Last Updated on July 12, 2023
Leonardo DiCaprio’s name conjures immediate memories of his most iconic roles. From his breakout movie roles in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and The Basketball Diaries (1995) to his most iconic roles in Titanic (1997) and Inception (2010), Leo has proven himself to be the definition of a top actor.
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Mr. DiCaprio even portrayed the underhanded businessman Jordan Belfort in the 2013 epic, The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). Now Leo is taking his own plunge into the business world, and fortunately, it is not a shady operation. Quite the opposite, in fact. Leo has invested in the future health of the planet by taking a stake in the new startup company Beyond Meat.
Seeking to revolutionize meat consumption, Beyond Meat is developing synthetic meat made out of entirely non-animal material. The goal is to create a replacement to meat that is difficult to tell apart from the real deal, yet is made of plant materials.
Meat replacements are not a new concept. The ambitious part here is making convincing fake meat. The highest quality product in the replacement meat section can stand in for meat but is fooling no one. If Beyond Meat can close this gap, they will indeed find a demand for their product. The main ingredients in the burger currently are water, pea protein isolate, expeller pressed canola oil, and refined coconut oil.
Offering a viable replacement for meat as a food is a great idea, but the other part of their mission is to provide a protein choice with low environmental impact. This is a large part of why Mr. DiCaprio became involved with the project.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Public Support
Having Leonardo DiCaprio on your side is no small thing. His support for Beyond Meat is entirely public, which will no doubt benefit them greatly. This support includes tweeting about the company and facts involving meat production. Here is a tweet from Leo in Oct 2017: “Proud to invest in plant-based @BeyondMeat as livestock production is a major driver of carbon emissions.”
Another tweet in 2018 states:
“.@BeyondMeat’s plant-based Beyond Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land, nearly 50% less energy & generates 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than what it takes to produce one 1/4 lb. U.S. beef burger. Proud to be an investor in the #futureofprotein”.
However you feel about eating faux meat, the gains to the world are apparent. Sustainable food becomes an ever-important goal as populations grow. Leonardo DiCaprio is not the only one who has this viewpoint. Other notable investors in Beyond Meat are Tyson Foods, an ex-CEO from McDonald’s, and Microsoft founder, Bill Gates. We wish them well in this new endeavor.
