Ethan Brown's Fight to Reclaim the Beyond Meat Story
How the most scrutinized brand in plant-based food is sharpening its mission, rebuilding trust, and staying focused on the long game, even as the headlines keep shifting.
It's been eight years since Ethan Brown last appeared on the Eat For The Planet Podcast. Back then, Beyond Meat was a breakout story. Its burger had just landed in the meat aisle. The idea that meat could be made from plants—not just for vegans, but for everyone—felt both urgent and optimistic.
Fast forward to 2025, and Beyond Meat has become something else entirely: a cultural lightning rod, a favorite target, and still the most recognized brand in plant-based food.
This episode was never going to be about the stock price. So if that’s what you were expecting, sorry to disappoint. The headlines have already told that story, often without nuance. What I wanted was a conversation about narrative, pressure, and identity. What happens when your product is designed to blend in, but your mission is too disruptive to ignore? How do you lead when the world keeps trying to redefine you?
We talked about the hard stuff: declining retail sales, consumer confusion, the cost of being first. But also about reformulation, storytelling, and what it takes to keep showing up when the hype cycle turns on you. What emerged wasn't a defensive CEO talking points tour; it was a founder, reflecting on what's changed, what hasn't, and what's next.
What we covered:
Beyond's return to discipline: Ethan spoke candidly about how the company is operating in this phase: more focused, more selective, and more grounded. Recent product reformulations, like the new burger made with avocado oil and the launch of Beyond Chicken, are part of a broader shift toward nutritional transparency, ingredient simplicity, and operational discipline. He framed it not as a pivot, but as a recommitment:
Pressure and resilience: While Ethan didn’t dwell on media narratives, the conversation acknowledged how Beyond, as the most recognizable brand in the space, has faced a level of scrutiny that few others have. As Ethan put it, reflecting on years of scrutiny and backlash:
“We’ve gotten stronger under this. Iron sharpens iron. Our products are going to be unassailable.”
That line says a lot. Beyond’s visibility came with a cost, but also, potentially, a long-term advantage: it forced iteration, reformulation, and reflection.
Culture, counterculture, and confusion: We talked about how the brand’s early strategy of placing the product in the meat aisle, focusing on taste and familiarity, was designed to lower barriers. But in 2025, plant-based meat is no longer a novelty. It’s a political football, a media target, and a stand-in for broader cultural tensions around food and identity.
Ethan didn’t directly address whether that “frictionless” strategy has backfired. But he did acknowledge that Beyond now operates in a much more contested space, one where its identity and intent are constantly questioned.
Narrative repair: We dug into Planting Change, the company’s recent short film, and why Ethan felt the time was right to tell a bigger, deeper story—about food systems, science, health, and values.
“You can’t let misinformation shape the story. You have to retake the mic.”
The film, along with a new campaign featuring real people and health outcomes, marks a more assertive communication shift: from taste to truth, from mimicry to mission.
Historical perspective and the long game: Ethan framed Beyond’s work in broader historical and moral terms, referencing the ice trade, the role of protein in industrial systems, and his longtime inspiration from Albert Schweitzer’s concept of “reverence for life.”
He returned to the company’s founding intention:
“The idea was always to create something that was indistinguishable from animal protein, but better in every way that matters.”
This is not a brand chasing trends. It’s a company trying to move the center of the plate, and the culture with it.
The deeper tension
For years, plant-based food was told to blend in: Don't scare people, or be too different. Just taste good and look familiar. But now, Ethan is finding that sameness might be a trap.
The public wants to know what's in their food. The media wants a villain or a failure. And the meat industry wants to keep things just the way they are. So Beyond finds itself having to be louder about its difference, at the exact moment it's trying to be more familiar.
That tension between fitting in and standing apart is what defines the company right now. And Ethan isn't running from it.
My take
In a crowded marketplace full of claims, counterclaims, and cultural landmines, Beyond Meat remains a symbol. Sometimes for better, and sometimes for worse, but always as a proxy for something bigger.
What stood out in this conversation wasn’t just Ethan’s resolve, it was his refusal to abandon the mission, even as the terrain around it shifts. He’s not trying to win everyone over; he’s trying to stay in the fight.
And while there’s no guarantee that Beyond will regain momentum, or that the cultural tide will turn anytime soon, it’s clear that the company isn’t fading quietly. It’s adapting, reframing, and trying to prove itself all over again.
Maybe that’s the most honest version of long-game leadership: not certainty, but persistence.
Listen to the episode:
#196 - Ethan Brown's Fight to Reclaim the Beyond Meat Story | Apple | Spotify