Do you think they're still doing a good job?
I know. I think they changed the story. I think they took something that was a threat to them and they portrayed it in a negative way. And I think people believe it, so I think it works. Yes.
I'm in the UK, where the McPlant burger, with a Beyond patty, has been available at McDonald's for several years. Why was it discontinued in the US?
Uh. (Pause.)
Without commenting specifically on McDonald's – which I really don't want to comment on – let's think about the structure of the United States. You have (Michigan), you have South Carolina and Tennessee as the auto industry, right? Those three states, plus a few more, could have real power in Washington, DC.
Now imagine there is a lobby in almost every state. Ag industry lobby, right? Animal protein lobby. They have such control over Washington. So we're going to have a different environment in the United States in terms of being able to communicate directly with consumers. Overall, we tend to work better with consumers in Europe than we do in the United States.
Speaking of Washington, RFK Jr. is Trump's candidate for the championship Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is quite anti-processed foods. How does Beyond fit into the Make America Healthy Again agenda?
Honestly, it has to come first and there are some perspectives that really excite me about some of the perspectives that I'm hearing.
First, you know Nova system? That just so happens to bring plant-based meat into the category of processed foods. That didn't happen in the Sermon on the Mount or anything, it was just a bunch of people putting characteristics together. And we don't belong to that party. We don't want to be there. We as a food have to go through a series of steps to get there, but it's a better process than the one people are going through when they consume factory-farmed meat.
If you look at the benefits to the human body and the environment, it's a huge win. I believe we can bring that difference to this administration.
The second part is something that was earlier in Kennedy's career, the concept of restoring nature. Our ability to enable the reconstruction of a significant proportion of the global landscape is unmatched. One statistic you should pay attention to is that 93% less land is used to create our products than animal protein. You can use that land, not only to remove methane, but you can also use the remaining land to regenerate and remove carbon from the atmosphere.
You have contacted RFK Jr. Not yet?
Not yet, but I look forward to it.