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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

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Perdue Is Putting Birds Out to Pasture With Solar-Powered Mobile Chicken Coops

With more than $7 billion in annual sales, it would be easy for Salisbury, MD-based Perdue Farms, a top 10 domestic poultry producer, to focus on business as usual. Instead, the company looks to the future and understands its vision must go beyond simply putting broilers, wings, and chicken breasts in supermarkets and then on consumers’ dinner plates.

In launching its expanded pasture-raised program, Perdue is putting into play a clever piece of technology that benefits consumers, the environment, and, of course, its birds. At its 6th Annual Perdue Farms Animal Care Summit, the company unveiled its solar-powered mobile chicken coops, which it believes will play a key role in its future.

Ryan Perdue, VP, and GM of Perdue’s pasture business explained how the solar-powered mobile chicken coops operate and how they will lead to more sustainable farmland and a healthier product for consumers. Perdue’s commitment to the pasture-raised part of the business was further fueled by its December 2019 purchase of California-based Pasturebird, a firm whose mobile chicken coop took the pasture-raised process to a new level. The acquisition made Perdue the largest producer of pasture-raised chickens in the United States.

While a seemingly subtle distinction, the change in location yields significant benefits. As Perdue explained in an interview with The Spoon in advance of the announcement, a mobile, solar-powered chicken coop houses 6,000 birds which is 75% less than a typical bird house. It is a floorless building, 150 feet by 50 feet in size, and via a solar-powered engine, it moves 50 feet per day.

Perdue says the chickens are offered a new, fresh bounty of grass, insects, flowers, and grains at each new pasture location. While the chickens are not labeled organic, there is a significant increase in the organic matter they eat when presented in a new feeding area each day.

Perdue says that rotating the pasture areas creates a “virtuous cycle” where there is less erosion from rain, and by having the land rest, grass and flowers grow back even more bountiful than before.

While much of the process is automated, farmers will be hands-on overseeing the movement of the mobile coops.

“There are major benefits to the consumer,” Perdue adds. “A pasture-raised bird has less saturated fat, is more nutrient-dense, and higher in Omega-3.”

Perdue Farms is not disclosing how many solar-powered mobile coops it currently deploys or a schedule as to when its poultry-raised product will be widely available on supermarket shelves. Because it is a premium product, pasture-raised chicken commands a higher price; however, Perdue reports, “as the company finalizes price points, Perdue will not sell its pasture-raised chicken at a profit.”

At the time of Perdue’s purchase of Pasturebird, several smaller producers of pasture-raised poultry, primarily sold at farmers’ markets and specialty grocery stores, feared that the deal would put pasture-raised poultry out of the hands of independent farms. Based on Perdue’s acquisition of Coleman Natural Meats in 2011 and Niman Ranch in 2015, the company has grown more than in revenue and product lines.

In an interview with The Counter.org, Lauri Torgerson-White, senior animal welfare specialist with Mercy for Animals, suggests Perdue has learned a lot from companies like Niman Ranch, a pioneer in progressive farming. “Most companies, like Tyson, blow us off. We’ve done multiple investigations of their farms, and they refuse to talk to us,” she says. “But when Perdue learned what was going on, they reached out to talk to us, and since then, we’ve had a really positive relationship with them. Every year they’re doing more to improve the welfare standards on their farms. It’s been a very, very good, cooperative, productive relationship.

Bond Pet Foods Creates Cultured Chicken Protein Prototype for Pet Nutrition

Don’t worry, animal lovers: No chickens (and by chickens we mean Inga the hen) were hurt in the creation of this dog food.

That’s according to Bond Pet Foods, who announced this week that the company has created what it claims to be the “world’s first cultured chicken meat protein for pet food applications.”

According to the announcement, the company took a “one-time blood sample – in this case, from a heritage hen named Inga who is alive and well at a farm in Lindsborg, Kansas – to determine the genetic code for the best types of chicken proteins to nourish dogs and cats.”

From there, the company’s scientists coupled the genetic code with food grade yeast in a fermentation tank. The end result was animal protein, which Bond’s culinary team used as a novel ingredient in a baked pet treat. The company then tested it with a handful of dogs at their headquarters in Boulder, Colorado.

Bond said that once fully developed, its fermented chicken protein will have the same primary nutrients as conventionally produced chicken meat.

