Climate Change, when one thinks of this they think cars, factories, fossil fuels, etc. However, very rarely do individuals think about agriculture. The truth is that the agriculture sector is actually responsible for around 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The production of livestock, or beef specifically is the largest factor for this 11% of all emissions. Since there are often thousands of cows in close vicinity on these farms, cleaning up after their waste becomes a duty that is near impossible. However, from this waste comes many dangerous things such as bacteria, pesticides and heavy metals, that affect the environment negatively. Furthermore, as this waste starts to decompose, greenhouse gasses like methane and carbon dioxide are released, which get trapped in the atmosphere, and slowly heat up our Earth.
This is where the cleverness of Ethan Brown, Founder and CEO of beyond meat comes in. Because of his passion for making a change, Brown states “I have always been driven by the urgency of issues around me: climate change, human health, constraints on natural resources and animal welfare. I began to realize that with one small change – shifting the protein at the center of the plate to plant-based meat – we could positively impact all four of these issues.” With one of Brown’s focuses being climate change, he has not failed at all in that aspect when attempting to make a change. The plant based alternatives for burgers that beyond meat offers, use 99% less water, 93% less land and emit 90% less greenhouse gasses. With all these statistics it is clear that Beyond Meat(BYND), would be a great company for those who are looking to get into impact investing.
Sadly, this is not the case for the environmentally friendly, Beyond Meat. Due to their net revenue in the United States declining by around 14%, the stock has taken a serious tumble. As a matter of fact, since Beyond Meat reported their Q3 earnings on November 10th, their shares have plummeted from $94.48 to $70.26. Brown stated that a large factor for this drastic decrease is the unhealthy appetite for the citizens, as they are starting to choose all the unhealthy options due to the economy being opened up again.
All this being given raises the question about Beyond Meat’s future. Is the company long term bearish, or long term bullish. In my eyes, the company is definitely long term bullish due to the collaborations that Brown has told us to expect. With big time companies like Pizza Hut and McDonald’s expected to collaborate with Beyond Meat, a lot of publicity will be given to the company. However, a question I have due to Beyond Meat’s current state is if people truly care about the environment and impact investing, if sustainable companies like Beyond Meat are tanking and other harmful companies like Nestle continue to flourish.
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