How The Beef Industry Is Fighting The Plant-Based Protein Boom (plantbasednews.org)

Beef Industry ‘Nervous’ At Growth Of Plant-Based Proteins, Claims Think Tank

Across four key areas, beef companies are working to battle the growing plant-based market to protect their pockets…

The beef industry is becoming increasingly desperate to clutch onto its market position amid the plant-based protein boom. But Faunalytics, a research company specializing in animal advocacy, has examined the industry’s marketing tactics and claims it’s ‘nervous’ of the growth of alternative proteins.

Beef industry

The think tank examined a 2021 report funded by the Beef Checkoff, a US marketing firm that works to promote animal agriculture. In the Impacts of New Plant-Based Protein Alternatives on US Beef Demand report, extensive strategies are outlined to maintain popularity amid increasing concerns about animal rights and the environment.

The report includes a survey on 3,000 US citizens with varying diets and a restaurant and grocery store experiment to assess consumer habits.

Faunalytics looked at the report with a view to ‘gain an advantage’ on what the plant-based industry can do in response. 

What they found is that consumer demand for beef decreases more when prices go up, over when plant-based protein prices decrease.

Furthermore, in a grocery store experiment, consistent beef eaters were more willing to switch to other options if the beef was more expensive.

However, the average customer is more willing to pay a higher price for beef than its actual price. And, a lower price for plant-based proteins than their retail price.

Study takeaways 

“The really fascinating thing about this report,” Faunalytics says, “is what it can tell us about the industry’s strategy.”

The four main tactics it identifies are:

1. Consumers believe beef tastes better and is more ‘natural’

As ever, the beef industry plans to focus on the ‘naturalness’ of beef over plant-based alternatives.

This is carried out by claiming plant-based meat can’t mimic the taste of the real thing, and highlighting long ingredient lists.

Faunalytics also claims that it will continue to focus on how the industry is good for farmers and rural communities.

2. Price is vital

The price parity of plant-based alternatives has long been a hot topic. It is subsidies that make cow meat particularly easy to produce at low costs.

And, according to the report, the beef industry will continue to drive down prices where it can.

‘We should work to amplify the voices of workers and communities harmed by the beef industry’ to fight against this, according to Faunalytics.

3. Beef market share remains high despite growing alt protein

Despite the staggering predictions for the ongoing boom of plant-based protein alternatives, the think tank says the beef industry isn’t worrying ‘too much’ about it denting the market share.

While beef contains more protein than many plant-based alternatives, advocates can respond by painting a better picture of health. This can be done by educating about consumer ‘obsession’ with protein.

4. Partnerships with retailers are important

Beef companies aim to establish relationships with retailers. This means stores and restaurants will have vested interests in the future of animal agriculture, Faunalytics says.

However, it’s a tactic vegan companies can easily follow suit on. And, something the likes of Beyond Meat is already doing with chains like Burger King, McDonald’s, and KFC.

Faunalytics’ concluding statement on the study is: “Even as the beef industry continues to enjoy a large market share, it can see the writing on the wall.

“The industry knows it doesn’t measure up on health, environmental friendliness, or animal welfare. All of which are values important to the younger generation.”

Regards Mark

With thanks to Stacey at ‘Our Compass’ as always;

Eating others is not humane … | Our Compass (our-compass.org)

Regards Mark

Honestly, folks, literally TRILLIONS of animals are butchered yearly, why do people actually believe that such a incredibly large number of animals can be killed in a peaceful, ethical manner? ALL killing is unethical, but people love to pretend that the animals they consume were “produced” in caring and nurturing environments. Come on, this is what “intellectually superior” humans believe? The industry is based on DEATH, thus NOBODY cares about animals who are controlled, mutilated, violated, and violently killed. Wake up, people, you’re being taken advantage of by slick PR and deceptive advertising.

NOT harming is better than HARMING. If you harm animals, you don’t care for them, regardless of the labels on dismembered, violently killed animal body parts. SL

WAV Comment – well said Stacey !

Source SURGE

Go into a supermarket and you’ll see labels like these plastered all over the meat, dairy and egg products that we buy.

Company names like the Happy Egg Co. A company that advertises their products with images of chickens in lush green fields, even though an investigation in 2021 into three farms that supply them eggs revealed that the hens were packed in industrial sheds, their beaks had been cut off and there were dead birds rotting on the floor. 

So just a little different to the imagery the company uses to sell their products.

In fact, even when we look at free-range as an industry-wide standard, free-range farmers can legally house 16,000 birds in a barn, which means they can house 9 birds per square metre of space, which gives each hen 11 square centimetres of space each inside the barns. Not exactly the image of being ‘free’ that you would expect.The Happy Egg Co and the term free-range are both examples of humane washing. But wait, what is humane washing? Well to understand what humane washing is, let’s first look at greenwashing.