Looking forward, the company hopes to scale up its prototype and plans to work towards bringing products to market based on this new cultured protein by 2023. To help fund this growth, the company also announced they’d closed a bridge round of financing with follow-on from the company’s original seed investors.

While it’s easy for most of us to think of conventionally farmed animal alternatives for human consumption since we see the end product on our plates, the pet food industry is also a massive consumer of factory farmed animal meat. According to a report from iFeeder and the Pet Food Institute, nearly 3.8 million tons of animal-derived ingredients were used in dog and cat food in the US in 2018. Because of this, a new generation of science-forward pet food startups have cropped up in recent years to create new sources of protein for our pets.

In addition to Bond, Wild Earth has developed a line up of pet food with plant-derived protein in the form of a fungi called Koji, while Because Animals, a startup creating both plant-based and cultured protein-based pet food, has already created a cultured-mouse meat prototype for cats.

All of this innovation in pet food protein hopefully means a future where not only our Fido and Felix are happy, but is also good news for the Ingas of the world.

We Tried the Plant-based Chicken Nuggets from High Tech Startup Rebellyous

Even though I technically have more time to cook during quarantine, there are some days when my motivation to scrounge up a meal is exactly zero. On those days, I turn to my freezer — frozen burritos, pre-made meals, and ravioli are always ready to go when I need them. Now I have a new staple to add to my freezer: plant-based chicken nuggets from Rebellyous Foods.

If you’re not familiar, Rebellyous is a plant-based meat company that’s reinventing manufacturing technology to make meat alternatives more scalable. After launching in 2017, the Seattle-based startup began selling its first product, a plant-based chicken nugget, to hospital and office cafeterias.

But with COVID-19 essentially closing down their marketplace, Rebellyous quickly pivoted to begin offering its nuggets on retail shelves. Last week the vegan nuggets hit the freezer sections of several small retailers in the Seattle area. A pack of 30 nuggets costs $5.99. The plant-based nuggets have a protein content comparable to regular chicken nuggets and are meant to be just as easy to prepare — whether in a corporate dining hall or a home kitchen.

A bag of Rebellyous plant-based nuggets. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

This week I was able to put that assertion to the test when I received a sample of Rebellyous’ frozen nuggets. I reached for the nuggets when I was feeling especially hangry, hoping that they wouldn’t take forever to cook. The package suggests three cooking methods: Bake, Pan Fry, or Deep Fry. It explicitly notes not to consume the nuggets raw or microwave them, which I assume would be bad for their texture.

I decided to bake my nuggets. I preheated the oven to 425°F, shook out a some nuggets onto a bare baking sheet, and popped them into the oven. Eight minutes and one flip later, and the nuggets were ready. They did stick to the baking sheet a little bit, so next time I would line the pan with parchment paper.

I’ve tasted Rebellyous’ nuggets before, so I knew what to expect. But in the past they’ve always been prepared by an air fryer; I was skeptical that my oven would provide the same crunchy exterior.

Happily I was wrong. The nuggets had a crisp, crunchy coating and a juicy interior that almost exactly mimics the nuggets I grew up eating in my elementary school cafeteria. It’s almost uncanny. The nuggets were tasty enough that I didn’t even feel the need to use a dipping sauce, though a side of barbecue would have been delicious.

Rebellyous’ nuggets post-bake. [Photo: Catherine Lamb]

I just enjoyed one serving, which is six Rebellyous nuggets. One serving has 160 calories, 7 grams of fat and 14 grams of protein (Rebellyous uses wheat protein). The serving didn’t look like a whole lot on my plate, but they actually filled me up quite nicely. Since they have a relatively low calorie and fat count, you could double the serving size or just eat them as a snack.

Rebellyous is certainly heading to retail at an opportune time. Sales of plant-based meats have increased dramatically during the pandemic, as meat prices spike and people search for healthier foods. A handful of plant-based companies have also raised funding over the past few weeks, including Rebellyous itself.

Rebellyous is actually cashing in on three food trends right now: plant-based meat, comfort food, and frozen food. Consumers are looking for food that keeps well, prepares easily, and satisfies. Rebellyous ticks all of those boxes, and has the bonus that it’s kid-friendly (a boon for parents working from home).

