Essay Example about Anthropology Deconstruction of a Food Dish

Food is a crucial part of people's lives which is just beyond just a means of survival. It can determine how we view ourselves and plays a crucial role in the social issues and is also a significant factor in the in popular media (Stajcic 2013). Over the past few decades, we have experienced a growth in food-focused media and culture. Food enables to explore different cultures. For example, what we consume, how it is acquired, who is going to eat it, and who ate it first is a form of communication that is rich with meaning. It has a major significance in contemporary society and culture. In the paper, we are going to focus on 'Beyond Meat' as the food dish that we will be analyzing and understanding its cultural-ecological perspective in supporting our main idea of the role of food in everyday life and also how it acts as a means of communication.

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Part 1

Beyond Meat is a producer of plant-based meat that is based in Los Angeles and initiated in 2009 by Ethan Brown. Its Products began to be available nationally at Whole Foods Market in 2013. It has shown and proven how food is evolving and how there is a movement to create meat from plants (Rifkin 1992). This means that a whole industry is being created and food in the future has to evolve as well. Statistics have proven that the current food needs can be sustained increasing the food security in the future with the current model to feed the masses. Beyond Meat deals with products such as Chicken, Beef product, and Burger where it sold its first plant-based burger in May 2016 though it was sold alongside other meat product. It involves a variety of plant protein-based food products with the vegetarian meat alternatives produced from mixing yeast and pea protein isolates. Its product offerings consist of Beyond Beef and Beyond Chicken. Many great people such as Bill Gates and Mark Bittman who is a food journalist that it is difficult to tell the difference of a Beyond Meat with a real chicken to mean that everything is done to their best and with perfection that the food industry has been assured of food security in the future.

Beyond Meat has brought about to the belief that we do not need animals to get meat as we can manufacture it from plants. The plant-based meats enable people to eat more without having to go out of their tradition and still being concerned about their health and animal welfare benefits of plant protein. Beyond Meat is establishing the future of protein. It avoids the animal altogether and makes delicious and nutritious products from plants. The vegetarian meat alternatives are produced from mixing pea protein isolate, yeast, and other few ingredients. For example, the company's beef products are usually made up of pea proteins, canola oil, and some other seasonings. Beyond Meat is a sustainable alternative to beef and its products are eco-friendly than a traditionally ground round and healthier. According to the Company's CEO, they believe to have had the idea since the beginning of the in 2009 when they implemented the idea. Several cultural trends have led to the success of Beyond Meat, but so has its commitment to tweaking its collection of ready-to-cook products. It does admit the controversial ingredients as it aims at positioning itself in the industry as a healthy food company, one that the consumer's expectations are met promoting healthy living.

To show on how the idea of Beyond meet occurred and how history shaped its revolution, it was through statistical research and study that the global meat industry could be threatened by a future featuring lab-grown meat. There has always been the question of whether meat incumbents would be able to circumnavigate a future where traditional animal sources do not contribute to protein. The use of technology and engineer meat labs has led to the growth of plant-based products such as Beyond Meat who are going so much popularity. Ethan who is the CEO through the evolution of the company thought that if the meat industry wanted to concoct a conspiracy to discourage people from pursuing plant-based diets, veggie burgers would be a great strategy. The widely-held perception of having the Beyond Meat is that consumers are converting to new vegan/vegetarian diets. The mission, therefore, is to generate the Future of Protein by giving some alternatives that replace animal protein with plant protein. The dedication is to improve human health, impact positively on the changes in climate, respect animal welfare, and conserve the natural resources. Also, what led to the evolution of the idea of Beyond Meat according to the co-CEO of the company was the motivation that started at a time he had begun to sell at a health-food store in the Northern California where he could sell stuff that could be made to look like meat but were not. He believes that such products highly sell. Raising livestock for meat products consumes a lot of land and water which are commodities and resources that have become so scarce today, so Ethan the CEO thought that meat products that were made of soy and vegetable-protein would be a better way of improving the environment than producing fuel cells.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, global agriculture which is liberated by livestock production and growing of grains that are used to feed the animals contribute to about 30 percent of world's greenhouse gas emissions. This means that a higher percentage of global greenhouse gas emissions are directly attributed to livestock production and this is one of the histories based on the study by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations that led to the evolution of meat being created from plants (Goodman & Melanie 2002). Studies also suggest that urbanization and the rise in income are contributing to a global dietary leading to consumers eating more meat even in the future. Addressing animal agriculture should be taken as our responsibility for the efforts of mitigating climate change but on the other hand, there is a steady increase in the demand for meat.

