Where's the beef? Improved Nature cooks up meat's replacement in a world hungry for a solution.

• Author: Stevens, Tim
• Position: SPONSORED SECTION: CASH CROP

Every time a schoolkid peels open a Lunchable meal or a guy picks up a Slim Jim at his local convenience store, he or she is enjoying some of Rody Hawkins' best-known work.

So what's a meathead who grew up on a Tennessee cattle farm and holds a doctorate in meat science doing leading a team of scientists developing meat's plant-based replacement? "How else are we going to feed 9 to 10 billion people on planet Earth by the year 2050 unless we become more efficient in how we feed them?" Hawkins asks.

Garner-based Improved Nature LLC believes it has a solution to world hunger by binding plant proteins together to make products that look, taste and chew like meat. Developing the company's chicken-free strips, beef-free filets and pork-free cutlets are some of the same scientists who created some of the country's most famous meat products.

Hawkins was fresh out of college in 1986 and working at Oscar Mayer when he developed Lunchables, a ready-made meal designed for schoolchildren. He designed a tray and filled it with crackers, small slices of ham and turkey, cheese slices and a mint. Kraft Heinz Co. now makes 44 varieties of Lunchables.

"I didn't know it would be as big as it is, but I did tell them that they didn't have to pay me a salary, just give me 1% of the profits," Hawkins says. "They laughed. It took a while for Lunchables to be profitable, but it has done quite well."

Hawkins left Oscar Mayer for GoodMark Foods Inc. in 1988, arriving in Garner to work in the meat-snack industry. Hawkins believed GoodMark's Slim Jims was a good product with a small market. That changed when GoodMark started promoting Slim Jims as a manly snack through associations with bull riding, NASCAR, the X Games and professional wrestling. Omaha-based ConAgra Inc. bought GoodMark for $225 million in 1999, and Hawkins stayed through 2002 before starting RDI Foods LLC, a consulting firm. He gradually added some of his GoodMark colleagues including Larry Chandler, Steve Klawiter and Sarid Shefet.

Together, the partners solved complex problems for food manufacturers. When the Department of Defense needed a tasty food that was shelf stable for years, RDI developed a sandwich that can withstand 100-degree temperatures for six months without its texture, taste or appearance being affected. If a 3-year-old sandwich sounds appetizing, you can snack on one at many outdoor equipment stores, but you won't find Improved Nature's products on store shelves yet.

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