In recent years, some of the biggest food corporations in the world, such as Starbucks and McDonald’s, have ditched plastic straws in response to growing public concern about their impact on the environment. Great news, right?

Well, not exactly. This is an example of greenwashing, a term that describes a form of marketing and PR which aims to persuade the public that an organisation is environmentally friendly, even when their wider actions show the opposite. 

In the case of the plastic straw, the strawless lid that Starbucks introduced to replace the straw actually contains more plastic than the original lid and straw combo did. And McDonald’s, well where do we even begin? Selling food that is linked to rainforest deforestation is probably a good place, not to mention the fact that they don’t recycle their new straws and the drinks still come in the same plastic-lined cups as their old plastic straws did. 

The meat, dairy and egg industries also regularly greenwash their products as well. For example, Danish Crown, the largest meat producer in Europe, have created their own sustainability certification which the farmers who are suppliers for them have then signed up to, and as a result the pork products they sell now come with a sticker that says they are ‘climate controlled’.

Continued on next page.

Prince Charles Reduces Meat Intake, Talks Ending Factory Farming (plantbasednews.org)

Prince Charles Talks Reducing Meat Intake, Ending Factory Farming, And Greta Thunberg

The Prince of Wales highlights what we must do to help mitigate the climate crisis and create more ‘harmony’ in nature…

Prince Charles has revealed he’s stopped eating meat and fish for two days a week, and has so ‘for years’. He made the remarks in a major interview with the BBC, where he discussed environmentalism and deplored intensive animal agriculture, industrial fishing, and deforestation.

Princes Charles interview

When asked about how he felt about his grandchildren inheriting the world in its current state, HRH replied that he was ‘deeply worried’.

Speaking on The Big Interviews, which aired today, he said: “I’ve always felt that we are overexploiting and damaging nature by not understanding how much we depend on everything that nature provides and somehow not understanding or being trained to believe that nature is a separate thing from us.

“And, that we can just exploit and control and suppress everything about it without suffering the consequences.”

Humans’ disruption on the planet is ‘mammoth’, he adds.

And it’s because of this that he has changed his diet. ‘For years’ he has limited his meat and fish intake, taking two days off. And one day a week, he doesn’t eat dairy.

Moreover, if more people did the same, pressure on the environment would be greatly reduced, he said.

“…The business of what we eat of course is important.” 

Climate activism

And when asked about his views on Greta Thunberg, he said he’s always been thinking about the next generation. 

Across history, ‘nobody would address the issues’, he said. But upon meeting her, he says he shared her anger: “They see their future being totally destroyed… People should notice how despairing young people are.”

Further, when pressed on Extinction Rebellion, despite commending their efforts, he noted that activism isn’t ‘helpful’ when ‘done in a way that alienates people’.

“The difficulty is how do you direct that frustration in a way that is more constructive rather than destructive.”

Carbon footprint

On personal impacts on the environment, Prince Charles was reminded of his own carbon footprint: the heating of the royal family’s palaces cited as an example.

“The more we disrupt it the more impossible it is.”

Prince Charles

And, on whether people should reduce the amount they fly and their meat intake, Prince Charles responds: “Flying, hopefully, will become easier and more sustainable.”

Collective pressures are being made to help boost sustainable actions in the private sector, he notes. Here, there are trillions of dollars available, he says.

Charles also spoke about where animal products are sourced, advocating for grass-fed ‘quality’ meat over industrial farming.

He also brought the conversation round to ‘endless perverse’ subsidies in industrial fishing and intensive animal agriculture industries. This is ‘crazy’, he says and has led to scaling emissions.

On COP26 in particular, he hopes to ‘unlock’ vast investment and opportunities in the wake of COP26, to approach a more sustainable economy. “It’s a last chance saloon,” he says. 

The alternative? “It will be catastrophic, it’s already starting to be catastrophic because nothing in nature can survive the stress that is created by these extremes of weather…The more we disrupt it the more impossible it is.”

Regards Mark

WAV Comment:

Over the past few weeks we have been drawing some attention to the fact that NO Vegan, or plant based food is being made available to delegates at the COP26 Climate Conference taking place soon in Scotland.

UK: Ever Visited Your GP With A Cough And Then Been Prescribed 20 Cigarettes A Day ? – World Animals Voice

Urge the COP26 Climate Summit to Serve a 100% Vegan Menu. – World Animals Voice

UK: UN COP26 Climate Summit – vegan eating can reduce food-related carbon emissions by 73%. Eating meat and dairy is part of what got us into this mess. So Why No Vegan Food At the Summit ???? – Take Action Below. – World Animals Voice

Taking into account that this is a climate conference, and we all know how rainforests are being destroyed by intensive livestock feedlot creation, along with the huge environmental destruction caused by animal farming; would you not think that COP26 would be the ideal place to set out a stall to support a plant based diet which is much more environmentally friendly ?

