Alberta Ranchers Have a Beef With Plant-Based Burger Companies

Bob Lowe has never tasted a Beyond Meat burger. He has never tried an Impossible Burger, either. For the Nanton-area rancher and vice-president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, the thought of eating either of the meatless patties — both of which have rocketed to popularity in 2019, popping up on menus at an ever-growing list of restaurants and fast-food chains — leaves a bad taste in his mouth

by Amanda Stephenson – Calgary Herald

“These two companies are actually out to globally kill the cattle industry … so that kind of goes against the grain if you raise cattle for a living,” Lowe said. “But I think I am going to have to try one eventually. If you put enough ketchup on it, apparently, it’s edible.”

Lowe and many other ranchers in the heart of Alberta’s cattle country have watched with dismay this summer as countless media headlines have loudly declared 2019 to be “the year of the plant-based burger.” Beyond Meat — the California company whose pea protein-based product started the trend — is now worth more than US$10 billion and had Wall Street’s best-performing IPO this year. While A&W was the first restaurant chain in Canada to get on board (its version of the Beyond Meat burger completely sold out weeks after its launch last year), others quickly followed suit and imitation meat products are now on offer at Burger King, Subway, Tim Hortons, and a host of other mainstream outlets.

“Beyond Meat’s marketing strategy is trying to replicate beef. That’s to the advantage of cattle producers, because beef is a natural, unprocessed food, and Beyond Meat is anything but”


– CPC

 

But it’s not just the rapid rise in popularity of meatless eating — and what it could mean for beef’s market share — that so irks some cattle producers. Many ranchers are concerned that these vegan products are inappropriately masquerading as meat. Earlier this year, the Quebec Cattle Producers Federation filed a complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) claiming that Beyond Meat shouldn’t be allowed to advertise its products as “meat.” Several U.S. states have also passed laws this year banning companies from using words such as meat, burger, and sausage unless the product came from an animal that was born, raised and slaughtered in a traditional way.

Lowe said for its part, the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association believes plant-based patties should not be allowed display space at the meat counter in grocery stores. He said the organization also has a beef with Beyond Meat’s use of an image of a cow — albeit one wearing a superhero cape — in its logo.

“That is a major concern. We’re looking into it right now about what avenues we can take,” he said. “With limited budgets, we’ve got to be pretty sure of ourselves because they’ve got unlimited budgets. But we have to stand up for ourselves.”

Lowe — who, like many ranchers, has refused to go to A&W ever since the chain’s hormone-free ad campaign of several years ago seemed to imply conventionally raised beef was unhealthy — said he encourages friends to avoid the chains that have embraced the meatless trend and eat at McDonald’s instead. The burger giant, which has so far refrained from offering any form of meat alternative, has long been beloved by Canadian ranchers for its promotion of “100 per cent Canadian” beef. In fact, McDonald’s appears to be doubling down on beef with ads talking up its new enhanced version of the Big Mac.

Lesley Kelly, who farms in Saskatchewan, is not a rancher. In fact, she grows peas and lentils, the very commodities at the heart of the plant-based eating trend. But recently she posted a picture on Twitter of herself holding a McDonald’s beef burger and an A&W Beyond Meat burger and wrote, “I’ll always choose the beef burger.”

Kelly said she did it to support her ranching friends and neighbours, whom she said are frustrated by the advertising campaign that has accompanied the plant-based eating trend. The message seems to be that products like Beyond Meat are both better for your health and better for the environment than old-fashioned beef, and it’s one that makes ranchers feel as if they under attack.

“It’s hard not to take it personally when people are telling you how to farm, telling you that what you do is bad and that you’re a bad person,” Kelly said. “I really felt compelled to speak out.”

For Anne Wasko, chair of the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, one of the biggest concerns around the plant-based trend has been the tendency for meat imitation products to position themselves as a better environmental choice — that by eating less beef, you can help save the planet. Wasko said while it’s true beef has an environmental footprint, the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions only account for 2.4 per cent of the country’s total. And she added ranching has other, positive, impacts on the environment through its protection of native grasslands and ability to sequester carbon in the soil.

“I think there’s room for all at the restaurant table or the retail counter,” Wasko said. “We’re all agriculture — on our ranch, we have cattle and all around me, there’s certainly lots of peas and lentils. But it’s just making sure that messaging is correct — and we will call them out when it’s wrong.”

There’s no denying that this summer’s fake meat phenomenon has become a divisive topic, and that’s unfortunate, said Sylvain Charlebois, senior director of the agri-food analytics lab at Dalhousie University in Halifax. He added he believes there is still time for the beef industry to twist the narrative to their advantage — for example, critics have already started to point out that Beyond Meat’s sodium and calorie count does not make it a health food.

“Beyond Meat’s marketing strategy is trying to replicate beef. That’s to the advantage of cattle producers, because beef is a natural, unprocessed food, and Beyond Meat is anything but,” Charlebois said. “If they (ranchers) actually play their cards well, they could not only position their product as a natural product, but as a premium product.”