Meat Company takes over Plant Based Fake Meat Company

In the USA, Jensen Meats has acquired the controlling stake in Before the Butcher and created a whole new dinner party debate

San Diego based Jensen Meats are an institution in the USA food service industry - known for the reliable high quality ground beef product. Their claim to fame is the lengths they go to produce high quality ground beef with pretty much zero chemicals.

Before the Butcher are also known for quality and make plant based fake meat, from recognisable, non GMO, gluten free fake meat, but sell products that look like meat: chorizo, chicken chunks, beef, turkey. 

The public commentary around the acquisition of Before the Burger by Jensen Meats surrounded giving scale to Before the Butcher and a natural acquisition for market share in emerging markets for Jensen Meats.

Not a peep from Before the Butcher on their choice of new major shareholders except for the capacity to scale from a start up to a major player - and access to a $25 million line of credit, a 90,000-square-foot production facility and cold storage warehousing facilities. Somehow it all sounds suspiciously like that 20 something who married the old rich guy. At least in this case, she was being straight up about her feelings for his more attractive assets. 

So has love of an ethical position gone out the window and the vegans sold out to the suitor with the biggest pile of dough? I guess that leaves the rest of us to fill in the gaps. On the surface, it is all about money and market share. But scratch the surface a little and you have an argument for Before the Butcher scaling any way they can and perhaps converting a few meat eating a bastards along the way. Whatever it is, it's the future of food. When you start a movement, that hits a tipping point and becomes mainstream, the original motivation has a way of moving toward money, wherever it comes from.

The owner of Bristol Farms store in Yorba Linda, California (the shop in the main image) stocks Before the Butcher products sums up the new world order when he says,


“PROBABLY 80 PERCENT PLUS OF OUR PRODUCTS ARE CONSUMED BY MEAT EATERS. THAT’S THE CORE OF OUR CUSTOMER BASE. VEGETARIANS ARE REALLY IMPORTANT TO US, AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE WE TAKE CARE OF ALL OF THEM, BUT THE BIGGEST GROUP IS MEAT EATERS – FLEXITARIANS, REDUCITARIANS. THEY’RE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER OPTION. THEY MAY NEVER STOP EATING MEAT, BUT THEY WANT TO KNOW ANOTHER OPTION IS OUT THERE. WE ARE A TRANSITIONAL PRODUCT THAT PEOPLE NEVER TRANSITION OUT OF.”

O'Malley also calls his cabinet a 'Protein Cabinet' and unapologetically fills it with both plant and meats based protein. And that's how you make friends out of enemies.

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