I may not be a kid, but after trying them I’m a fan of Rebellyous’ nuggets. The fact that they cook in ten minutes, require no prep, taste satisfying and provide a hearty serving of protein means that they’ve definitely earned a spot in my freezer rotation.

Rebellyous’ nuggets are only available in the Seattle area for now. If you buy a pack, please leave us a comment and let us know what you thought!

Rebellyous Launches Plant-based Chicken Nuggets in Seattle Grocers

Rebellyous Foods, the Seattle-based plant-based meat startup, announced today that it would begin selling its meatless chicken nuggets at Seattle retailers next week.

Since it was founded in 2017, Rebellyous has been selling its plant-based chicken wholesale to spots like corporate cafeterias, universities, and hospitals in the Pacific Northwest and Bay Area. Obviously, most of those were crowded gathering spaces, but are now shut down or severely limited due to social distancing and shelter-in-place orders.

As a result, Rebellyous has pivoted to move into CPG. Last month, as Rebellyous announced its $6 million Series A funding round, the company’s CEO Christie Lagally told me that they were accelerating their retail launch in response to COVID-19.

Next week, Rebellyous nuggets will make their retail debut in the freezer section at Leschi Market and Vegan Haven in Seattle. The nuggets will be sold in one-pound packs with 30 nuggets each and cost $5.99. The package includes instructions to bake, pan fry, or deep fry (it warns you not to microwave them).

Up next, the company will expand to other West Coast retailers and launch new products. Lagally told me last year that they have a plant-based chicken patty in the works. At the same time, Rebellyous is still working towards its overall goal; to improve plant-based meat manufacturing technology to make alternative protein more scalable and affordable.

If you’re in the Seattle area and try out Rebellyous’ nuggets for yourself, drop us a line and let us know what you think!

High Tech Plant-based Meat Startup Rebellyous Foods Raises $6M Series A, Accelerates Retail Launch

Rebellyous Foods, the startup developing next-gen technology to accelerate the plant-based meat industry, announced today that it had raised a $6 million Series A round. The funding was co-led by Clear Current Capital, Fifty Years, and Liquid 2 Ventures, with participation from Agronomics and Vulcan Capital (the investment arm of Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc). This brings the Seattle-based startup’s total funding to $8.1 million.

Founded in 2017, Rebellyous Foods, formerly Seattle Food Tech, has always had a grand vision of reinventing plant-based meat manufacturing to make it more efficient and cost-effective. But it also has its own brand of alt-meat: chicken. The startup sells its plant-based chicken nuggets B2B to large-scale foodservice operations, like hospitals and cafeterias, in the Seattle area.

With its new funding, Rebellyous will speed up its specialized equipment R&D and expand product development to broaden its plant-based portfolio to include other products, like chicken tenders.

Rebellyous is announcing funding at a time when all anyone can think, talk, or write about is the coronavirus pandemic. Their press release is no exception; in it, Rebellyous CEO and founder Christie Lagally writes:

“Bird flu, swine flu, and now COVID-19 demonstrate that keeping large numbers of animals in close contact with one another presents a tremendous risk for global health… to transition away from our heavy dependence on meat, it’s critical that we make plant-based meat affordable and widely available through innovative production technology.”

There’s some evidence that COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease, meaning it originated in animals and spread to humans. While it’s not proven that switching to a vegan diet would prevent future outbreaks of this kind, that’s certainly being argued by companies and organizations trying to push adoption of meat alternatives.

In fact, retail sales of plant-based meats are on the rise right now. But when it comes to foodservice — Rebellyous’ target market — things are much more stagnant. To expand its revenue sources the company will be expanding into retail, and soon. “Rebellyous will be pivoting to selling direct to consumers (CPG), and we expect to announce a soft launch in just a few weeks,” Lagally told the Spoon. “We had always intended to move into CPG, but the pandemic shut down allowed us to realize that goal earlier than expected.” 

It looks like Rebellyous isn’t going to keep all of its eggs in the foodservice basket.

NUGGS Announces Retail Launch of Plant-based Chicken Nuggets

NUGGS, a startup that delivers plant-based chicken nuggets directly to consumers’ doorsteps, announced today via an emailed press release that it will launch in retail this spring.

