What is Going On with U.S. Food Industry Execs?

It was only 6 weeks ago when the Chief Operating Officer of Beyond Meat Doug Ramsey went on a rage-fest in a parking lot, trashing another person’s car and beating the driver, ending with biting off the tip of the other driver’s nose. Before joining Beyond Meat, Ramsey had spent more than three decades as an executive of Tyson Foods.

Now today, we learn that another corporate executive from the food industry, 32 year old John R. Tyson, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Tyson Foods and son of Tyson Foods CEO John H. Tyson, apparently went on a drunken sortie that ended with him entering (uninvited) the home of a random woman he had never met. According to the police report, the home resident called the authorities at 2AM after finding a strange man undressed and asleep in her bed. When police arrived at the home and tried to talk to Tyson he appeared incoherent, smelled of alcohol and attempted to go back to sleep while the police were questioning him. He was arrested on charges of criminal trespass and public intoxication. (source)

What is going on?

The cost of food overall in the U.S. is significantly higher than just a year ago and depending on the cut, the cost of chicken in particular currently averages between $3 and $4 a pound wholesale (up from a retail cost of $2.33 a pound a year ago). Despite the rise in food costs, feed prices and the U.S. bird flu outbreak, the food industry is doing great; U.S. consumers are still buying chicken with some experts reporting that a “chicken craze” is currently in full swing in the U.S. Food industry forecasts estimate that in 2022, Americans will consume more than 97 billion pounds of chicken. This is a true reason to celebrate if you are in the poultry business, so what is going on with the latest wackiness from another U.S. food industry exec?

The answer is far more Zen than you might expect. After Covid lock-downs, supply chain nightmares, massive employee quits and the Russia-Ukraine war inspired shortages, today’s corporate executives are on a ‘live for the moment’ trajectory. It is a paradigm shift to stop doing so much thinking and planning for a future you cannot control. Whatever feels right in the here and now is the place they go. And because, unlike electronics or furniture or scented candles, everyone has to eat and therefore has to buy food, these execs have that luxury. Stay mindful, do what feels right and see if the cat licks it up, boys.

–