Talk:Beyond Meat

Quarterly results

@PassioEtDesiderium: Your justification for removing this does not make much sense. First up, as I already said in my edit summary when I replaced it, that this is the only quarterly result included is not a reason to remove it. If other quarterly results attract attention in reliable sources, then please add them, here's one from a few days ago. If you think it's in the wrong section, then move it somewhere else, don't remove it entirely. Why do you think it contravenes WP:NPOV? WP:Relevance is an essay, meaning that it has little standing, and in addition you have misinterpreted what it means by "twice removed" - it is referring to something similar to twice removed like a cousin, i.e. two degrees of separation, not whether the content has been removed by two different editors. WP:WEIGHT (part of NPOV) is the relevant policy which governs what material should be included and per the source "This is the first big quarterly miss for the company" which is a pretty clear indication that it is worth including. SmartSE (talk) 22:35, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

Edit request

Hi everyone, Soo from Beyond Meat, here. I am hoping to update the article with current and notable details as well as to improve the clarity and style of the existing text. Due to my conflict of interest, I won't make these edits myself, but am proposing them here instead. Below is a detailed proposal for improvements to the lead, and the beginning of a new breakdown for the history section complete with updates and sources. If anything seems out of place to you, please let me know and I will work to improve it as per your suggestions. Thank you so much for your help.

Lead:

• Link to "Ethan Brown" in the lead - Ethan Brown (executive)
• Replace "plant-based meat substitutes" (which is redundant) with simply "plant-based meat."
• Replace: "The company has products designed to emulate beef, meatballs, ground meat, and pork sausage links and patties."
  With: "The company offers plant-based options in the beef, pork and poultry categories" (which is a more appropriate level of generality for the lead, per MOS:LEAD).
• Add the following sentence: As of March 2021, Beyond Meat products are available in approximately 118,000 retail and foodservice outlets in over 80 countries worldwide.

History section:

• Replace the first five paragraphs of the History section, as well as the "Finances" subsection, with the following, which is expanded and organized better in new subsections:

Founding

The company was founded by Ethan Brown in 2009 to combat climate change. Brown initially contacted two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had already been refining their meatless protein for years. Upon licensing Hsieh and Huff's technology, Beyond Meat launched its first product, Beyond Chicken Strips (originally called "Chicken-Free Strips"), in Whole Foods location in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013. In 2014, Beyond Meat developed its first plant-based beef product, Beyond Beef Crumbles, and has since expanded into plant-based pork. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named Beyond Meat as its Company of the Year for 2013.

IPO and finance

Over the years 2013-16, the company received venture funding from GreatPoint Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Obvious Corporation, Bill Gates, Biz Stone, the Humane Society and Tyson Foods. Tyson Foods purchased a 5% stake in Beyond Meat in October 2016, but sold its 6.5% stake and exited the investment in April 2019, ahead of the company's initial public offering. By 2018, Beyond Meat had raised US$72 million in venture financing. Beyond Meat is also backed by celebrity and athlete investors such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Jessica Chastain, Snoop Dogg, Liza Koshy, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, DeAndre Hopkins and others.

In May 2019, Beyond Meat went public and trades on the United States NASDAQ exchange under the symbol BYND. It is the first plant-based company to go public. On the day of its IPO, the company was valued at $3.8 billion and was the best-performing public offering by a major U.S. company in almost two decades. As of June 2021, Beyond Meat had a market cap of $9.44 billion. In November 2020, Beyond Meat announced sales had only grown by 2% year-on-year compared to an expected increase of 40% due to the impact of COVID-19 on foodservice sales. Beyond Meat shifted its focus to grocery, convenience stores and other forms of distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sales grew by 3.5% in Q4 2020 and by 11.4% in Q1 2021. At the end of 2020, the company reported net revenues of $406.8 million the full year, an increase of 36.6% year-over-year.