Founded in 2019, NUGGS makes meatless “chicken” nuggets out of pea protein. The company started delivering the nuggets directly to consumers last July in the U.S. In addition to this D2C model, NUGGS has said it will create new iterations of its product based on consumer feedback (the company claims to be on version 2.0 right now). NUGGS will begin selling the nuggets at 10,000 retailers through CPG distribution agencies Acosta and Green Spoon. Exactly which retailers will carry NUGGS was not disclosed in the emailed release.

Said release came from McCain Foods, the world’s largest manufacturer of frozen potato products, which has also invested $7 million in NUGGS. The affiliation makes sense since NUGGS will debut in the frozen section of the grocery store, where it’ll have some competition from alt-meat stalwarts like Morningstar and Quorn. It’ll also face off against Tyson’s Raised & Rooted line of plant-based nuggets, though those have egg in them so they aren’t technically vegan.

A 10.4 ounce box of plant-based nuggets will retail for $5.99. That’s slighly pricier than a similarly sized offering from Morningstar, but significantly cheaper than Quorn. The NUGGS price tag is also in line with Tyson’s Raised & Rooted nuggets, which cost a whopping $6 for a bag of nine.

Retail has always been in the gameplan for NUGGS, which also expects to branch into foodservice. That’s where the company could actually face more competition: KFC is rapidly expanding its tests of the new-and-improved Beyond Fried Chicken, startup Rebellyous is selling its plant-based nuggets at cafeterias, and just a few months ago Scottish startup Daring Foods inked a deal with Rastelli Foods Group to start selling its meatless chicken pieces to both restaurants and retailers.

When I first wrote about NUGGS last year, I was skeptical that their young team would be able to compete in the white-hot alternative protein space, especially when faced with the challenges of scaling and mounting competition in plant-based chicken. This retail launch will be the first real test to see if I was right.

Daring Foods Brings ‘Plant-based Chicken 2.0’ to U.S., Gets $10M Investment

Yesterday, Daring Foods, a startup that makes plant-based chicken, announced it is partnering with foodservice protein supplier Rastelli Foods Group to enter the U.S. market. Rastelli will invest $10 million in Daring in a deal that’s part finance and part infrastructure. The supplier will also have the exclusive rights to sell Daring Foods’ products to restaurants and retailers.

Daring Foods was founded three years ago in Scotland as a clean-label alternative to one of the world’s favorite meats: chicken. The startup began selling their Daring Pieces, which contain 14 grams of protein per serving, in the U.K. earlier this year. They have since relocated to be based out of New York and are pivoting to focus on the U.S. as their core market in the wake of the Rastelli deal.

Daring makes its bite-size signature meatless chicken from only five ingredients: soy, water, sunflower oil, salt, and natural flavoring. Daring’s co-founder and CEO Ross Mackay believes that this clean-label approach, along with their product’s realistic taste, will help the company stand out amongst competitors. “It’s plant-based chicken 2.0,” he said.

The deal with Rastelli will also certainly help. Mackay explained that Daring can tap into the distributor’s nationwide connections in the U.S. to ramp up and forge distribution partnerships very quickly.

Quite quickly, as it turns out. Daring Foods will begin rolling out its Daring Pieces nationwide in February 2020. Mackay told me that Daring is also developing new flavor profiles for its Pieces, including lemon & herb, as well as larger breast cuts. 

Chicken seems to be the next big faux meat, and plenty of companies are jostling to become the Beyond Meat of bird (including Beyond Meat itself). Seattle’s Rebellyous sells its plant-based nuggets wholesale to cafeterias, and NUGGS delivers its meat-free nuggets directly to consumers’ doorsteps. Swiss startup Planted makes plant-based chicken from four ingredients, though those won’t be available in the U.S. anytime soon.

Big Meat is also getting in on the alternative chicken craze: Tyson debuted its Raised & Rooted meatless chicken nuggets earlier this year, and Purdue’s new Chicken Plus is a blend of chicken and plant protein.

It’s too early to say if Daring’s products will taste good enough to stand out in the crowd of plant-based chicken options out there. But with the company set to enter the U.S. market next year, we’ll certainly have ample opportunity to put them to the test.

Long Lines, Huge Crowds: KFC’s New Beyond Fried Chicken is Going Viral

Yesterday KFC made headlines when the fast-food chain announced that it would test out plant-based Beyond Meat chicken nuggets in one location in suburban Atlanta.

