- I'm in Los Angeles to sit down with Ethan Brown,
the Founder and CEO of Beyond Meat.
His big identify climate change,
start a plant-based meat business,
and a revolution on your plate.
- Is it possible that a major solution for climate
is actually right under our noses?
- On your plate.
- Exactly.
- You are trying to disrupt millions
of years of human behavior.
- What I view this as,
is a chance to evolve and innovate
to something that's better.
So I'm very confident that with time, we'll build a piece
of meat that's indistinguishable from animal protein.
- I'm Monica Langley, and this is the inflection point.
Hi Ethan. So let's talk about your inflection point.
Was there a moment when everything
became clear to you,
that there's a, I know what I'm doing in my life.
- Yes. I think there was.
And for me, like many young people,
I was pretty restless as a student
and I was in graduate school at the time,
at the time at a school that my father had founded.
And I was thinking about
not enrolling for the next semester.
I wanted to-
- You were gonna drop out?
- I was gonna drop out, yeah. (Monica laughs)
And I went up to his office on the third floor,
and I was in there, and I said,
"Dad, I'm just gonna take a break."
And he didn't try to talk me out of it, which is his way.
he's a PhD in philosophy,
and sort of would approach things
with asking you questions and things like that.
And the question he asked me was an important one,
which was, "What did I think the biggest problem
in the world was?"
And after a while, kind of arrived at climate,
that if we don't do something to stabilize the climate,
all, everything else that matters so much to us,
would be made more difficult and ultimately impossible
if we don't have an ecosystem that we can live in.
- And what did he say back?
- Well, we talked about it,
and we talked about the best way to approach it,
and so it really was to stay school,
and to continue to learn about these issues.
And then I went out into,
in the world, and began to focus on,
at the time, clean energy.
- What year was this Ethan?
- Oh, this was in the, I don't know, mid-nineties.
- Uh-huh. - Yeah. Yeah.
- You're kind of ahead of the game,
worrying about the climate.
- Well at the, the school that I was focused,
where I was, was focused on the intersection of
economics, and ecology, and policy.
- Okay. - And so it was something
that was on the radar.
- But here we are today,
you are the Founder and the CEO of Beyond Meat.
What got you here?
Why Beyond Meat?
- It comes from a childhood where I was very blessed to,
I grew up in Washington, DC, and in College Park, Maryland,
but my father having grown up in a rural environment
wanted that for his family.
And so we had a hobby farm, which we still have today,
that we would spend time on in the weekends and summer
and things of that nature.
And so I just really fell in love with animals.
I, my mother is an editor,
and would really encourage us to read a lot
and so I spent a lot of time reading
and the books that I read,
the first series of books was Jane Chariot,
"All Creatures Great and Small"
and that kind of stuck with me.
In fact, I think "Charlotte's Webb"
is such a powerful book because of this point.
- We all read "Charlotte's Webb"-
- Yeah. - and we also
read it to our children.
- Yes. EB White. - Wilbur.
- Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Which is a terrific point to start up that discussion
because there's a question about
how is this animal different from me, for example,
or different from another one?
And that's really the challenge I began to have as a child,
and I began to think about that a lot.
And I began to think about,
is it possible that a major solution
for climate is actually right under our noses, right,
and as we- - On your plate.
- Exactly.
- Okay. What is it about cows that make them an issue?
Let's talk about that.
- And I wanna be very careful about how I say this
because it's not, and we have,
at our farm that I just mentioned,
we have people raising beef cattle on either side,
and I really respect their way of life, and-
- And farmers and-
- A hundred percent.
And it's actually an incredibly important part of my life.
But what I view this as,
is a chance to evolve and innovate
to something that's better.
And so it's not about attacking what exists,
but it's rather just like
I have a mobile phone and I don't use my landline anymore.
Can we evolve towards something
that is better for us and better for the earth?
And so that's the way I think of it,
but it was that moment of looking at that steak
or meat at the center of the plate,
and saying, "Wait a minute, there's another solution here."
If this is truly a global problem, climate, right,
we have to spend like it is,
and we have to get the best scientists
from the best institutions, and the best engineers,
the best and brightest, bring them together.
Put them together, and give 'em a clear goal,
which is to build meat directly from plants,
fund them and kind of get outta their way.
- There have been other, not just plant-based products,
but there have been other things like black bean burgers,
veggie burgers, I mean, other things,
but you came in and really changed the game.
Was it a moral mission?
Was it a business mission?
- Really powerful things can happen
when you start not only to listen to this,
but listening to this, right.
And I did start to do that,
and doing that allowed me to take risks
and to move forward
in an environment of doubt or difficulty,
in a way that I probably wouldn't have been able to do
had it just been an intellectual exercise.
