President Joe Biden's administration issued an executive order on biotechnology and, in it, directs the Secretary of Agriculture to determine how to best use biotechnology to, among other things, beef up fake meat.

While I was blinking back the baffled thoughts, a friend texted me a Wall Street Journal opinion column. In it, Andrew Boucher said in a “stunning development,” Beyond Meat stock is crashing. I like this guy already. Boucher said the company pedaling plant-based meat alternatives rode the PR blitz wave and no investors, cheerleaders or financial analysts apparently gave much thought to consumer demand. With 5% of consumers considering themselves vegetarians, he said, “out of the gate, we have a product that 95% of the population has little use for.”

My calling is not that of an economist or a mathlete, but that math makes sense.

As the executive order on biotechnology made its rounds, trade organizations fired back at Biden. The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, which is based in the Denver area, issued a statement that points out the Biden administration’s failure to support or even recognize the innovations already at work in the cattle industry. NCBA named gene editing, a tool they call critical to improving cattle health and wellbeing, which is also being utilized to help the industry reach climate neutrality by 2040. Gene editing is also poised to increase "sustainability" — another buzzword that if I only had a dollar for each time I’ve typed it…

Rather than concentrating on supporting the industry that provides the most affordable, safe and abundant protein supply in the world, the executive order prioritizes fake meat production under the guise of food security.

In the fake meat realm, there are plant-based products and cell-cultured products, the latter being produced from animal cells through a process I can’t explain, using ingredients I can’t spell and gobbling resources like water and electricity. Several years ago, Gov. Jared Polis encouraged the Department of Agriculture staff to embrace the fake meat movement and determine if there was a place in Colorado agriculture for it.

A Beyond Burger’s ingredients include water, pea protein isolate, expeller-pressed canola oil, refined coconut oil, rice protein, natural flavors, cocoa butter, mung bean protein, methylcellulose, potato starch, apple extract, salt, potassium chloride, vinegar, lemon juice concentrate, sunflower lecithin, pomegranate fruit powder and beet juice extract to give the burger its meat-like “blood.” Of that list, in Colorado, we grow potatoes, sunflowers and canola. We also raise 2.7 million head of cattle, and livestock contributes about $4 billion in cash receipts annually. It seems less than reasonable to prioritize one over another in the name of food security.

The United States Cattlemen’s Association said, on its face, the executive order promotes a science- and risk-based system to support the development and use of products of biotechnology. U.S. cattle producers are regular consumers of products developed using biotechnology, from livestock feed derived from genetically modified ingredients to medically important vaccinations administered to livestock to treat and prevent disease.

The executive order directs the Secretary of Agriculture to “submit a report assessing how to use biotechnology and biomanufacturing for food and agriculture innovation, including… cultivating alternative food sources.” Further, a senior Biden administration staffer told attendees at a press conference that the administration seeks to “improve food security and drive agricultural innovation, including through new technologies that protect crops from disease, enhance seeds and fertilizers and foods made with cultured animal cells.”

USCA present Brooke Miller said the cultivation of animal cells for human conception doesn’t align with the Biden administration’s goals of supporting independent agriculture producers. Cell-cultured products, Miller said, cannot be independently produced because the “technology is shrouded in intellectual property protection and requires intensive capital resources.” Miller said petri-dish protein production expenses ought not fall on the backs of cattle producers or taxpayers.

While all of this fake meat news was cooking, one more headline caught my eye and was quickly filed under “you can’t make this up.” The COO of Beyond Meats has been suspended after his arrest last weekend. Doug Ramsey is facing charges of “terroristic threatening” and third-degree battery after biting a man’s nose during a fight following a University of Arkansas football game. Even this bizarre story, on nearly every report I’ve read, wraps up with the news of Beyond Meat’s struggles and the 90% fall shares have taken since their 2019 high. It’s all something to chew on, I suppose.

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.