As the majority of the Spoon team is based in the Pacific Northwest, we couldn’t quite justify a trip to taste the plant-based chicken ourselves. Thankfully I grew up in Atlanta and my parents still live there — so this morning I called up my mother to ask her for a big favor: to drive over to KFC and try the Beyond Fried Chicken.

“This is crazy,” she said thirty minutes later when she called to update me. She described lines around the block 70 people deep with dozens of cars queued up to get into the drive-thru. Traffic was stopped on the entire right-hand side of Cobb Parkway, a major city thoroughfare. It was barely 11 a.m. “I can’t believe this is happening in Atlanta!” 

Indeed, the ATL is a place that dearly loves its fried chicken. A soul food hub, the city is also home of Chick-fil-A, which has expanded across the nation drawing fans with its crispy chicken sandwiches and nuggets.

My mother may be nice, but she’s not nice enough to wait in line for three hours on a rainy Tuesday (I can’t blame her). So instead she found a few lucky folks who had already scored their Beyond Fried Chicken and called me up to interview them.

Justin and Ryan with their Beyond Fried Chicken nuggets and wings.

Justin and Ryan waited in line for an hour right when the KFC opened at 10:30am in order to snag the Beyond Fried Chicken. They got 12-piece nuggets ($8.00) and a 6-piece wings, Nashville Hot flavor ($6.00). “They’re really good — the breading is nice, and they’re juicier than other fake chicken we’ve tried like from Morningstar,” they told me. They also said that the nuggets were relatively bland, but that the barbecue dipping sauce added a lot of flavor.

Both Justin and Ryan are vegetarian so they couldn’t speak to whether they thought the Beyond Fried Chicken would fool a meat-eater. They also didn’t offer to share the hard-won “chicken” with my mom (fair enough), so she, a fried chicken obsessive, couldn’t give me her opinion.

Based off of looks alone, it doesn’t seem like the Beyond Fried Chicken is going to be enticing any hardcore carnivores. “It doesn’t look very appetizing,” my mom told me later after sending me a photo of Justin and Ryan’s hard-earned nuggets and wings.

Indeed, the plant-based chicken isn’t winning any beauty contests. But a good chunk of ATL-liens don’t seem to care — heck, they’ll even drive out of their way and wait for hours in the rain for it.

At least part of this fuss is because Beyond Meat has become such a buzzed-about news topic ever since their successful IPO. Consumers are also always drawn to the next hot trend, and the KFC/Beyond Meat partnership got a lot of media coverage. There’s also a slight ‘Free Stuff!’ incentive: today the select KFC location is giving out complimentary samples of Beyond Fried Chicken from 10:30am to 6:30pm (with the purchase of a full-priced menu item and while supplies last).

However, I don’t think the promise of a free plant-based nugget was enough to draw crowds of this size. Instead, the viral popularity of the Beyond Fried Chicken speaks to just how much consumers want plant-based options, well, everywhere. Even in a city famed for its love of fried bird.

“It’s a sensation,” my mother said as she pulled out of the parking lot to head home. KFC stated that it would consider consumer response to the plant-based chicken before it considered a larger product rollout. If it mirrors what happened with Burger King and Qdoba, both of which tested out Impossible Foods products briefly in a few locations before expanding nationwide, that rollout will happen pretty soon.

Based on today’s response, I’m guessing we’ll soon be able to taste KFC’s Beyond Fried Chicken in a lot more places — maybe even Seattle.

Update: According to a press release sent to The Spoon, KFC sold out of Beyond Fried Chicken in less than 5 hours. In that time, the amount of Beyond Fried Chicken purchased by guests was equal to the amount of popcorn chicken that KFC would typically sell in one week.

NUGGS Launches Mail Order Plant-based Chicken Nuggets

Ben Pasternak first gained media attention when he became one of the youngest people ever to get venture capital at the age of 15 for his gaming app. Four years later, he’s started a company focusing on a totally new (but no less viral) type of technology: alternative proteins.

His company NUGGS makes vegan “chicken” nuggets out of texturized pea protein. The nuggets have 22g of protein per serving (twice as much as animal nuggets) and are free from eggs, wheat, soy, and cholesterol. Today, NUGGS is launching the nuggets with a direct-to-consumer model.

