Beyond Meat burgers may mean big business for Sask. pea, lentil growers

A new food trend has pulse growers across Saskatchewan excited about a new place to sell their crops.

Meat substitute products, like the well-publicized Beyond Meat burger, are showing up more often in restaurants and on grocery shelves. 

The products typically contain protein-rich crops like peas, lentils and chickpeas. While those crops are typically exported to countries like India, some experts say there could be major benefits to processing them closer to home.

"Having some new markets that involve value-added processing should be a boost to the local economy," said Tom Warkentin, a pea breeder and a professor at the University of Saskatchewan.

While some Saskatchewan factories have started extracting protein from peas and lentils, Warkentin said the industry is still relatively small.

More and more companies are getting into the protein business. Film director James Cameron recently expanded an organic pea protein plant set up in Vanscoy, Sask., and French company Roquette is building a $400-million plant in Portage la Prairie, Man.

"You're seeing these investments being made," said Gordon Bacon, CEO of Pulse Canada. "Now the challenge for our industry is, how do we remain the preferred supplier? What is the quality that will ensure that people will come to Canadian farmers first?"

Bacon said crops like peas and lentils will end up in other traditionally-wheat based foods as consumers look for added protein in their food.

"It could be bread or pasta, crackers or cookies or snack foods, and looking at combinations of cereal and pulses," he said. "It gives you a different product gives you a different ability to make protein claims"

He said meat alternatives don't seem to be a fad, citing an increased focus on plant-base protein, especially from the latest version of the Canada Food Guide.

"Certainly, it's a good fit for vegans and vegetarians but also for folks who might want to reduce meat a little bit," he said. "I think it has some staying power."

Cattle industry not concerned

Meanwhile, the Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association doesn't think the growing market for meat alternatives is concerning.

"We love competing with other protein products," said association CEO Ryder Lee. "Beef is the top. People pay the most for it because it's the best."

The cattle industry has been under fire in recent years over the environmental costs of livestock production. Studies have shown plant-based diets use less water and less energy than meat production.

Lee said those studies have been skewed and that beef production only adds up to roughly four per cent of North American greenhouse gas emissions.

"If you have cattle on the land, you also have home for birds and deer and elk and all the other wildlife that's out there, he said. "That's a pretty good tradeoff."