The $2,500 vegan challenge, an Impossibly big week — and more morsels

Big week for Impossible Foods, which extended its reach in one of the country's quirkiest grocery chains and into the Biggest Retailer in America. Impossible Burger is now available in more than 2,000 Walmarts in all 50 states, a milestone Impossible CEO Patrick Brown told CNBC was a “very significant step" in something of an understatement. And, after a relatively modest pilot, Impossible is now available at all 503 Trader Joe's. Per CNBC, Impossible is now in more than 8,000 retail locations nationwide, "as the company’s retail footprint has become 50 times larger than it was six months ago." And yet they still have a lot of catching up to do: Observes Chloe Sorvino in Forbes: "The company remains far behind plant-based competitor Beyond Meat, which has been sold at Walmart since 2016 and can be found at 25,000 grocery locations in the U.S."

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What would make you love a gas station? Yeah, I'm not sure either. But evidently Wawa is a cult favorite because of an epic mini mart, which does have a pretty impressive menu (though perhaps not as impressive as this truck stop). ANYWAY, Beyond announced a deal that would make their sausage a plant-based option in Wawa's breakfast sandwich, the Sizzli. This is in 650 stores to start (in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.) with another 220 in Florida next month.

Factoid [tm]

"The global plant-based meat market size is expected to reach $35.4 billion by 2027, according to a new study by Polaris Market Research."

— Food Industry Executive

If you're a carnivore, live in one of the country's top 5 meat-eating states, could use some extra money and are willing to go vegan for a month — have we got a deal for you!! Well, the deal is from veganliftz.com, which says it will pay a total of three candidates from among those states $2,500 to evangelize "the real-life effects of a vegan diet on a person’s health and fitness." How will they make sure you aren't sneaking any sirloins? They have their ways. But they're so serious about having participants go from one extreme to another they'll only consider people "living in one of the top five most carnivorous areas of the country." That's Mississippi, Iowa, Nebraska, Texas, and Indiana (I'm kind of surprised that Texas is not only not #1, but #4). Sorry, Montana — you just missed (wait for it ...) the cut.

As Beyond was preparing to go public, their IPO documents made two very salient points:

1. The target market wasn't plant-based eaters – who made up a measly something like 5% of the population — but carnivores who might be veg-curious, and
2. Their path to success was through the meat aisle, and basically only through the meat aisle, because see 1. above

It stands to reason, but there is nothing like data to affirm a gut instinct. Now there's solid information from a study done by grocery superKroger and the Plant Based Food Association, reported by Progressive Grocer, which found that plant-based meat sales increased by 23% when sold in the meat department. The test ran for 12 weeks in 60 stores and "placed all plant-based meat in a 3-foot set within the meat department." In the Midwest, "where more flexitarians are emerging," the bump was 32% In the Denver area, "which already has a large number of plant-based consumers," the increase was still a beefy 13%. "This test provides one more proof point that plant-based meats have moved from niche to mainstream,” Kroger Merchandising Director Sean Brislin told PG.

I hope whatever you eat you're taking care of yourself, your families, and each other. Food is a wonderful way to be happy, and to socialize. So break bread with loved ones and be extra kind and generous to the folks delivering your takeout.