And I don't think about it in terms of,
just another innovation
like making, as I mentioned earlier,
the mobile phone versus the landline.
I think there's an evolutionary nature to this, right,
that if we can be the generation of people
that separates meat from animals,
we could contribute an enormous amount,
not only to our own species,
but obviously other species,
as well as making sure that the earth
can be inhabitable in the future, right.
So it doesn't mean to not eat meat.
What it means is that we've figured out a way
to use science and technology,
to take all the core parts of meat,
the amino acids, the lipids, trace minerals, the vitamins,
combine those with water
in the architecture of animal protein,
and provide it to the consumer.
If we can do that, that's meat to me,
and- - That's fascinating though,
that you're telling me,
that those same elements are in Beyond Meat,
that are in meat. - Yes.
- You have found a way to do that.
- Yes. So I'm very confident
that with time, we'll build a piece
of meat that's indistinguishable from animal protein.
So tastes just like it, healthier for you,
and costs you less.
I think if we get those- - Then you will have
a big market surge.
- It becomes an unusual consumer, says that
"I'm still not gonna eat that."
At that point, we're like, "Okay, fine.
We're not gonna win you over anyway."
- Why did you come up with the name?
What's the origin of Beyond Meat?
'Cause you still have meat in the name.
- Yeah. Yeah, because I think meat is central to
to our, who humans are.
- Yeah. - We evolved eating meat.
So many of our traditions
are centered around meat, Thanksgiving.
And I always thinking about the Thanksgiving
football game where they're consuming-
- Yeah. - Turkey as their talking.
So I don't think it's something
that we're gonna move away from,
but can we change the source of the meat?
That's really what I'm about.
- Ethan, here's the thing,
you are trying to disrupt
millions of years of human behavior.
- Yeah.
- I mean, we all grew up eating meat.
Our families did, our, generations, and generations.
This is an enormous task.
- I talk about this a lot,
that you're not gonna grow a business
telling people not to do what they love.
(laughs)
It's not a good idea.
- Okay, you know what, I, southerner that I am-
- Yeah. - Grew up eating sausage,
gravy, and biscuits. - Yeah.
- So I went out before I came here,
and bought your spicy sausage patty.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- It was as good if not better-
- Thank you.
- than what I grew up eating.
- Thank you. Thank you, yeah.
- So I see you're making progress in this,
and people will pick it.
So you're starting maybe, a revolution on the plate.
- We're trying. - If you can't change
the planet, - Right. That's right.
- You can change a plate at a time.
- And that's what's so beautiful about this,
is that in everyday activities, you can go beyond yourself.
You can help the health of yourself,
your family, your community, and the planet, right.
Just by making a simple choice, right.
And we have to make it seamless,
we have to make it something that's enjoyable,
and so continue to focus on the taste,
is really important to us.
And the better we make the product,
the larger our circle of consumers become.
- Some critics say, "Is Beyond Meat
that healthy was cuz is it too processed or something?
How do you answer that?
- Yeah. On one level, it's kind of absurd.
They're doing a good job at that, saying it's processed,
but if you really unpack that,
process is a neutral word,
it's a series of steps to a desired outcome.
I mean, it's actually the definition of process.
(both laugh)
And so, if you look at our process,
which is taking protein, and fats and things
directly from plants,
and running them through a system of heating,
cooling, and pressure, mixing,
and then forming, right, that's a process.
Then you have to compare it to industrial meat process.
And I don't need to get into the details of that,
but you can ask yourself, which do you want?
- So let's talk about your ideal clientele.
Who are you going after?
- Right. So I think it's a group
that have been termed flexitarians.
So it's people that are on maybe once a week or something,
taking animal protein outta their diet.
- So ultimately, do you think you can
convert some meat eaters?
- It's never really been about
vegans and vegetarians, right?.
That's a smaller percentage of the population.
It's, it's really for us,
it's about how do we reach the mainstream?
And so I, if you've noticed our strategy,
I've never really fussed with
really high end chefs or restaurants.
Marin and Martha's Vineyard,
they're gonna eat what they're gonna eat, right.
But it's, change is gonna happen at McDonald's.
At all these places that we're in, that are mainstream,
but then it's also younger generation
which is interested in climate and environmental issues,
and things of that nature.
But what's so interesting, is the health
is also playing into those decisions
for many younger people.
And Chris Paul's a good example of this,
as are many NBA players,
because they have to figure out ways to recover more quickly
and to continue to be productive even as they get older,
and he's a terrific example of it.
- Then, I saw, has Snoop Dogg in-
- Snoop is, yeah. - Did he invest too?
- Yes. Yes.
- I don't necessarily associate him with health,
but what do I know?