Part 2

Beyond Meat considered as the highly innovative Californian innovator behind the plant-based alternative, the burger is eyeing for Europe as rumors intensify around an initial public offering (IPO). In 2016, the company made an extraordinary decision that would Facilitate change in the way that consumers and plant-based protein brands see meat not made from animals. It was the year that much production and sales were achieved and made its selling presentation. Unlike the California-based brand's selection of plant-based meat, which was among other brands, the Beyond Burger was the only first ever vegan burger to be displayed alongside meat packages in the grocery stores. The food production company has highly focused on foodservice instead of retail distribution dominating in almost every restaurant across the United States. When Beyond Meat was initiated in 2009 it was the first time that a plant-based burger would be presented together with meat in a conventional supermarket chain in almost all safe ways in Northern California, northern Nevada, and Hawaii. When the company first got its product to the grocery, it vastly expanded its potential market where it contributed to a fast-growing food industry that aimed at delivering foods that were rich in protein that consumers require without not having to involve animals. (Abbate 2017). By this, Beyond Meat had initiated a move to disrupt the traditional meat industry. It did not take long before the Whole Foods leadership had noticed the acceptance of the product. Despite not revealing its sales volume to the Foods leadership, it trapped the consideration of company executives managing the Whole Foods operations in the region. The quick growth put Beyond Meat's operations into an effective operation, and this was a way to show with solid sales data that the product could sell in the framework of the meat case.

The success of 'Beyond Meat' with staging the Beyond Burger sparked a change in the way companies and groceries stores perceive plant-based protein. After the successful achievement of getting the plant-based burgers into the meat sections of many grocery stores, it ramped up its production. It announced that it had raised an additional $55 million to fund its operations allowing it to triple the quantity of plant-based burger meat that it produced. It is said that it had a power close relationship with Tyson Foods which helped in funding the said amount. According to the Wall Street Journal, Tyson Foods is the largest US meat company. 'Beyond Meat' is now approaching and attacking the food industry from three diverse angles and finding of success that include Retail, Restaurants, and Foodservice. It serves in almost every grocery store around America offering retails such as Beyond Burger, chicken strips, and beef crumbles. It has also inked a deal and a relationship with Sysco one of the recognized food-service giant that could help the company to get to various locations and places such as schools, small burger restaurants, and hotels. Supported by tech titan Bill Gates and other influential investors, 'Beyond Meat' is beginning to gain the inclusive market share of meat products away from conventional meat producers. Behind these achievements is the advancement in technologies that have affected the plant-based meat referents capturing the attention of investors and also the public. As the study of history states, plant-based meat alternatives occur in a market that has been about for decades, but the advancement of technology is expressively changing the foods to improved tasting than former products that were made mostly of wheat gluten and soy protein concentrate (Gossard 2002). 'Beyond Meat' presents a huge challenge to the traditional, harvested meat producers and processors. Food is a factor that dominates our society and lives other than just for survival and is a major significance within contemporary society and culture.

Works Cited

Abbate, Cheryl. "The Future of Meat without Animals." Environmental Ethics 39.3 (2017): 341-344.

Goodman, David, and E. Melanie DuPuis. "Knowing food and growing food: beyond the production-consumption debate in the sociology of agriculture." Sociologia ruralis 42.1 (2002): 5-22.

Gossard, Marcia Hill, and Richard York. "Social structural influences on meat consumption." Human Ecology Review(2003): 1-9.Rifkin, Jeremy. "Beyond beef: The rise and fall of the cattle culture." (1992).

Stajcic, Nevana. "Understanding culture: food as a means of communication." Hemispheres. Studies on Cultures and Societies 28 (2013): 77-87.