It still seems that this is not the case.

So today, 8/10/21, I have written to my own Member of Parliament (UK), to ask him to contact Alok Sharma MP; President of the conference; and ask why vegan plant based is not the only food that will be available to COP26 delegates who attend.

At my request, my MP  really has a duty now to contact Alok Sharma MP; COP26 Conference President; and ask for a formal response to my letter.

I will now  sit and wait to see if anything arrives in the next few weeks; and will naturally let you know the result.

Regards Mark

Here below is a copy of my letter on behalf of WAV dated 8/10/21 to my MP:

—————————————————————————–

Adam;

The 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) climate summit is now weeks away.

Alok Sharma MP is the President of this important conference.

Climate protesters know that fishing, meat, dairy, and egg industries are not only intensively cruel to animals but also cause catastrophic damage to the environment. For decades, the United Nations has identified animal agriculture as a leading cause of deforestation, pollution, ocean dead zones, habitat loss, species extinction, and zoonotic disease spread. The UN is calling for a climate tax on meat, and the Committee on Climate Change says people must reduce their meat and dairy consumption.

The science is more than clear: animal-derived foods have far bigger carbon footprints than plant-based alternatives.  But is Alok Sharma, President of COP26 really clear on what is happening ?

Plant-based foods have a far smaller carbon footprint than their animal-derived equivalents.  A switch to vegan eating can reduce food-related carbon emissions by 73%. Intensive meat farming / production methods are and have been causing massive destruction in the Amazon rainforest regions for example, part of the reason why we now are globally in such a mess.

The COP26 Climate Summit Should Set an Example; but does it through the policies of Alok Sharma ?

Given everything we now know about the devastating impact of animal agriculture on the environment, the Alok Sharma attitude of serving meat, dairy, or eggs at a climate change summit would be like distributing cigarettes at a health convention.  Plants and plant based diets are the only way forward, and a vegan menu would not only allow attendees to experience the wonderful vegan options of today, but would also allow them (allegedly as environmentalists ?) to dine with a clear conscience and set an important example for the world to follow.

Given the vast availability of vegan food today, it would be easy for COP26 to create a delicious and sustainable plant-based menu that would impress delegates. Ensuring that all food served at COP26 is plant based would be a powerful way for the UK to show its commitment to action on the climate crisis while championing fresh British produce and British farming. 

Only vegan food should be served at COP26.

Please write to Mr Sharma MP on my behalf and ask him why environmentally friendly vegan food is not being served at COP26.

Mr Sharma is not setting a good example by his current actions; which says does it not, that his Conservative government is great on the ‘talk the talk’ front, but lacking in the real action department. 

I would be very interested to hear his reasons for, through his actions, of not supplying a plant based, environmentally friendly diet at a COP conference which will hopefully progress and get people AWAY from intensive animal agriculture, the basis of global forest destruction such as the Amazon.

Thank you

Mark Johnson

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Additional:

SAO PAULO, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Nearly a third of the cattle bought by JBS SA (JBSS3.SA) in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para came from ranches with “irregularities” such as illegal deforestation, prosecutors found in a 2020 audit of the world’s largest meatpacker released on Thursday.

Revealed: rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat | Brazil | The Guardian

Revealed: rampant deforestation of Amazon driven by global greed for meat

The cows grazed under the midday Amazon sun, near a wooden bridge spanning a river. It was an idyllic scene of pastoral quiet, occasionally broken by a motorbike growling on the dirt road that cuts through part of the Lagoa do Triunfo cattle farm to a nearby community.

But this pasture is land that the farm has been forbidden to use for cattle since 2010, when it was embargoed by Brazil’s government environment agency Ibama for illegal deforestation. Nearby were more signs of fresh pasture: short grass, feeding troughs, and salt for cattle.

The vast 145,000-hectare (358,302-acre) farm is one of several owned by the company AgroSB Agropecuária SA – known in the region as Santa Bárbara. Located in an environmentally protected area, Lagoa do Triunfo is more than 600km (372 miles) from the capital of the Amazon state of Pará on the western fringes of Brazil’s “agricultural frontier” – where farming eats into the rainforest. To get there takes hours of driving along dirt roads and a ferry ride from nearby São Félix do Xingu, a cattle town accessible only by plane until a few decades ago.

AgroSB supplies cattle to JBS, the world’s biggest meat packing company and single biggest supplier of beef, chicken and leather globally, with 350,000 customers in more than 150 countries.

Continue reading by clicking on the above link.

The Expansion of Intensive Beef Farming to the Brazilian Amazon – ScienceDirect

Livestock and climate change: impact of livestock on climate and mitigation strategies | Animal Frontiers | Oxford Academic (oup.com)