Manufacturing

In the United States, Beyond Meat has several manufacturing facilities in the United States, including in Columbia, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. In June 2018, Beyond Meat opened its second production facility in Columbia, Missouri, resulting in a three-fold increase of the company's manufacturing space. In 2020, Beyond Meat acquired a manufacturing facility in DeVault, Pennsylvania. In Europe, Beyond Meat has two facilities in the Netherlands: a co-manufacturing facility in Zoeterwoude owned and operated by Dutch company Zandbergen, and an owned facility in Enschede. These two facilities service the distribution network across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

In China, Beyond Meat operates an owned manufacturing plant in Jiaxing. It is the company’s first "end-to-end manufacturing facility" outside of the United States and began full-scale production in 2021.

Research and innovation

In 2018, Beyond Meat opened a 26,000-square foot R&D lab in El Segundo, California housing nearly 100 employees. In January 2021, Beyond Meat announced that it will be opening its new global headquarters in El Segundo, CA later that year. According to the company, the facility will house three to four times its current number of R&D team members once the three-phase opening of the campus is complete.

• Move the remaining three paragraphs ("In March 2019..." to "...directly to consumers") to a new subsection called "Partnerships and distribution", which I will suggest expansions for in a future edit request.

References

Pinging MaynardClark, who helped me with the Ethan Brown (executive) page.

Thanks again, S at Beyond (talk) 16:13, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Most of this request is promotional, WP:PROMO, and should only selectively be reviewed and/or used by an impartial editor. S at Beyond has a WP:COI and should not be editing the article or taking part in talk page discussions, WP:NPOV. Zefr (talk) 16:17, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Just to clarify: that Beyond should not take part in this discussion is Zefr's opinion, not what WP:COI and WP:NPOV say. WP:COI says you [COI editors] may propose changes on talk pages. WP:COI also has some good tips for regular editors on how to deal with COI editors :) ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 00:21, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

I agree with Zefr. It's absolutely ludicrous that you are suggesting that we call Beyond Meat's products "meat" instead of "meat substitutes". Also, let's compare the rather glowing Sales grew by 3.5% in Q4 2020 and by 11.4% in Q1 2021. At the end of 2020, the company reported net revenues of $406.8 million the full year, an increase of 36.6% year-over-year. sourced to a press release with CNBC's summary published the same day The company fell short of Wall Street’s estimates for its fourth-quarter revenue, and it reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss. This is hardly encouraging and demonstrates to me that Beyond Meat are not here to improve the article but to spin it to their own favour. To anyone else responding - note that this is the latest iteration of them trying to WP:OWN this article through using undisclosed paid editors, going back seven years right to when this was created and continuing through to [year]. It is encouraging that S at Beyond has disclosed their relationship, but I would suggest that we be extremely cautious in integrating any changes suggested. SmartSE (talk) 20:11, 27 July 2021 (UTC)

Hey, nice to meet you. This seems to have heated up quite quickly and I just want to clarify that I am not connected to any undisclosed editing that occurred in the past- I am approaching this with fresh eyes and hope you will judge me and my requests on their own merits rather than in light of editors who have no connection to me. I certainly appreciate the need to maintain the neutrality of the article, and if you feel I have failed to do so, I am happy to discuss and work to improve it. Thank you, S at Beyond (talk) 15:57, 28 July 2021 (UTC)

The content suggested in the "Founding" and "Manufacturing" sections above are not controversial nor read as promotional. I wouldn't object to including those paragraphs. Psychologist Guy (talk) 20:26, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

I agree, except for two bits:

• • "to combat climate change" should be replaced by something more hedged like "with the stated mission". Otherwise you're making it seem like they're actually combating climate change, which probably isn't backed up by refs. Wikipedia prohibits original research via its WP:OR Policy.
  • you must use neutral vocabulary (See wp:npov (Wikipedia Policy) and wp:claim). Usually you can just substitute words with the easiest synonyms you can think of and they will become neutral. E.g. "to service" --> to supply, to sell. "claimed"--> said, wrote. ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 23:51, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi S at Beyond, Wikipedia tends to be skeptical of claims about individuals and organisations, rightfully so, since there are incentives to exaggerate. The research and innovation section has too much wp:puffery. Most refs you provide are wp:selfpublished. we need reliable sources WP:RS (Wikipedia Guideline), especially for WP:EXTRAORDINARY claims such as fourfold increases. WP:RSP is a list of what Wikipedia counts as RS. Wikipedia Policy means we have to adhere to it in >99% of cases. Not all pages linked in the WP:X/wp:x format are Policy, though. Anyone can create such a link, and they are usually used for Policies, Guidelines, and Essays. Guidelines are weaker forms of Wikipedia rules, and Essays are the views of individual editors or factions. They are not binding (see WP:RULES for an overview). To the other editors, I hope I can inspire you to cite some policy and guidelines, too, when making arguments :) ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 23:28, 2 August 2021 (UTC)

Also S at Beyond, the article currently only depicts your food. Could you upload some pictures to Wikimedia Commons that go—further than—food? Photos of your production sites, people, campaigns perhaps. Make sure it makes sense to use them, under WP:IMGCONTENT (Policy).‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 00:06, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi @Trimton and Psychologist Guy: Thanks for joining the conversation and for being so willing to work constructively with me! I appreciate you taking the time. I will try to address each of your points clearly:

• Here is the revised Founding section, as per your suggestions:

The company was founded by Ethan Brown in 2009 with the stated mission of combating climate change. Brown initially contacted two University of Missouri professors, Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff, who had been developing their meatless protein for years. Upon licensing Hsieh and Huff's technology, Beyond Meat launched its first product, Beyond Chicken Strips (originally called "Chicken-Free Strips"), in Whole Foods location in 2012 and expanded nationally in 2013. In 2014, Beyond Meat developed its first plant-based beef product, Beyond Beef Crumbles, and has since expanded into plant-based pork. The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals named Beyond Meat as its Company of the Year for 2013.

• Research and innovation- I can't find any self-published references in this section, but tried to eliminate any language or information that could be seen as promotional below:

In 2018, Beyond Meat opened a 26,000-square foot R&D lab in El Segundo, California. In January 2021, Beyond Meat announced that it will be opening a new global headquarters in El Segundo, CA later that year. The company says the facility will house three to four times its current number of R&D team members once the campus is complete.

• Regarding the other sections- forgive me, but I don't see any WP:EXTRAORDINARY claims backed up by self-published references. Can you show me an example from my draft, so that I may work to improve the remaining content? I believe the only content included with self-published sources falls under the WP:ABOUTSELF guidelines (but please do correct me if I am wrong), and that all other claims are backed by third-party references.

• I will work on uploading pictures.

References

Thanks again for your help, S at Beyond (talk) 15:46, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

@S at Beyond Sorry for my late reply. You can use the above text except for a minor suggestion inResearch and innovation: I think MOS:UNIT requires conversion to square metres or hectares (an SI unit, and a unit to be used with SI, respectively). You could use Template:Convert. {{convert|26,000|sqft|m2|sigfig=2}} gives "26,000 square feet (2,400 m²)". It uses a similar level of precision as required by MOS:CONVERSIONS. It'd be more informative and less promotional to write the absolute number of R&D employees now and after the three-to-fourfold increase ("The company says that its number of R&D staff will rise from xx to xx"). But I think the sentence is within the scope of our policies, as is. Regarding the other sections: You're right, EXTRAORDINARY doesn't apply since you indicated the self-published nature of the statement ("The company says" in your latest draft). I struck the EXTRAORDINARY part of my earlier comment. ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 22:42, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi Trimton, thanks for taking the time to get back to me! Much appreciated. Will make the change as per your suggestion and edit the article. Regarding the absolute number of R&D employees- I was simply trying to cite the source as accurately as possible, and it doesn't mention those figures. Thank you again for your assistance. S at Beyond (talk) 21:45, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

