Investing in alternative protein sources (to meat and dairy)

Hey there Mustachians,
I am looking to constitute a diversified portfolio of protein based alternatives. Do you know of any ETF or other investment vehicle on that topic?
Cheers and thanks, Jay

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I am not sure it exist. Usually big food companies make most of these products, and they are leaders in the traditionals products

Nestlé owns Garden Gourmet
Emmi makes some milk-free products

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I see that Swissquote has a portfolio based on Vegetarianism: SWISSQUOTE

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"A few vegan ETFs available include Beyond Investing’s US Vegan Climate ETF (NYSE:VEGN), the VanEck Future of Food ETF (NYSE:YUMY) and VegTech Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF (NYSE:EATV). VEGN excludes holdings with animal cruelty or environmental harm concerns, but it’s worth noting that the ETF’s top 15 holdings are more representative of the technology sector than the food and beverage sector. YUMY’s holdings consist of plant-based foods and agriscience stocks, while EATV’s holdings are plant-based food and tech stocks.

While not a pure vegan play, the First Trust NASDAQ Food & Beverage ETF (NASDAQ:FTXG) does carry some of the stocks mentioned in its primary holdings, including Archer-Daniels-Midland, Beyond Meat, Hormel and Kellogg’s."

While I’m no fan of thematic ETFs due to the lack of diversification (too much of a bet for me), I full-heartedly support your interest in this case, being a vegan myself :+1::grin:

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I’m assuming you mean plant based not protein based?

If I listen Peter Lynch’s advice and look around, I see an increasing interest in plant based food and accordingly more such products. So it is an interesting topic you bring up here, thanks for that!

I have been having an eye on the shelves in supermarkets (e.g. Beyond meat) or coffee shops (e.g. Oatly) to see what they use mostly but until now I couldn’t come up with a product or a company which I can truly believe in it.

For sure there will be big plays in food technology, so I am looking forward to hearing some further thoughts, especially from the ones who live through it. I guess starting with these ETFs and deep diving can be also an idea.

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I mean alternative protein sources than meat and dairy products, so yes plant based (nor sure this can purely synthesized)

Also reading this article triggered my interest to dig deeper on the topic

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I doubt their is a pure ETF, too niche

Following came in my search (disclaimer: only scanned it)

Article how to invest in plant based food

I see ADM is mentioned, of the big Agri trading companies only they are listed, others are privately owned

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Justetf lists 3 European ETFs in “Future of Food” theme. Not the same probably.

Unfortunately if you want to invest in such a narrow niche, I think you will have to pick individual stocks. All ETFs mentioned above should give you a starting point.

While I see the point of plant based food for the future from a environmental, health, etc. standpoint I’m not convinced that the companies are really outperforming the market. In general food is a very low margin business where the economy of scale comes into play. Therefore, I would assume that every successful company will get acquired sooner or later from a big company such as Nestle, Kraft, etc.

But I would be happy if I’m wrong and you can actually outperform the market with such an ETF

ESG / sustainable investing in general is not about outperforming the market, but about moral values.

P.S. nevertheless it is recommended to invest at least 80% in the broad market, and up to 5% in each tilt.

You should search for lab made meats as well. There are some companies that are going to the market in 1-2 years with salmon I believe.
This is better than plant made meat from a monetary point of view for various reasons:

  1. people love meat
  2. a breakthrough in this field is really monetizable (patent etc
)

Nice to see another vegan here! I bought one beyond share for the fun, it’s currently not performing well.

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I thought that the idea behind the ESG is still to outperform the markets in the long run as business compliant with ESG norms should be more sustainable?
While I see the personal point of wanting to invest in “good” things I guess banks do generate ESG products because they sell better.

I sometimes forget when I’m reading that usually other people do the same approach as I do with core and satellite strategy :crazy_face:
but of course you are right with a limited exposer to such ETF (like I do with my satellite stocks) there is not a big impact. Thanks for reminding me.

There is a Salmon farm in the Swiss alps (Lachs Farm – Details zur Anlage und Aufzucht | SWISS LACHS) which sounds very interesting. As long as they have a good balance of the components for the food this could be a very good and clean solution for the future.

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Yes, but I’m not sure if it’s a good investment.

I’m talking about things like this:
Can $100 million get Wildtype’s cell-grown ‘sushi-grade’ salmon into the wild? – TechCrunch.

O wau that sound mint. Thanks for bringing this up will certainly have an eye on this company and similar ones. Not sure why but I personally could see a bigger market for cell-based seafood rather than meat, but that is only my very personal interpretation.

Again thanks for making me aware of this :+1:

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Today I’ve found this link:

It might be a nice bet

Bought some beyond meat and Oatley stocks but they have performed really badly so far