The last bite: MrBeast and the Jack Link’s sasquatch share a meat stick

Welcome to “the last bite,” an end-of-week food and ag roundup from the Minnesota Star Tribune. Reach out to business reporter Brooks Johnson at brooks.johnson@startribune.com to share your news and favorite moments from Farm Aid.

The Jack Link’s sasquatch made friends with a yeti earlier this year, and now the spokes-squatch for the Wisconsin-based jerky and meat snack company has another beastly buddy: MrBeast.

Jack Link’s landed a collaboration with the YouTube star on retail shelves at Target and Walmart this week featuring multipacks of original, teriyaki, turkey and sugar-free meat sticks.

MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has a massive social media following and launched his own snack brand, Feastables, a few years back; the Jack Link’s team-up is his first with another food brand and is aimed at younger eaters.

“Jimmy and I came together with a clear goal of fueling a new generation with real, high-quality protein snacks that you can trust and kids actually want to eat,” CEO Troy Link said in a statement this week when announcing the retail launch. “Jimmy is one of the most influential voices of his generation, and together, we’re making high-protein snacking more accessible and exciting.”

Link said in an interview earlier this year that he sees a bright future for meat snacks as all the trends around protein and a growing demand for beef keep fueling the category.

“I feel like we’re really where the consumer is going,” he said.

The Austin, Minn.-based Spam and Planters manufacturer is still looking to cut greenhouse gas emissions 50% by 2030, and in 2024, emissions dropped 13%. The company also reported renewable credits offset nearly all of its electricity use.

The revamped global impact report, half the length of last year’s, also does away with demographic diversity reporting in keeping with the general shift away from DEI in corporate America.

The former goal to continue to increase its “purchasing spend annually with small and diverse businesses” is now: “Increase purchasing spend annually with small businesses through inclusive procurement practices that engage a broad range of suppliers.”

“As the world and our business continue to change, so must our approach,” CEO Jeff Ettinger and President John Ghingo wrote in the global impact report released this week. “Our reporting structure may change, but our ambition to drive meaningful, measurable progress remains constant.”

CHS is doing what it can to keep the coffers full as commodity prices remain in the dumps, and profits (and profit sharing) remain strained. Last week, the Inver Grove Heights-based co-operative sold its 33% stake in a fertilizer facility in Indiana to Keystone Cooperative for an undisclosed sum.

The Whitesville facility handles 34,000 tons of dry fertilizer and 22,500 tons of liquid fertilizer.

Seven Sundays, the Minneapolis-based cereal brand in rapid-growth mode, recently acquired its longtime packaging partner in St. Peter, Birch Packaging (formerly Chippewa Packaging).

The vertical integration will help the company boost innovation, flexibility and variety as it reaches 10,000 new retail locations this year, including Walmart, Target and Kroger.

“With the integration, we welcome over 50 new employees to the Seven Sundays family, all benefiting from our B Corp-approved standards,” co-founder Brady Barnstable said in a news release. “Our vision for Birch is a best-in-class food manufacturing facility with a family-like culture where people want to come to work.”

What is an ultra-processed food? The government wants to know.

“A uniform UPF definition, developed as part of a joint effort by federal agencies, would allow for consistency in research and policy to pave the way for addressing health concerns associated with the consumption of UPFs,” the government agencies said in a statement.

There’s a lot at stake for the food industry, and consumers, since the majority of the American diet is considered ultra-processed by some definitions.