We need to start with the "Founding" and "Manufacturing" sections, the above content should be updated to the article. Does anyone object to these changes, they are not controversial. After we have come to a consensus on this we can talk about the other material. Psychologist Guy (talk) 22:02, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

I object to the simplistic "to combat climate change" as this is clearly marketing language. We should discuss this as the stated aim somewhere in the article, but as I mentioned here before it needs to be balanced by other sources. The manufacturing section should include the court case with Donn Lee Farms and update this information as there are more recent sources available: [1] [2] [3]. SmartSE (talk) 10:43, 26 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi Smartse, thanks for your response! Trimton made a similar point about the climate change statement above, and I revised the draft according to his suggestion. Does the new language ("with the stated mission of combating climate change") address your issue as well? If not, I am happy to revisit. As for the court case, I have included an updated overview in my draft, and intend to propose it once this first request is agreed upon. Thanks again for your help, S at Beyond (talk) 15:50, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Hi. The last sentence of the IPO and finances section: "Sales grew by 3.5% in Q4 2020 and by 11.4% in Q1 2021. At the end of 2020, the company reported net revenues of $406.8 million the full year, an increase of 36.6% year-over-year." does not have such a positive tone when analyzed by other sources: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/beyond-meat-bynd-q4-2020-earnings.html - it seems promotional. How are others proposing to deal with this? RBut (talk) 17:02, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

RBut Good point! It seems... beyond my abilities to reconcile these contrasting trends to tell the reader what's really going on. Revenue is obviously different from the stock price, so the best I could do is to report these two points separately. But maybe either of them is less revealing due to high fluctuations? Maybe there's a Wikipedia guideline / help page for reporting financial data? ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 11:17, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 August 2021

There are two ands in the first paragraph when the products are being listed. The one before pork sausage links should be removed.

The company has products designed to emulate beef, meatballs, ground meat, pork sausage links and patties.

The first "and" could also be changed to "as well as" if it's supposed to be pork sausage links and pork sausage patties. AndrewTavis (talk) 13:38, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

 Done I just removed the links and patties wording. I think saying "sausage" is good enough. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 13:57, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

Health

I believe that a health section is warranted on this article. Dietitians have described Beyond Meat burgers as a valid alternative to reduce red meat consumption but have been criticized as heavily processed and for their high-sodium and saturated fat content (although they contain less saturated fat than ground beef) [4], [5],[6], [7], [8]. Beyond Meat have responded to such criticisms [9] and have since launched a new burger with less saturated fat [10] Psychologist Guy (talk) 19:00, 5 September 2021 (UTC)

Edit request 2

Hi everyone, thank you so much for your help so far. Below are some additional suggestions to improve the page and its accuracy. I would love to continue to collaborate on this.

