Bill. It's a trade secret. Well, that's why I came here today, Pat. As you know, we invested in your company last year. We're fans. And now I want to buy your secrets. Google Ventures wants to buy this whole company. Pat's surprised. He founded Impossible Foods four years ago and has racked up$75 million in venture capital funding, including an investment from billionaire Bill Gates, who has also put his cash into another plant-based meat company, Beyond Meat.

1:39Despite his war chest, though, Pat still doesn't have a viable commercial product. Pat scrapes the bleeding burger off the griddle and flips it into a nearby trash can. Pat points the spatula at Maris. Why would Google Ventures want to buy our whole company? Because I like your style, Pat. Everybody in Silicon Valley is talking about what you're trying to do here. You want to beat the beef industry into submission and change the world. We're doing the same thing at Google Ventures. We've put money into 300 companies already. And all of them are trying to make money while making the world a better place.

2:14So Impossible Foods is a perfect fit. Pat turns his back on Maris and walks over to a small refrigerator. He pulls out another burger patty. It looks just like raw ground beef, even though it is made from potato protein, coconut oil, and genetically modified yeast. Pat slaps it on the griddle and turns back to his guest. How much are you offering? Two hundred million. Maybe more. Pat rubs his chin. No. Sorry, Bill, but I'm not selling. Come on, Pat. You only thought about my offer for five seconds. That's all I need. Bill, I have a serious mission here, and I don't want this company to just be one in your suite of nifty projects.

2:57Pat turns back to the griddle and presses the patty down with a spatula. Plant blood oozes from the fake meat. Without turning back to Maris, he firmly rejects Google's offer. Listen, I don't know what your other investments are going to do for the planet, but I know that Impossible Foods is going to change the world, and that makes us worth a hell of a lot more than a couple hundred million bucks. So my answer stands. It's a no. Maris dejectedly heads back to the parking lot, while Pat gets back to work. Pat's convinced that his company is on its way to making a global impact. But when he turns up the heat on both his own company and on the beef industry, it's Pat that's going to get burned.

3:46From Wondery, I'm David Brown, and this is Business Wars.

4:14In our last episode, scientists at both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat found venture capitalists willing to help them crack the code for making plants taste like meat. At Impossible Foods, founder Pat Brown placed his bets on a secret ingredient, a molecule called heme that he plans to produce through genetic modification. Meanwhile, at Beyond Meat, founder Ethan Brown crafted a simpler recipe that got his Beast Burgers to market first. Now, both companies will find increasing success in tempting the taste buds of consumers and investors. But as their rivalry heats up, the beef industry will bite back.

4:54This is Episode 2, Flame Broil.

5:03It's 2015 in Palm Springs, California. Pat Brown has just taken the stage for a presentation at the annual TEDMED conference. He's wearing a nerdy combination of a gray v-neck sweater over an orange t-shirt and sporting round glasses. At a table behind him, Pat's wife, Sue Clapholz, who's also a company employee, places a plant-based burger in the middle of an electric griddle. This is the first time his company's Impossible Burger has left Pat's research lab. And while the burger sizzles, a nervous Pat is slow to warm up. What you're going to be watching Sue cook over the next five minutes probably will look to you like just a humble burger.

5:42According to the International Livestock Research Institute, in 2001, 45 % of Earth's entire land surface, which corresponds to the land area of North America, South America, Australia, and Europe combined, was actively in use, raising animals to satisfy the world's skyrocketing appetite for meat. And that appetite for meat is the main reason behind an ongoing wildlife holocaust. Sue slaps the top and bottom of a bun on the griddle and arranges bowls of condiments. There's lettuce in one. In another, tomatoes marinate in balsamic vinegar. Just behind Pat, there's also a plastic mock-up of the heme molecule, the secret ingredient in the burger Pat has spent years developing.

6:25Pat grabs a small vial from the table with red liquid inside, swishing it around as he holds it up for the audience. To make our burger, we isolate heme from yeast. Here it is. It looks like blood, it tastes like blood, and it's what gives our burger its red color and beefy taste. Sue takes the burger and buns off the grill. She stacks them together with lettuce, tomato, and a bit of vegan butter. Then, Pat finally shakes off his nerves and declares that Impossible Foods plans to destroy the beef industry. I know it sounds insane to replace a deeply entrenched trillion-dollar-a-year global industry that's been part of human culture since the dawn of human civilization, but it has to be done.

