Danone, a food company most famous for its yogurt, is investing up to $60 million in a plant-based beverage facility in Mount Crawford, Virginia.
Earlier this year, Danone (known as Dannon in the U.S.) acquired WhiteWave Foods for nearly $12.5 billion. Now the company plans to invest in WhiteWave’s manufacturing facility in Virginia, expanding the warehouse, increasing production capacity, and creating 49 new jobs. Now operating as DanoneWave, the company has several plant-based brands, including Silk, So Delicious, and Vega.
Danone knows that the future is vegan. In its efforts to purchase WhiteWave Foods quickly, the corporation dropped its animal-based dairy company Stonyfield to eliminate unfair competition with WhiteWave’s plant-based brands.
DanoneWave isn’t the only company investing in vegan alternatives. Just recently, Campbell’s decided to join the Plant Based Foods Association, a vegan lobbying group. Additionally, Unilever invested in a study on plant-based meats earlier this year, and the corporation owns Ben & Jerry’s, which has launched vegan versions of its popular ice cream flavors.
Similarly, Tyson invested in the plant-based company Beyond Meat and launched a $150 million venture capital fund to invest in startups that develop meat substitutes. In fact, Tyson CEO Tom Hayes stated in an interview that “plant-based protein is growing almost, at this point, a little faster than animal-based,” so he thinks “the migration may continue in that direction.
As even more proof of a vegan future, this year Canadian meatpacking company Maple Leaf Foods announced that it would buy U.S.-based vegan protein producer Lightlife Foods.
DanoneWave’s investment in vegan dairy alternatives is not only a smart business move; it is great news for the cows who suffer horribly in the dairy industry.
At dairy factory farms, cows are routinely brutalized, forcibly impregnated, and kept in horrendous conditions. Torn from their mothers at birth, male calves are killed for veal and females are raised to produce more milk. At the end of their miserable and heartbreaking lives, cows are sent to a violent slaughter.
Watch this Mercy For Animals undercover investigation into New York’s largest dairy farm.
Fortunately, you don’t have to wait to help animals! You can make the compassionate choice to leave animal products off your plate today. Click here to get started.
Click here for our ultimate guide to dairy-free products.