1. In the Joint ventures and partnerships section:
   • Add the following: Beyond Meat's products are sold in the meat aisle in supermarkets, alongside animal meat products. Walmart started selling Beyond Meat products in 2015. As of March 2021, Beyond Meat products are available in approximately 2,400 Walmart locations throughout the United States. Beyond Meat partners with foodservice chains such as McDonald's, Yum! Brands (including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut), Subway, Starbucks, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Denny's, Del Taco, TGI Fridays and A&W.
     • As a result, remove the now-unnecessary separate paragraph about Taco Bell's collaboration with Beyond Meat ("In January 2021...")
   • Change the second paragraph (about the McPlant) to: Beyond Meat first partnered with McDonald's in 2019 to pilot a plant-based burger in Canada. In November 2020, Beyond Meat entered a global agreement with McDonald's to be its preferred supplier for the McPlant, a new plant-based burger. Beyond Meat and McDonald's are also co-developing other plant-based menu items, such as chicken, pork and egg. In February 2021, Beyond Meat and McDonald's began testing the McPlant burger in Denmark and Sweden.
   • Change "Meatless Sausage" to "Beyond Sausage," which is the accurate name of the product. (Source)
   • Change the final paragraph (about the partnership with Yum! Brands) for precision and to remove speculative language: In February 2021, Beyond Meat started a multi-year global partnership with Yum! Brands to offer plant-based protein menu items exclusive to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.
2. Reorganize, update and expand the Products section as follows:
   • Divide the section into three subsections: Beef products, Pork products and Chicken products.
   • Within Beef products, include the following sub-subsections:
     • Beyond Burger (expand from the existing content): The company announced in 2014 that it had begun development of a new plant-based beef product. In 2016, Beyond Meat launched the first iteration of its flagship product, the Beyond Burger. It subsequently launched the Beyond Burger 2.0 in 2019 and the Beyond Burger 3.0 in 2021. Beyond Burgers are made from plant-based ingredients such as pea protein, rice protein, canola oil, coconut oil, potato starch, apple extract, sunflower lecithin, and pomegranate powder. Beef products that "bleed" are achieved by using red beet juice. The products are certified as not containing genetically modified ingredients. One Beyond Burger 3.0 patty contains 230 calories, 14g of fat, 5g of saturated fat and 20g of protein. Compared to a traditional 80/20 ground beef patty, the Beyond Burger 3.0 contains 35% less total and saturated fat, no cholesterol, fewer calories, more iron and comparable B vitamins and minerals. The number of ingredients and processes involved in making the products are classified as ultra-processed foods in the NOVA food classification scheme, indicating that more than five ingredients are used during manufacturing. Compared to an unseasoned beef patty, the salt content of the Beyond Burger is "much higher" because it comes pre-seasoned. The nutritional content of the burger may vary according to the restaurant chain in which it is served.
     • Beyond Beef and Beyond Beef Crumbles: Beyond Beef Crumbles were launched in February 2014. In June 2019, Beyond Beef became available across U.S. retail locations.
     • Beyond Meatballs - Keep the current content but remove the superfluous phrase "a plant-based alternative to traditional meatballs"
   • Within Pork products, include the following sub-subsections:
     • Beyond Sausage - Keep the current content but change "a vegan alternative to pork sausage" to "a plant-based pork sausage option." Also in the second sentence, remove the scare quotes from the word "sausage," per MOS:SCAREQUOTE.
     • Beyond Breakfast Sausage: In March 2020, Beyond Meat launched Beyond Breakfast Sausage, a plant-based pork sausage patty. In October 2020, Beyond Meat launched Beyond Breakfast Sausage links.
     • Beyond Pork: In November 2020, Beyond Meat launched Beyond Pork in China. The plant-based pork mince product was the company's first product developed specifically for the Chinese market.
   • Within Chicken products, include the following sub-subsections:
     • Beyond Chicken Strips (expand from the current Chicken strips section): The company's first product, Beyond Chicken Strips, launched in 2012 and was designed to emulate chicken. It was initially sold as a foodservice product in 2012, and later sold frozen in retail locations in 2013. They were made from "soy powder, gluten-free flour, carrot fiber and other ingredients" which were mixed and fed into a food extrusion machine that cooks the mixture while forcing it through a specially designed mechanism that uses steam, pressure, and cold water to form the product's chicken-like texture. Public figures like Bill Gates and then-New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman praised the product for its likeness to animal-based chicken. Bittman wrote that he was "hard-pressed to distinguish it from most of the animal-based models." Some journalists, on the other hand, said the "likeness to real chicken was tolerable, at best." The product was discontinued in 2019. In July 2021, Beyond Meat launched Beyond Chicken Tenders in foodservice locations across the United States. Beyond Chicken Tenders are designed to emulate breaded animal-based chicken tenders. Beyond Meat then partnered with Panda Express to launch "Beyond the Original Orange Chicken," a plant-based version of the restaurant chain's Original Orange Chicken menu item, in select locations, and partnered with A&W Canada on Beyond Meat Nuggets.
3. Add a new section called Environmental impact and include the following information: According to a 2018 University of Michigan study commissioned by Beyond Meat, the plant-based Beyond Burger generates 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, requires 45% less energy, has 99% less impact on water scarcity, and 93% less impact on land use than a 1/4 pound of traditional U.S. beef. Some experts supported the study's findings, while others said they preferred to see more independent studies and more information about the impact of plant-based meat production on the environment before drawing practical conclusions.