7:08And here's the thing. Cows aren't getting any better at turning plants into meat. We're getting better at it every day, and we're going to keep getting better. Pat ends his presentation by asking a volunteer from the audience to taste what Sue has been cooking. The volunteer bites into the Impossible Burger and immediately declares it to be so good. But the beef industry won't share that sentiment. And in Washington, D.C., Pat's declaration of war on the industry is about to trigger a counter-strike.

7:48It's March 2016, Redwood City, California. In Impossible Foods headquarters, Pat Brown's office line is ringing. Impossible Foods, this is Pat. The caller is a friend of a friend who Pat barely knows, a Washington lobbyist. And he's got disturbing news. Just months after Pat used a TED-Med talk to declare war on the beef industry, plant-based meat has a target on its back. So, Pat, here's what I've heard. Someone in the beef industry has been instructed to take you down. They may go through the USDA or FDA or maybe through Congress to do that. I don't know because I'm not sure yet where this attack is coming from.

8:26Pat slides his round-framed glasses off and sets them on his desk. He rubs his eyes. I will admit that the whole point of our product is not to be successful as a new product, but to be successful at the expense of the incumbent industry. But I gotta tell you, I'm surprised that Big Beef is already scared of us. We don't even have a product on the market yet. Well, this is how it works in Washington, Pat. When you have a disruptor like yourself trying to shake up an established industry, the establishment fights back, even if that means killing you in your infancy. Well, what do I need to do to stop them?

8:59Well, you better be able to prove your products are safe. I know they've got some unusual chemicals in there. That comment irks Pat. He holds his hand in the air as if to silence the caller. Hold it right there. If by chemicals you mean the heme that makes our burgers bleed, then you should know that heme is found in every living plant and animal. It's not unique to meat. Yes, we've made genetic modifications to produce heme, but GMOs are present in hundreds of safe foods. Now, Pat, I'm just telling you that you better be ready to explain that publicly because the beef industry can make some powerful people start asking you some difficult questions.

9:38Pat puts his glasses back on and takes a deep breath. Okay, fine. Thanks for the call. I'll be ready to fight back. Well, good luck, Pat, because you need to know one more thing. The rumor is that whoever's coming for you has an essentially unlimited budget to ruin your company. Pat hangs up the phone and distractedly returns to his research work. He knows that if Big Beef is trying to bury plant-based meats, then both Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have a very big problem. So he resolves to fight fire with fire.

10:20It's April 2016 in Northern California. Ethan Brown and four members of his Beyond Meat team sprint out the front door of a Whole Foods store. They've just left a successful meeting where Whole Foods buyers agreed to stock their newest product, the Beyond Burger. Huddling in the middle of the parking lot, They excitedly exchange high fives. Ethan, the 44-year-old captain of the Beyond Meat team, jumps into the middle of the huddle. Let's go! Let's go, dudes! How electric were we in there? We crushed it. For a year, our burger patties have been sold out of the freezer cases in these stores. It's like we've been stuck in the penalty box, sitting there alongside boring black bean burgers.

11:01But now... A big smile comes across Ethan's bearded face. Now we're going to sell our Beyond Burger right from the meat case. We're going to be right next to ground beef and steaks. Now we're a legitimate competitor to beef. Ethan puts his hand in the air. Bring it in! The team members raise their hands, too. They close the circle around him. This is just the beginning for us. Yeah? Just the beginning. Give me a Beyond on three. One, two, three. Beyond! But days later, the cheers turn to tears. A high-ranking executive at Whole Foods has vetoed Beyond Burger's placement in the meat case. Down, but not out, Ethan launches a desperation shot.

11:45He offers a new taste test to any Whole Foods executive anywhere in the country to try and prove the Beyond Burger belongs beside beef. He gets just one response.

12:01A couple weeks later, Ethan is standing over an electric griddle in the store manager's office at a Whole Foods in Boulder, Colorado. One by one, Ethan tosses six Beyond Burger patties onto the grill. He's about to serve them up to some store staffers and to a Whole Foods regional vice president, who can make or break Beyond Meat's chances of getting into the meat case. So what you all are going to see as these patties cook is that they'll turn from something that looks exactly like raw beef into a firm browned patty, just like a burger would. The Whole Foods vice president listens and watches intently.

12:36He's Tom Rich, a fit, avid outdoorsman with a scruffy beard and a thinning head of hair. Rich oversees 32 stores in the Rocky Mountain region. He's also a vegetarian. What do you like on your burger, Tom? I've got lettuce, tomato, some vegan mayo. Give me all three. Ethan assembles one of the burgers and hands it to Rich. As he preps the other burgers for the remaining whole food staffers, Ethan watches Rich out of the corner of his eye. Rich takes one bite. He chews slowly. Then he grabs a napkin and dabs a bit of mayo off his mouth. Ethan, this is so close to beef that it's incredible. I think this is going to be a killer product for us.

