Wednesday, 02 February 2022 12:00

Fake flake

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

OPINION: They say nothing is as good as the real thing - and this seems to be the case for fake meat company Beyond Meat.

Reports show it has become one of the most 'shorted' companies on the US stock market as investors fret over weaker-than-forecast sales and scepticism grows over the plant-based 'meat' boom.

Short sellers - who make money on share price falls - have piled into the stock.

Short positions on Beyond Meat shares have increased 40% since late October, when the California-based company issued a revenue warning.

The ballooning bets against Beyond Meat come amid rising uncertainty about the growth in plant-based meat: Data from the US and UK show that sales, which soared in 2020, flattened out in 2021.

Although US retailers' sales of plant-based meat grew 1.6% in December, numbers fell between March and November, taking total revenues for the year down 0.5%.

More like this

Faking it

OPINION: Demand for red meat is booming, while it seems the heyday of plant-based protein is well past its 'best before' date.

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.

Featured

'One more push' to eliminate FE

Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is calling on farmers from all regions to take part in the final season of the Sheep Poo Study aiming to build a clearer picture of how facial eczema (FE) affects farms across New Zealand.

TB plan review to focus on possum hot spots

New Zealand is closer to eradicating bovine TB than ever before, but possums remain a threat, says Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

Winston Peters questions Fonterra divestment plan

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has joined the debate around the proposed sale of Fonterra’s consumer and related businesses, demanding answers from the co-operative around its milk supply deal with the buyer, Lactalis.

Nestle reportedly withdraws from methane accord

The ACT Party says media reports that global dairy giant Nestle has withdrawn from the Dairy Methane Action Alliance shows why New Zealand needs to rethink its approach to climate.

Cyclone Gabrielle lessons from Young Grower of the Year

If there was a silver lining in the tragedy that was Cyclone Gabrielle, for New Zealand Young Grower of the Year, Grace Fulford, it was the tremendous sense of community and seeing first-hand what good leadership looks like.

University of Waikato research reveals 2050 drought threats

New research could help farmers prepare for a future where summer rainfall is increasingly unpredictable and where drought risk is rising, no matter what.