{"id":43263,"date":"2023-10-20T15:27:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/egg-lobby-tries-to-fry-hampton-creek-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:27:18","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:27:18","slug":"egg-lobby-tries-to-fry-hampton-creek-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/egg-lobby-tries-to-fry-hampton-creek-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Egg lobby tries to fry Hampton Creek – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
Government officials and an egg lobby group have teamed up to try to scramble a Silicon Valley food startup that offers a plant-based egg alternative.<\/p>\n
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The Guardian<\/i> has obtained 600 pages of emails that saw a US department of agriculture official, staff from the American Egg Board and egg industry executives collaborating to try to fry Hampton Creek.<\/p>\n
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The tech company has raised US$120 million to date, and poses an egg-sistential threat to the $5.5 billion per year egg industry.<\/p>\n
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Hampton Creek sells a low-cost plant-based replacement for eggs, as well as a mayo replacement to boot.<\/p>\n
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In the emails, the officials advise a group in how to proceed with a false advertising lawsuit filed against the startup, brainstorm tactics to force the company to change its name and ask Whole Foods to block the products.<\/p>\n
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The emails even include joke threats of violence against the Hampton Creek founder, with one official asking: \u201cCan we pool our money and put a hit on him?\u201d<\/p>\n
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Hampton Creek founder Josh Tetrick is understandably a bit upset about the authorities having a laugh about sending a hitman out to get him.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m not entirely surprised that some industries that are lost in the past a little bit are fighting so hard,\u201d Tetrick told the Guardian.<\/i><\/p>\n
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\u201cEven though it was joking, some of those notes about putting a hit out \u2013 that\u2019s some reckless stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
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