The nuggets are currently only available to consumers in the U.S. through NUGG’s website. One box of 40 nuggets will put you back $24, but two boxes (80 nuggets) costs you $29. That seems crazy expensive for one box but pretty reasonable for two, so we’ll see if NUGG’s pricing strategy ends up pushing consumers to buy double. The company eventually plans to expand into retail and foodservice.

So far NUGG has raised $7 million in funding led by Canadian potato processor McCain Foods, who also manufactures the nuggets. Other investors include Greylock Discovery Fund, Rainfall Ventures, and the former president of Tumblr John Maloney.

In an email to The Spoon NUGG claimed to be the world’s first “chicken” nugget startup, but that’s not exactly accurate. Seattle-based startup Rebellyous has been selling its plant-based chicken nuggets wholesale to cafeterias, schools, hospitals, etc. for quite a while. Larger companies have also been embracing plant-based chicken options. Tyson recently released a vegetarian nugget, and Burger King in Sweden has rolled out its plant-based Rebel Chicken King throughout the Scandinavian nation.

But the plant-based protein space isn’t a zero-sum game — especially when it comes to chicken. True, there are a few veteran plant-based companies like Quorn and Gardein who have had frozen vegetarian nuggets to market for a while. But when it comes to the recent wave of companies developing more realistic meat alternatives, most of the innovation has been around burgers, not chicken, leaving ample opportunity for new players.

That might be starting to change. KFC in the U.K. sold out of its vegan Imposter Burger in four days. Chick-fil-A is reportedly looking into alternative protein options. Plus there’s the fact that consumers are hungrier than ever for plant-based protein of all stripes — including chicken.

As of now, NUGGS is untested. I have some skepticism over whether it will succeed. NUGGS’ team of eight are quite young (three of its leaders are 20 and under, including the CEO) and have relatively little experience in plant-based food manufacturing and scaling — issues that are tripping up even veteran, well-funded players like Impossible Foods.

That said, NUGGS is coming to market at an opportune time, before there’s too much competition. If they can deliver on taste (admittedly a big ‘if’), Pasternak and his team might find themselves winning a very different sort of game.

Seattle Food Tech, Maker of Plant-Based Nuggets, Rebrands as Rebellyous

Today Seattle Food Tech, a startup that makes and sells plant-based chicken nuggets for the foodservice industry, announced it is rebranding as Rebellyous.

“Now that the company is pretty well established and we have a product that’s resonating, we feel like we’ve defined ourselves,” Rebellyous’ CEO and founder Christie Lagally told me on the phone this morning. “[The rebrand] is an opportunity to give our success a name.”

Founded in 2017, Rebellyous makes vegan chicken nuggets from ingredients like soy and wheat protein. By focusing on B2B foodservice sales and scalable manufacturing (Lagally is a former Boeing engineer), the startup’s goal is to sell their plant-based nuggets for the same price as chicken. They’re projecting consistent price parity with chicken nuggets in roughly two years. Rebellyous has raised just over $2 million in funding so far.

While the name Seattle Food Tech may accurately describe the startup’s goals — to use technology to affordably scale plant-based food production in, well, Seattle — it didn’t necessarily resonate with customers in the same way as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods. “Our partners were looking for something that described our brand,” said Lagally.

The new name comes at a time when the startup is beginning to ramp up production in earnest. According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ nuggets are in 6 to 10 restaurants in the Pacific Northwest through their partnership with vegan food wholesaler Earthly Gourmet. They’re also on menus at two Swedish Hospital locations in Seattle and have completed two trials in office cafeterias: one at Adobe in Seattle and one at visual computing tech company Nvidia in the Bay Area.

According to Lagally, Rebellyous’ new name is meant to express the company’s “lighthearted but determined efforts to make plant-based meat accessible to everyone.”

There’s not a lot of plant-based chicken competition gunning for the B2B foodservice sector as of yet. However, as demand for alternative proteins continues to grow you can bet there soon will be — especially once poultry giant Tyson Foods launches its line of plant-based protein. It’s a smart move on Rebellyous’ part to rebrand with a name that’ll stick in customers’ minds and (hopefully) keep them coming back for more.

KFC Contemplating a Plant-Based Chicken Option

KFC isn’t “chicken” when it comes to experimenting with plant-based proteins. This week, Kevin Hochman the president of KFC’s U.S. business told Business Insider that the fast food chain will be meeting with several alternative protein makers to explore what an alterna-chicken product would look like.

