Technology

The age of alternative meats is upon us.

Beyond Meat is a $5 billion public company selling burgers in Canadian McDonaldand American CarlJr., breakfast sausages in Dunkin, and even chicken in a limited trial at KFC. Meanwhile, Impossible Foods has become a runaway hit at Burger Kings around the country. And the company is reportedly seeking to raise $300 million and $400 million at a valuation of roughly $3 billion according to reports in Reuters.

The plant-based up-and-comers have become a big enough threat thatthe meat industry has hired a marketing hit man to go after the new plant-based contenders to an increasing share of meatmarket. And they have a reason to be worried. By 2040, the conventional meat supply will drop by more than 33%, according to a report from the consulting firm AT Kearney.

As these no-longer-startups bask in the warm glow of success (and the rejuvenation of a sleepy corner of the supermarket) the question is whatcoming next from the research labs and test kitchens that are backed by millions in venture capital dollars.

Wherethe beef?

For the initial wave of investment, driven in part by a desire to appeal to consumers looking for alternatives to animal products, but wary of the cost of cultivating muscle tissue plant-based alternatives seemed obvious. Brown says animals are wholly unnecessary to make products that recreate the taste of a beef steak or a burger — and potentially surpass their flavor, all at a lower price.

Other companies have taken up that challenge as well in the months since Beyond Meathistoric run in public markets (for a while, the company was the best-performing public offering of 2019). Startups like Rebellyous, Nuggs, and Daring Foods are making chicken replacements (along with big meat producer Tyson Foods through its Raised - Rooted brand).

Meanwhile beef gets its own challengers (outside of Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat) with companies like Nestleplant-based pitch Sweet Earth Foods, Tyson Foods, Beyond the Butcher, Hungry Planet and a host of others.

Even shrimp has a plant-based competitor in New Wave Foods, a startup that actually raised cash from Tysonventure capital arm earlier this year.

What has set Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat apart from other competitors — at least in the eyes of the investors — is the research and development teams that are working on flavor profiles and products that simply are more direct corollaries to the products they&re looking to supplant.

For Impossible, thatthe use of genetically modified yeast cells that are manufacturing a protein found in soy called leghemoglobin. Thatthe core of Impossiblesecret weapon — the use of heme (a protein found in blood) to make its plant products taste meaty.

These same benefits apply to investors& approach to plant-based dairy alternatives that are trying to one-up soy and almond milks with a more direct one-to-one substitute for dairy.

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As big tech gets bigger, industry leaders have begun making more noise about helping homeless populations, particularly in those regions where high salaries have driven up the cost of living to heights not seen before.Last January, for example, Facebook and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, among other participants, formed a group called the Partnership for the BayFuture that said it was going to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to expand affordable housing and strengthen &low-income tenant protections& in the five main counties in and around San Francisco. Microsoft meanwhile made a similar pledge in January of last year, promising $500 million to increase housing options in Seattle where low- and middle-income workers are being priced out of the city and its surrounding suburbs.

Amazon has made similar pledges in the past, with CEO Jeff Bezos pledging $2 billion to combat homelessness and to fund a network of &Montessori-inspired preschools in underserved communities,& as he said in a statement posted on Twitter at the time, in September 2018.

Now, however, Amazon is taking an approach that immediately raises the bar for its rivals in tech: itopening up a space in its Seattle headquarters to a homeless shelter, one thatexpected to become the largest family shelter in the state of Washington.

Business Insider reported the news earlier today, and it says the space will be able to accommodate 275 people each night and that it will offer individual, private rooms for families who are allowed to bring pets. It will also feature an industrial kitchen thatexpected to produce 600,000 meals per year.

The space is scheduled to open in the first quarter of the new year and is part of a partnership Amazon has enjoyed for years with a nonprofit called MaryPlace that has been operating a shelter out of a Travelodge hotel on Amazoncampus since 2016.

The new space, which BI says will have enough beds and blankets for 400 families each year, isn&t just owned by Amazon but the company has offered to pay for the nonprofitutilities, maintenance, and security for the next 10 years or as long as MaryPlace needs it.

BI notes that the shelter will make a mere dent in Seattlehomeless population, which includes 12,500 people in King County, where Seattle is located. But itstill notable, not least because of the companywillingness to house the shelter in its own headquarters.

Ita move that no other tech company of which we&re aware has taken. The decision also underscores other cities& equivocation over where their own, growing homeless populations should receive support.

In just one memorable instance, after San Francisco Mayor London Breed last March floated an idea of turning a parking lot along the cityEmbarcadero into a center that would provide health, housing services, and stays for up to 200 of the city7,000-plus homeless residents, neighboring residents launched a campaign to squash the proposal. It was later passed anyway.

Vox noted in report about Microsoft$500 million pledge that many of these corporate efforts tend to elicit two types of reactions: either admiration for the companies& efforts — or frustration over the publicity these initiatives receive. After all, ithard to forget that Amazon paid no federal tax in the U.S. in 2018 on more than $11 billion in profit before taxes. The company also threatened in 2018 to stop construction in Seattle if the city passed a tax on major businesses that would have raised money for affordable housing.

Whether Amazon — one of the most valuable companies in the world, with a current $915 billion market cap — is doing its fair share is certainly worthy of exploring in an ongoing way. The same is true of every tech company that‘eating the world.&

Still, a homeless shelter at the heart of a company like Amazon is worth acknowledging — and perhaps emulating — too.

&Itnot one entity thatgoing to solve this& issue of urban homelessness, Marty Hartman, the executive director of MaryPlace, tells BI. &Itnot on corporations. Itnot on congregations. Itnot on government. Itnot on foundations.

&Itall of us working together.&

Pictured above: A view of the new MaryPlace Family Center from the street, courtesy of Amazon.