- You do with plant though, don't you?
- Uh-huh. Okay. (both laugh).
That kind of plant, yes, okay.
(both laugh)
- Snoop, he's a great advocate for us.
He's a very smart business man.
Also cares a lot about his community,
and he knows about higher rates
of heart disease and diabetes,
and cancer among African American populations.
And so there's a lot of reasons Snoop's involved,
and he's been great.
He's been great. - And then
I saw Leonardo DiCaprio.
- Yeah. - For the climate-
- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - issues.
- Yeah, yeah.
- So you're checking all these boxes with Beyond Meat.
- Very blessed to have it, yeah.
- Ethan, you're out there making waves.
You're doing big things.
And when I search you,
two words come up; hedonistic altruism.
- Yeah. - What does that mean?
- Yeah, that's a way that I think about
what we're trying to accomplish.
And the reason that I speak about that is,
we want to enable the consumer
to do things that go beyond themselves,
but they also feel really good
when they're doing them, right?
And if we can accomplish that,
I think we'd bring far more consumers in,
than if we're brow beating them in some way.
And so I think a company that has done
that really well is Tesla.
You enjoy driving that car,
and at the same time, you're reducing emissions
and things of that nature.
So it's a way of thinking about changing human behavior
that people can aspire to.
- I wanna talk about Beyond Meat,
and you as a business person.
Which has been more challenging to you,
being a founder of an innovative startup,
or being a CEO of a publicly traded company?
- Hmm. I think the biggest challenge honestly,
has been innovating as a public company,
and here's why.
What we're doing is something that looks
at five, 10, 15 years out, right.
And I didn't understand or appreciate this as much,
I went to a school that emphasized buffet
and all these long term investing things of that nature.
But I didn't capture the extent to which Wall Street
is truly focused on the short-term,
and when COVID hit, we got tested,
because we could've retracted way back.
So we're not gonna do Europe, we're not gonna do China,
we're not gonna keep investing in innovation, the same clip.
We're not gonna build this beautiful campus.
I didn't wanna do that.
I wanted to keep investing,
because this is not about next year.
It's not even about three years from now.
It's about five, 10 or 15 years.
Can we create a incredible return for the investor,
for the shareholder that has stuck with us and said,
"We think they can get a serious percentage
of that $1.4 trillion market,
but we're not gonna do that
by being timid or by saying,
"You know what, I'm really worried about
these quarterly results."
We're gonna do that by long-term focus,
and we get criticized for doing it.
For sure, the headlines and all that other stuff,
you have to ignore them.
- Well that's sticking with your vision,
but I thought as a founder, it was tough,
because you gave up your 401k, you mortgaged your house.
I mean, you took some serious risk.
- I did.
- But now you're continuing to take risk as a public CEO.
The fact is, your business is not just your business,
it's your passion.
And I get the feeling sometimes,
that you would almost give your product away,
or, I've heard you say that, I think.
- (Ethan giggles) I think I would.
- You can't do that, Ethan. - I can't do that, yeah.
Yeah, I can't do that,
because I think what I'm trying to convey with that
is just the passion we feel
for helping people live better lives
and have a planet that again, is inhabitable
but you always have to take risk.
And that's what you get paid for as a CEO,
is to take risk and be right enough
that you stick around.
- You alone, cannot change the climate,
cannot change everyone's health, clearly,
cannot save the planet.
So what is your definition of success
as we sit here today?
- It gets to science, and it gets to technology.
For so long coming out of enlightenment
and that era, we use science to conquer nature, right,
to put nature under our control
and to to make it subservient.
Today, we have the opportunity to use science
to literally free nature, and to bring nature back
in a way that we desperately need to
and that's what this product is about.
- What is your holy grail
when you say, "We've made it at Beyond Meat?"
- So I get that I'm a product person,
and I think it gets back to a product,
and I'm very interested in making
whole muscle tissue like steak, and bacon,
and things of that nature.
- (both laugh) That would be great.
- Yeah. We're very excited about that one.
- Yeah, okay. - In fact, I can remember
having some really good bacon in Tennessee, but um-
- Yes.
- I have a vision for a commercial I wanna do someday,
where you'll be able to meet the farmer,
that they'll say,
"Let's go and make that steak out of lentils," right?
They grew the lentils, right,
that, and then see the process by which we make steak
from those lentils,
and people get really comfortable with the idea.
And they say,
"It's steak. It's just steak which is made from plants,"
and that, like the mobile phone and the landline,
it becomes just what we do.
- I would love to see that commercial, and taste that stake.
- (laughs) We're working on it.
- We're workin' on it. - Thank you so much, Ethan.
- Yeah, no, thank you.
I really appreciate it.