References

Pinging Trimton, Psychologist Guy, RBut and Smartse, who have been working on this with me. I await your feedback. Thanks again for your time! S at Beyond (talk) 00:13, 18 September 2021 (UTC)

@S at Beyond Happy to help.

1. Joint ventures and partnerships
   • The sentence about the meat aisle seems unsupported by the ref and leaves people wondering - in every meat aisle? why is that?. Better: "Beyond products are often found in the meat aisle of shops. This is because the firm prefers this placement and otherwise refuses to promote its retailers." The ref says: If they didn't sell the product in the meat aisle, Beyond refused to help promote the product's availability at that location.
   • "multi-year global partnership .. to offer .. items exclusive to KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" Sounds promotional as is. Could you elaborate on the quite vague "multi-year" "global" and "exclusive" terms? Probably best to split the sentence up.
2. Products I'll look at this later
3. Environmental impact
   • Yes to having this section, but your draft seems to diverge from the ref. The 'some researchers agreeing' with your study amount to one Jeff Anhang saying plant-based is better than animal-based, not commenting your study. The 'others' again amount to one person. Their criticism was also more specific than what you write. There is no doubt that moving away from livestock and poultry would reduce greenhouse gases, although estimates vary. A much-cited 2018 report commissioned by Beyond Meat and conducted by the Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan compared the environmental impact of making a 4-ounce Beyond Meat burger with a similar beef product in the United States. The findings: Beyond Burger generated 90 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, required 46 percent less energy and had far less impact on water and land use than the beef burger. “My view is that replacing animal products with better alternatives may be the only pragmatic way to reverse climate change,” said Mr. Anhang with the World Bank. But Ricardo San Martin, research director and industry fellow for the Alternative Meats Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said he would like to see more independent studies and more information about how the factories that process plant-based meat affect the environment to get a fuller picture. ‎⠀Trimton⠀‎‎ 11:39, 18 September 2021 (UTC)]

@Trimton:, thanks for your response.

1. • Re the meat aisle: The CNN article mentions two reasons for the products' inclusion in the meat aisle, and I assumed that level of detail was unnecessary. If I was mistaken, both reasons should be included, the second being: "But over the years, the company has worked to make its product look and taste more like meat. And, he said, grocery stores started to come on board".
   • Re the "multi-year global partnership", I took those terms directly from the source and can't really expand on them on my own. Happy to remove the word "exclusive", though, if it is too vague or promotional.
2. Thanks.
3. Re environmental impact: I thought I paraphrased the source accurately, but am happy for you or another editor to rewrite it however you see fit.

Thanks again. S at Beyond (talk) 23:27, 24 September 2021 (UTC)

1. Re the meat aisle: The connection between "But over the years, the company has worked to make its product look and taste more like meat" and the decision to sell the product in the meat isle seems inconclusive; the CNN article doesn't make a statement about that, though the interview subject does (and as the subject is not independent, we can't rely on that). I would say include it as Trimtom has proposed, unless or until we can find an independent etc source that clearly asserts what you are saying.
2. Re the "multi-year global partnership": I think the best way to handle this would be to cut out "exclusive multi-year global"; it doesn't add to a readers understanding of the situation, while it comes across as "marketing-speak".

BilledMammal (talk) 02:20, 25 September 2021 (UTC)

@BilledMammal: Thanks.

1. Re the meat aisle: Upon looking at the source further (the paragraph starting "But over the years..."), the article seems to attribute both statements to the interview subject, Seth Goldman. So either both assertions should be included or neither.
2. Re "the multi-year global partnership": that's certainly fine with me.

Please do implement these and the other requested edits above however you see fit. I realize that my suggestions are just that, and appreciate your work on this. Thanks again, S at Beyond (talk) 16:11, 29 September 2021 (UTC)