Flexitarians

As you know we are constantly looking for sectors which are experiencing change, whether it be cyclical or secular. Secular change is difficult to pinpoint, as it often takes years to unfold and is seen only in hindsight. Having said that, the slight pivot taking place in the agribusiness community possibly reflects larger societal shifts with far reaching investment implications. Flexitarians, if you don’t know,  refers to those consumers who eat meat and fish only very rarely, and are rapidly becoming the sweet spot of protein providers such as Cargill, Perdue and others. Traditional protein delivery sources such as beef, chicken and fish are slowly being supplanted by new technologies involving synthetically engineered proteins.  Most interesting is that this movement is being driven by forces outside the vegan community, specifically institutional interests possessing either ethical or environmental concerns. The vast, highly resource- inefficient monolith that is global agribusiness has been put on notice, investors would be best served to take notice and begin to look for the potential winners and losers.