The notion of a Kentucky Fried Plant-based Chicken menu item actually shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as restaurants across the country are joining the movement towards plant-based meat. Burger King is rolling out the plant-based Impossible Whopper nationwide, White Castle offers the Impossible slider, and Red Robin, Del Taco and Qdoba all have plant-based “meat” options on their menus.

KFC didn’t provide many details about its plant-based ambitions, but perhaps the company felt compelled to say something publicly after one of its key rivals, Chick-Fil-A, said last week it was exploring plant-based options.

The big issue facing both KFC and Chick-Fil-A right now is that the two big alternative protein companies, Beyond Meat and Impossible make beef and/or sausage substitutes, not chicken. In fact, Beyond Meat recently pulled its chicken strip offerings from store shelves because, according to a company FAQ, they “weren’t delivering the same plant-based meat experience as some of our more popular products.”

However, given that KFC doesn’t seem to be on any strict deadline for bringing a plant-based option to market, it could potentially find a partner like Tyson. The chicken giant announced earlier this year that it was developing its own plant-based proteins. Additionally, there is Seattle Food Tech, which has developed plant-based chicken nuggets for large scale commercial kitchens like those in school cafeterias and hospitals.

Of course, the true test for any plant-based chicken meal at KFC will be: Is it finger-lickin’ good?

Blue Apron Founder Bets Chickens can Help Beat Climate Change

What with droughts, slash-and-burn agriculture, overfishing and factory farming, sometimes it can seem like our food system is careening towards disaster.

That’s why Matthew Wadiak, co-founder and ex-COO of meal kit company Blue Apron, decided to found Cooks Venture. Launched yesterday, the company will attempt to pull the food system back from the brink through regenerative agricultural initiatives, starting with… chickens.

But not just any chickens. Cooks Venture’s birds are heirloom and pasture-raised and have markedly better livelihoods than factory-farmed chickens, who are sometimes raised in cramped, unsanitary conditions and/or injected with steroids. Heirloom chickens, like heirloom tomatoes, also have more pronounced, unique flavor profiles than your average supermarket bird.

Poultry preorders opened today. The chickens cost anywhere from $15 to $20 each, depending on how many you buy. Orders will ship in July of this year, and a press release from the company states that it also plans to sell the birds via grocery store and restaurants by summer 2019.

Chickens are just the first step for Cooks Venture, whose end goal is to show how regenerative agriculture can slow — or even stop — climate change by sequestering carbon in soil. Next up, they’ll start raising and selling cattle, pigs, and vegetables, all sustained on the same plot of land as the chickens. The company operates out of an 800-acre farm in Arkansas and has two processing facilities in Oklahoma.

Cooks Venture plans to create a holistic system of ruminant animals (cows, pigs), “monogastric” animals (chickens), feed crops, and a variety of vegetables. The feed crops will sustain the chickens and cows, whose manure will fertilize the ground for vegetables, all of which will help trap carbon in the soil and take CO2 out of the atmosphere, reducing greenhouse gases.

Cooks Venture is far from the only one doing regenerative agriculture. Small farms around the country promote this system as sustainable both for the environment at large and the farm itself, since this kind of closed-loop system keeps the soil healthy.

It seems like Cooks Venture’s role, then, is not really to prove that regenerative agriculture is good for the planet (it is), but to give it a higher profile. With Wadiak behind the project, it’ll likely be seen and heard about much more than the farm that drives an hour to sell free-range poultry at your local farmers market.

The big question — both with Cooks Venture and regenerative farms everywhere — is if this sort of uber-sustainable venture is economically sustainable. From a per-pound perspective, Cooks Venture’s birds are on-par with organic whole chickens from most grocery stores ($3.99/pound). However, at 20 bucks a pop, not everyone will be able to afford one of their chickens, just like most people can’t afford to buy 100 percent of their groceries from a farmers market. There’s also the question of whether farmers, especially ones dedicated to a single crop or animal, could afford to shift towards regenerative agriculture practices.

As climate change leads to higher temperatures and more droughts, regenerative agriculture might become less of a radical choice and more of the only choice. If so, we’ll be glad we have templates like Cooks Venture and others to lead the way.