Are Beyond Meat and Impossible Meat Socially Responsible?
Corporate Social Responsibility
What is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ?
CSR is a program in a company that self-regulates the company’s contribution to societal goals. CSR for example would promote if the company did volunteer work, donated to charities or gave back to the community. CSR is really important because a lot of companies: abuse child labour, discriminate against race or gender, or pollute the environment, and try to keep their actions under wraps. CSR’s job is to expose companies about negative actions, fix their wrong doing and improve the ethics of the company.
So What is Beyond Meat‘s CSR claim:
“We believe there is a better way to feed our future and that the positive choices we all make, no matter how small, can have a great impact on our personal health and the health of our planet. By shifting from animal to plant-based meat, we can positively impact four growing global issues: human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources, and animal welfare.”
Beyond Meat focuses on four different categories of ethics, human health, climate change, constraints on natural resources and animal welfare. After conducting some research, I was pleased to see that when I looked deeper into Beyond Meat’s claims: they kept their promise.
Animal Welfare
Beyond Meat’s animal welfare speaks for itself. The whole prospect of the company is eating less to no meat, therefore giving animals much better treatment.
Human HealthIn honor of their claim to improve health, Beyond Meat partnered with Michelle Obama on a ‘Healthier America’ project to talk about the future of food.
The feed 1 million + pledge aimed to provide more than 1 million Beyond Burgers and nourishing meals at no cost to frontline healthcare workers and communities in need.
The Climate:
Beyond Meat’s industry is already set on improving the climate. Their product alone is beneficiary to the climate, but the company may have to do a little bit more. There is a petition circling to request Beyond Meat stops producing so much plastic in their packaging. If you would like to sign this petition to help better the Beyond Meat company: click here.
Constraints on Natural Resources:In an effort to constrain natural resources Beyond Meat uses 99% less water, 93% less land, 90% fewer GHGE (Greenhouse Gas Emission) and 46% less energy than real meat.
So What is Impossible Food’s CSR claim?
“To the outside world, Impossible Foods is a food company — but at its heart is an audacious yet realistic strategy to turn back the clock on climate change and stop the global collapse of biodiversity. Here’s how: If we could wave a magic wand and instantly make the animal-based food industry disappear, two game-changing, natural pathways for greenhouse gas reduction would turn on: methane decay, and biomass recovery. The combined effect of these two mechanisms (and other smaller factors) would result in a net reduction in atmospheric GHGs over the next 20 years, even if we did nothing to reduce all other emissions. Our planet needs that magic wand. Let’s turn back the clock on climate change — and halt biodiversity collapse.”
Impossible Foods puts a strong emphasis on their passion for ‘turning back the clock’. Two of their main categories of focus are methane decay and biomass recovery. On their website they have a graph that visually presents green house gas emission. Impossible Food talks the talk, but do they walk the walk? What have they done to support their claim.Impossible foods fulfilled one of their responsibilities as a food production company, they gave food back to the community. They started a food bank in Oakland California to fill the protein gap. Impossible Foods patterned with the End Hunger Committee in the hopes of working towards ending hunger. Impossible Food plans to reduce green house gas emission by producing their product, which is environmentally sustainable, and delivering the product in more efficient ways.
Overall it seems Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods keep up with their CSR claims. Due to my research, these companies are going to be the future and present saviors of our planet, which needs desperate saving. If you would like to read more about futuristic ways to save and advance the planet, read my next article about GMO’s.
Sources
“CSR Information For Beyond Meat” 2021. Csrhub – Sustainability And Corporate Social Responsiblity (CSR) Ratings On Over 45,698 Of The World’s Largest Public And Private Companies.
“Beyond Meat® Announces Partnership With The Social Change Fund To Fight Racial Inequality | Beyond Meat, Inc.“. 2021. Beyond Meat, Inc..
Keeve, Anna. 2020. “These Vegan Brands Support Black Lives Matter And Are Giving Back”. The Beet.. https://thebeet.com/these-vegan-brands-support-black-lives-matter-and-are-doing-something-about-it/.
“Impossible Foods And Feeding America® Fight To End Hunger“. 2020. Impossiblefoods.com.
“Petition · Beyond Meat: Ask Beyond Meat To Reduce Plastic Packaging! · Change.Org“. 2021. Change.Org.
“Impossible Foods | Impact Report 2020“. 2021. Impossiblefoods.Com.