13:17But is it killer enough to stock in the meat case? Hell yeah, it is. Ethan holds his hand up, inviting a high-five from Rich. Beyond Meat's best product will get the chance to challenge real meat in a head-to-head contest. And when the Boulder store receives its first shipment of Beyond Meat burgers, they sell out within hours. Weeks later, Whole Foods stores nationwide will agree to carry Beyond Burgers in their meat cases, too. The product is an instant national hit. But Impossible Foods is about to cook up a sensation of its own.

14:13It's July 2016. Inside a steel-walled kitchen in Manhattan's trendy Chelsea neighborhood, a team of chefs is hustling to get ready for the afternoon lunch crowd. Behind you. 90 minutes to doors opening, everyone. Hey, how we coming on that pickled beef broth? It'll be ready in 15 minutes, chef. Okay, thank you. Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown is in a corner of the kitchen trying to keep his cool, but he's standing next to a cooktop where eight gas burners are all cranked to high. Pat uses the sleeve of his blue button-down shirt to wipe some sweat from his forehead. Chef David Chang approaches.

14:49The 38-year-old Chang is one of the most famous chefs in America, and he runs this place called Momofuku Nishi. Chang yanks a white towel off the back of his apron and tosses it at Pat. Use this for that sweat, Pat. And maybe we should move away from the stove. The reporters will be here any minute. It's a big day for Pat. After five years of development, his Impossible Burger is about to be offered to paying customers for the first time. It's on the menu of Momofuku Nishi and will soon roll out to other swanky eateries across the country. And the debut of Pat's Bleeding Burger has attracted plenty of media attention and a hungry crowd.

15:29Buttoning up his white chef's coat, Chang leads Pat to a cooler spot by the restaurant's front window. He points to a line of people outside. They just told me that the crowd has already lined up around the block, Pat. We're going to sell a lot of burgers today. Moments later, several reporters are led inside. They surround Pat and Chang. Pat, your competitors are beyond metering grocery stores around the country. Why'd you decide to put the Impossible Burger in restaurants? Well, working with chefs like David Chang gives our burger credibility. It delivers a message to consumers when well-known chefs think the Impossible Burger is delicious enough to be served in a restaurant.

16:05And soon, chefs in restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco will also have us on the menu. Chef Shang, the ingredients that make the Impossible Burger possible are complex. How do they all come together to taste like meat? Well, I didn't go to Stanford, so I'm not sure I understand the science, but I know that it just works. The first time I tasted it, my mind exploded. It's bloody and has a texture like beef, plus it is way better for the planet. I think it is a game changer. What are you charging for it? Twelve bucks, and that comes with a side of fries. Pat glances at the growing line outside.

16:40He's still nervously clutching the kitchen towel Chang tossed him minutes ago. He leans over and whispers in Chang's ear. Chef, are we going to have enough burgers to feed all these people? Nope. But in the restaurant business, the harder it is to get something, from reservations to burgers, the more people are going to want it. Minutes later, the doors open, and dozens of hungry diners file in. Before the lunch shift is over, the Impossible Burger has sold out. A year after Beyond Meat first brought a beef-like plant burger to consumers in stores across America, Impossible Foods has finally rolled out its answer.

17:17And the burgers Pat has cooked up are already leaving a bad taste in the mouth of his biggest competitor.

17:30It's 2018 in New York City. On a September evening, Ethan Brown and Pat Brown are standing shoulder to shoulder on the stage of a decked-out ballroom. Well, shoulder to top of head, anyway. Six-foot-five Ethan towers over Pat. But tonight, both these competitors in plant-based meets are equals in one respect. Tonight, the United Nations is presenting both men with an award, naming them two of the year's Champions of the Earth. The event's host, actor and environmentalist Alec Baldwin, steps away from the podium as Ethan steps up for his award. First and foremost, thank you to the UN environment for this recognition and honor.

18:09I also want to thank the many women and men throughout the country who work for Beyond Meat, from the fundamental research scientists all the way through to the production line, our funders and our board of directors for believing in this vision. While Ethan speaks, Baldwin heads to the back of the stage and chats with Pat, who's standing with his hands in the pockets of his maroon pants. You guys seem awfully friendly for business competitors. Well, I don't think of Beyond Meat as our competition. We don't accomplish anything from an environmental standpoint by stealing customers from Beyond Meat, but I don't really see Beyond Meat as our competition.

