THE REAL ‘DEATH TAX’: Beyond Meat CEO calls for tax on meat to encourage shift to plant-based food

Price is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to that shift, because plant-based meat substitutes, which use protein from vegetables such as peas, are more expensive than the real thing.

BEN CHAPMAN: The boss of the world’s largest plant-based meat company has backed a tax on meat to encourage a shift away from animal products. Ethan Brown, founder of Beyond Meat, told the BBC that taxing meat consumption could encourage emerging markets to invest in plant-based protein. Some of these markets are increasing meat consumption rapidly as more people move out of relative poverty and into a growing middle class.

Mr Brown pointed to figures showing that shoppers are already eating more plant-based food. “If you look at shopper data that we have, 93 per cent of the people that are putting the Beyond burger in their cart are also putting animal protein in… they’re deciding to cut down on their consumption of animal-based products”…

“As we scale, we’ll begin to be able to underprice animal protein – if you look at our facilities, and you look at the facilities of say, some of our plant or animal-based competitors, right, we’re still a very small company [but] that’s going to change,” he said…

Price is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to that shift, because plant-based meat substitutes – which use protein from vegetables such as peas – are more expensive than the real thing. A tax would make animal products more expensive, benefitting Beyond Meat among others. SOURCE…

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