Ethics in the alt-meat industry: Navigating the ethical pressures of business, mission and impact

Christie Lagally Bradburn of Rebellyous Foods explores the 'ethical risk' of the alt-meat industry and why integrity must outweigh survival at any cost

Running a business is hard. Hard to start, operate, maintain, become and stay profitable, and survive ever-shifting macroeconomic winds. But through it all, there is a daily, nagging question of ethics that ultimately determines a company's impact on the world: good, bad, or neutral. Will you choose to be honorable and ethical? Will you run the company with fairness, transparency, and integrity? Will you honor your contracts and work toward constructive long-term relationships? Will you conduct business with responsibility and humility instead of hubris? And will you choose decency even in the face of those who lie, cheat, dismiss, demean, and obfuscate, without justifying responding in kind?

Once upon a time, I assumed that alt-meat companies were unique businesses, attracting impact investments with their intent to make the world a better place, as they say frequently in Silicon Valley. After all, why would you ever run an alt-meat company except to address gaps in our food system, the climate crisis, and social injustice? What would be the purpose of starting an alt-meat company that was not driven by the core values of your mission? Seemingly, there would be no point otherwise to challenge the almighty status quo of global meat production. Without a mission to drive sustained success, many alt-meat companies can become yet another time and money sink.

My assumption was admittedly naive. Even in the alt-meat industry, I’ve witnessed people start businesses – or attempt to save failing ones – for the wrong reasons. Too many companies have sacrificed their own customers, investors, and employees to preserve egos and perceived concentrations of power, influence, or money. There are no fundamental rules in business that say if you act with dishonesty, division, and fragility, you won't still make some money. These kinds of businesses do a lot of damage to the alt-meat industry as a whole.

Business is an ethical risk. The challenge is not just that others will take advantage if given the chance, but that they will attempt to normalize unethical choices

In an attempt to see more clearly the behavior of an unscrupulous business partner, an investor shared this simple axiom: business isn't fair. This supposed partner had been dishonest and uncouth instead of building on an initial state of adversity and failed promises to drive toward trust and transparency. I had to make a decision: Do I allow, support, and even advance this behavior either through capitulation or matching such behavior? Or do I walk away at the expense of deep and lasting loss and damage to our company? Either way, our employees and company were injured by the failed promises and misplaced trust.

Upon further reflection, my investor’s advice led me to a broader understanding that business is an ethical risk. The challenge is not just that others will take advantage if given the chance, but that they will attempt to normalize unethical behavior and choices. When attempts are made to coerce, manipulate, extort, or pressure you into accepting unethical terms of business – even if out of necessity for their own survival – they are defining the ethical foundations of you and your company as well.

There has never been a more important time to act ethically in business. As a society, we've rightfully put a lot of hope into impact startups, B-corporations, and 'business for good' to address overwhelming global problems. From the outset, we must choose our values from an infinite number of possibilities. This includes choosing how to respond to those who have wronged us by skirting contract obligations, failing to act in the spirit of fairness, being opaque, dismissive, or deceptive, as well as lying, cheating, and stealing with impunity. These actions feel wrong because they are. But it matters just as much how we respond.

Exceptional companies share a dedication to mission, regardless of industry. Great business leaders and employees aren't driven by money, but by meaning and impact. Some of the most dangerous moments in a company's lifespan can involve making choices about how to confront the unethical behavior of others. Negotiation in these moments can too easily become capitulation, which weakens a company's core values and long-term impact.

Negotiation can too easily become capitulation, which weakens a company's core values and long-term impact

I've faced this dilemma many times in the alt-meat industry. I've attempted to negotiate only to be reminded of the impermeable nature of fundamental values. I've attempted to capitulate by living with the status quo until our funds dried up. I've offered to help business partners regain their footing, only to realize that selfish and unethical values run deeper than choice and are driven by intention.

I have chosen time and again to maintain our company's commitment to honesty, fairness, transparency, cooperation, financial stability, and professionalism. In fact, it's expected of every employee at Rebellyous to maintain these values in order to achieve the impact we seek as an alt-meat company, striving to shift the direction of global meat production and climate change. To do otherwise would be a fundamental misappropriation of our investors’ funds and employees’ time.

While there are many compromises necessary to run a successful company toward a greater mission, we simply can't allow our values to be defined or dictated by unscrupulous business practices used against us. The short-term losses required to maintain our ethics will never be as comparable, monetarily or otherwise, as the positive long-term impact to fulfil our mission.

Ms Christie Lagally Bradburn is the Founder & CEO of Rebellyous Foods, a food production technology company working to make plant-based chicken price-competitive with conventional chicken to serve the most cost-sensitive markets with climate-friendly meat alternatives. Bradburn is a mechanical engineer who began her career in the aerospace industry working on testing, designing, and manufacturing commercial airplanes and spacecraft. Rebellyous Foods is focusing on designing novel manufacturing equipment that addresses the two most significant obstacles facing the plant-based meat industry – cost and quality-at-scale – and recently commercialized Rebellyous' proprietary Mock 3 Production System. Rebellyous serves nearly six million kids with 7 SKUs of plant-based chicken through the USDA National School Lunch Program