18:46In fact, I wish him nothing but success. Baldwin smiles and shuffles back to his place behind the podium as Ethan's speech concludes. I hope you'll join us in making the more sustainable and more humane choice of making meat from plants. Thank you. As the event wraps up, Pat, Ethan, and other 2018 winners take photos together. But Ethan moves far away from Pat during the shoot. As it turns out, the good feelings Pat has aren't entirely mutual. Exiting the stage, Ethan is approached by another Beyond Meat executive. How'd it go with Pat up there? It was okay, I guess. And I guess it's okay having them in this plant-based space with us.

19:27But I just think their use of genetically modified ingredients isn't necessary or good for the plant-based meat business. It unnecessarily burdens communication with the consumer. That night, Ethan celebrates the award with his colleagues. But after he returns to his company's California headquarters, he gets back to an intense phase of work. He's already beaten Impossible Foods to the supermarket meat case. Now, he's preparing to beat them to a different kind of market, Wall Street.

20:02It's January 2019, Tylertown, Mississippi. Out on his family's farm, 72-year-old Bill Piggott is walking toward a barn when an unexpected visitor pulls into Piggott's driveway. As a member of Mississippi's House of Representatives, some of Piggott's neighbors are also his constituents. And constituents sometimes have requests. Okay, let's see what these fellas want. Two members of the Mississippi Cattlemen's Association hop out of a pickup and tip the brim of their cowboy hats toward Piggott. Hey, Bill, sorry to drop in on you at the ranch. We need to talk with you about some cattleman's business.

20:39Piggott grabs a rag out of the back pocket of his faded jeans and wipes sweat from his forehead. Okay, shoot. Well, Bill, have you seen all this news about fake meat? This stuff is everywhere now. They're even selling fake burgers in the meat cases at the supermarket. They can barely keep them in stock. Yeah, I've heard all about it. Doesn't sound like the kind of thing I'd want to eat. Yeah, us neither. But plenty of people are giving this fake meat a try, and the Cattlemen's Association thinks it's unfair fake meats being labeled as meat that's made from plants. Plants aren't meat. One of the cattlemen points to a nearby cow who's chomping on a mouthful of grass.

21:16That cow over there, that's real meat. And he looks like he's going to grow up to be delicious. Yeah, but that's our problem, Bill. These fake meat companies don't want us to get the chance to turn that cow or any others into steaks and burgers. They don't want us to make money off beef anymore. They're out there saying they want to destroy the cattle business. That'd be a real problem for us in Mississippi. We got 15 ,000 cattle farms here. The cattleman removes his cowboy hat and turns it over. So Bill, I'm here literally hat in hand to ask you, on behalf of the Cattlemen's Association, if you'd sponsor some legislation that'll make it illegal to label plant products as meat.

21:56Bill leans against his truck and ponders the request. You know, I've got a bunch of dairy cows out here on the ranch, and it sticks in my craw how these vegan milk producers have cut into the dairy business. Almonds don't produce milk. They shouldn't be able to call that stuff almond milk. I don't want that to happen to beef. So yeah, yeah, I'll sponsor the legislation. A month later, Mississippi's House of Representatives passes Piggott's bill, calling for a prohibition on stores selling plant-based items if they're labeled as beef. More than a dozen other states are considering similar legislation.

22:34And that's creating a big problem for Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, just as one of those companies is about to launch the biggest synthetic burger in history.

23:05It's early April 2019 in Redwood City, California. Pat Brown sits at his desk with a group of Impossible Foods executives standing behind him. They're all hungrily eyeing the boss's iPad as Pat hovers his finger over the play button on a video file. Is everybody ready? Yes! The video is part of a series of brand new Impossible Foods TV ads that will air nationally in a few months to promote the upcoming rollout of its Impossible Burger in all 7 ,200 of Burger King's national franchises. Okay, here we go. Introducing the Impossible Whopper with a patty made from plants. No beef. No beef. I've never had a plant taste like beef before.

23:44Tastes like a Whopper. Tastes like a Whopper. Tastes like a beef burger. Live! Introducing the Impossible Whopper, available nationwide, only at Burger King. Very nice. Excellent. When the cheers subside, Pat calls up a second video. It depicts a blind taste test of the Impossible Whopper. We fed beef lovers a whopper with no beef. You can't imitate beef. It just tastes better. Turns out these beef lovers love plants, too. That's an Impossible Whopper? I'm a damn fool. Impossible Whopper with a patty made from plants. Only a Burger King. Excellent. Pat stands up and congratulates his staff. The Impossible Whopper, as you all know, has been months in the making.