Missouri beefs over "meat"

A new Missouri law has got beef with lab-grown ‘meat’

Under Missouri law, food producers are now prohibited from marketing anything that doesn’t come from animal flesh as “meat.” This Great Missouri Meat Mandate is the first law to regulate use of the m-word.

The rise of lab-grown meat alternatives has sparked a war between old-school food producers and non-traditional food engineers — and in this battle, the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association has tallied a victory.

Big meat is feeling the heat

According to representatives of the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, the new legislation is necessary to educate shoppers about “what they’re getting.”

To protect consumers from “misrepresentation,” the law bans any food product not derived from an animal with 2 or 4 feet from using “meat nomenclature” (i.e., words like “sausage” or “hot dog”). Failure to comply results in a $1K fine and up to a year in prison.

But there’s another storyline here: 70% of the world’s population has cut back on meat consumption (the number of vegans in the US increased 600% in the last 3 years) — and ranchers are feeling heat from imitation meat brands like Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods.

Think twice before you tangle with Tofurky

Critics have condemned the law for stifling competition and violating First Amendment rights. But the meat-replacement industry, which made $4.2B last year, has decided to meet the challenge head on.

Tofurky, a producer of plant-based turkey, filed a lawsuit to prevent the impending veggie-burger crackdown, reminding officials that no consumer has ever expressed confusion about the meaning of clearly labeled “plant-based meats.”

It’s not just the meat industry that’s spoiled...

As scientists develop new ways to produce food, legacy industries will continue protecting their imperiled products any way they can.

Take milk: Conventional milk sales have fallen 17% while plant-based milk sales have increased 100%, and the relationship between old-school dairy farmers and plant-based milk producers has soured.

By milking the argument that “an almond doesn’t lactate,” Big Cowjuice has passed something called the Dairy Pride Act that could impose the same beefy limits on the language non-dairy milk-makers could use.

Carpool buddies: Toyota to invest $500m in Uber

In the form of a $500m investment, Toyota has agreed to work with Uber on improving safety and cutting transportation costs in the autonomous vehicle market.

The announcement tightens an existing partnership: Toyota had previously made a “small investment” in Uber with plans to help create a car-leasing program for potential Uber drivers.

A whole lotta back scratchin’ going on

Toyota, a traditional car company, had a “late” start in the autonomous game and has been looking to put the pedal to the metal to catch up with competitors. Uber, the world’s rideshare leader, seems to be what the doc ordered.

On the flip, Toyota’s recent cash infusion provides a much-needed endorsement for the hobbled Uber self-driving division.

After sinking $750m into R&D, one of the company’s vehicles was involved in a fatal crash in Arizona this year — an incident that led to the firing of 400 employees, a self-driving test hiatus, and a shuttered testing facility.

Now they’re getting Siennas...

The Wall Street Journal reports the companies said Uber will integrate Autonomous Toyota Sienna minivans into its ride-hailing network, adding that the vehicles could be owned and operated by third-party fleet managers in the future.

The investment values Uber at around $72B, up slightly from where SoftBank valued the rideshare titan earlier this year with its funding.

Netflix hires PR genius Rachel Whetstone to handle scandals that haven’t happened yet

Netflix dismissed communications chief Jonathan Friedland last month for an HR violation involving the N-word (trust us, it wasn’t “Netflix”). But Netflix has filled the vacant position with PR-legend Rachel Whetstone.

Whetstone, who has cleaned up messes for Facebook, Uber, and Google, is a perfect fit for the ’Flix is it grows large enough to make enemies outside of its native industry.

A disaster pedigree

Whetstone started at Google as a senior vice president of comms and public policy, guiding the company through numerous antitrust and censorship scandals. Then she moved to Uber, where she captained PR at the ride-sharing giant during the Kalanick regime.

Hoping for a reprieve from the madness, Whetstone moved to Facebook… right before the Cambridge Analytica bomb went off. Now Whetstone’s new job is to fix the ’Flix.

Hiring the cleaner before the mess is made

Netflix may not seem as scandal-prone as her previous employers, but the company wouldn’t have hired Whetstone if it wasn’t expecting trouble.

Whetstone will step into a position vacated due to racial insensitivity just in time to ship the final season of House of Cards (whose star, Kevin Spacey, was ousted for serial sexual harassment). But Whetstone needs to sharpen her sword for even bigger challenges down the road.

DVD-rental companies don’t make many enemies. But thanks to an ambitious $13B content budget, Netflix has rapidly evolved into an international media powerhouse -- and scandals gravitate to mega-media companies like millennials to brunch.

‘Self-flying’ startup, SkyRyse, raises $25m

Yesterday, the San Francisco-based autonomous flight tech company SkyRyse came out of stealth and announced it raised $25m in funding, led by VC firm, Venrock.

Oh, and also, they’ve been running a pilot program since early August that will one day lead to equipping police stations and firehouses with autonomous helicopters.

The key-propeller here is, ‘one day…’

The self-flying vehicle craze has been dive bombing (albeit, incredibly slowwwwly) in and out of the ether for what feels like years.

A handful of companies, including Uber and Airbus (ever heard of ’em?) are working to bring self-flying to the commuting mainstream. But the stakes for autonomous emergency response seems like a juice that is, as our editor Lindsey would say, “worth the squeeze.”

Data shows the average medical air evacuation in the US costs $12k to $25k per flight (pilots are expensive). With its fancy-schmancy tech, SkyRyse hopes to trim down both expenditures and response times.

Slow and steady...

According to a press release obtained by Wired, SkyRyse is the “first technology-enabled air mobility company to operate in the US.”

Though don’t expect them to launch out of pilot-phase anytime soon: The company’s copters don’t even have autonomous capabilities yet, and currently need refueling every 3 hours.

In other words, they’re just normal helicopters right now. But SkyRyse CEO Mark Groden believes the data he’s gathering will eventually enable the technology to get them to their ultimate autonomous destination pilot-free.

Social media tracker Sysomos wants to be TMZ for your business

Sysomos launched in 2007 to give companies the inside scoop on what people are saying about their brand on social -- or rather, what they’re not saying.

Because the only thing worse for a marketer than bad buzz about their company, is no buzz at all.

11 years later, Sysomos has evolved from basic social analytics to an AI-powered platform that lets marketers uncover and respond to what customers are talking about in real-time and see what actually has an impact.

Marketing 101: Acknowledge the bad, promote the good

The Sysomos platform makes social monitoring automatic, like a legion of caffeine-filled social media interns monitoring every conversation.

Listen to text and visual media across earned and owned media at scale. Then automatically discover relevant conversations your target audiences are having.

Piggyback on emerging trends, nip customer complaints in the bud, even monitor competitor’s activity 24/7/365. It’s an always-on, always-monitoring social watchdog.

Play less defense and more offense. See the Sysomos platform in action -- click below for a demo.

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