What’s going on here?

• The meat-based Tyson Foods joined the plant-based bandwagon.
• Tyson announced it’s launching a series of meat alternative products, including veggie chicken nuggets and a pea-infused burger.
• Butthe company isn’t going vegan. The plant-based nuggets contain eggs, and the new beef patties still have beef, just mixed with pea-protein.

What’s does that mean?

This is a big deal. Tyson is the head hen of U.S. meat production. It accounts for 1/5 of beef, chicken, and pork processed in the U.S. every year.

The strategy: Tyson’s appealing to the “flexitarians” among us. “For us, this is about ‘and’—not ‘or’”, CEO Noel White said.

Executives project the company’s meat alternatives unit could eventually hit $1 billion in sales annually.

Zoom out

Tyson used to own shares in vegan burger maker Beyond Meat but sold it before the startup’s explosive IPO. Yesterday’s move shows that was less of a “you’re not my type” and more of an “I’m just really busy right now”.

Content source: kgrant. (2019) Tyson Gets to the Alternative Meat of It. Morning Brew. Available from: https://www.morningbrew.com/stories/tyson-gets-to-the-alternative-meat-of-it-2/ [Accessed 22 June 2019]