Grab your Popcorn, the Irony is Great

Grab your popcorn and your peanuts, there’s a battle in the fake meat aisle that’s worth the watch.  To me, the fight picked by Lifelight is one that is “beyond” amusing and “impossible” to win – for the current players anyway.  Like many good Facebook fights about facemasks, presidential candidates, or Black Lives Matter, the irony of this particular feud between three fake meat companies certainly made me shake my head.

It all started when Lifelight, a Canadian plant-based protein company, ran a letter addressed to Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, the front runners in alternative proteins, as a full-page ad in several major publications like the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  Lifelight President Dan Curtin took it upon himself to call out Beyond and Impossible for being over-processed, while boasting just 11 ingredients in his plant-based “burger” (I know, you’re probably screaming BEEF has ONE ingredient).

“Enough.  Enough with the hyper-processed ingredients, GMOs, unnecessary additives and fillers, and fake blood,” the letter read.

Curtin noted that, yes, the goals of the three companies are similar.  They all want “a greener planet and more sustainable food system.”  (Again, you’re thinking, cattle contribute to carbon sequestration and help keep our grasslands intact, what can these food labs do better?)  But Lifelight is taking a different path to achieve that, according to the letter.

“We’re making a clean break from both of you ‘food tech’ companies that attempt to mimic meat at any cost,” Curtin wrote.

He said instead, Lifelight is a “real food company.”  (Wait, how can any company attempting to copy beef without including beef be considered real?)

Lifelight’s products are developed in a “kitchen” not a “lab,” using clean, simple ingredients.  (Ours are developed on pasture using no added ingredients.  Beef, suit up, this is a fight we could win hands down.)

“We’re making a clean break because the real future of protein is cleaner, tastier, and nutritionally superior.  We’re going beyond and it isn’t impossible.  In fact, we’re already on the way,” Curtin concluded.

Beyond Meat responded with a statement to media outlets to clear their name.  To sum it up, Beyond Meat said obviously Lifelight was not “clear” on the Beyond Burger recipe because they are “simple, plant-based ingredients.”  (Yes, they are referring to the simple list of 18 ingredients in an attempt to mimic beef.)

Impossible Foods was a bit more harsh in their response.  They called the letter “highly misleading” and a “desperate attempt” to attack a product with which Lifelight “can’t compete on quality or value.”  Impossible Foods also called out Lifelight’s connection to the meat industry and made that their main jab at the ad campaign.  Lifelight is a branch of Maple Leaf Foods, the Canadian meat packing company.

“Fortunately, a growing number of consumers recognize meat industry propaganda and the agenda behind it. And when they go to the grocery store, they pick the product that delivers on taste, nutrition, and sustainability.  They pick Impossible Burger,” Impossible Foods’ statement concluded.

It’s important to note that Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat have been blatant in their mission to eliminate animal agriculture.  Lifelight, on the other hand, believes in having options in our diets.  They hope to serve both vegans and flexitarians with their product.  And Impossible Foods believes that’s wrong.

Maybe that’s why as I read through the Lifelight letter, a nagging voice in the back of my head said, all of these arguments point straight to the superiority of beef.  Every point they attempted to make led me to the conclusion that choosing beef is the only answer.  Whether they have 11 ingredients or 18 or are developed in kitchen or lab, beef remains superior in this fight.

Our product is just that – beef.  It has one plain and simple ingredient.  It isn’t “developed” in a kitchen or lab but rather raised on pasture then harvested and distributed in its pure form.  And, whether folks want to admit it or not, beef is not ruining the planet – beef producers are actually playing a major role in saving it.

Before we laugh at the industry cutting its own throat too hard, remember we have been guilty of the same. This is a good example for us to witness, not because it points to our superior product, but because it shows the insecurity and confusion that can be created when an industry begins to attack its own self.  It just so happened that in this particular case, it worked to the advantage of our industry.  But we could easily be on the other side of the issue and we often are – look at mCOOL, 50-14, the Beef Checkoff…  Hopefully we don’t end up as a column in “Food Dive” titled, “Grab your Popcorn, the Irony is Great.”

Let’s chalk this one up as win, have on last chuckle at the irony, but then remember the important lesson hidden in this food fight and take it to heart as we work to move our industry forward through the roller coaster ride that is 2020.