Big meat is gobbling up fake meat companies

theguardian.com:

Big meat and food conglomerates threaten to push out smaller producers of meat alternatives in the same way they have affected other food industries, according to two recent reports.

Meat companies such as JBS and Cargill have invested heavily in plant-based proteins and laboratory-grown meats in recent years and bought out several smaller companies, according to a report published Tuesday by the non-profit Food & Water Watch and a March report from IPES-Food, a coalition of food systems experts.

The animal meat conglomerates are joining other food giants that already control about 80% of the meat alternative market, including Kellogg’s, which owns the MorningStar Farms brand, and Conagra, which owns Gardein.

“With most of these products you won’t see the parent company’s name on the label,” said Philip Howard, an associate professor at Michigan State University and lead author of the IPES-Food report. People buying meat alternative products “may not realize they’re supporting those big companies”, he added.

The meat substitute market is predicted to grow rapidly, from $4.2bn in sales in 2020 to $28bn in 2025, according to IPES-Food. Much of that growth will come from the already robust plant-based meat industry, the report said, but several conglomerates have also invested hundreds of millions to develop lab-grown meat – meat produced in bioreactors without the need to slaughter animals.

Both plant-based and lab-grown meat producers say their products are better for the environment than meat. Plant-based alternatives have a median carbon footprint 93% smaller than beef, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University. And German scientists have said replacing even 20% of the world’s beef consumption with microbial