--- title: "Plant-Based Shrimp is Coming to a Stir-Fry Near You" description: "Tyson Foods announced its investment in New Wave Foods, a Silicon Valley startup that's preparing to the flood the markets with its plant-based shrimp." date: "2019-09-05" modified: "2019-09-05" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/plant-based-shrimp" categories: - "Future Society" tags: - "beyond meat" - "impossible foods" - "plant-based meat" - "shrimp" - "the digest" --- # Plant-Based Shrimp is Coming to a Stir-Fry Near You ![Tyson Foods announced its investment in New Wave Foods, a Silicon Valley startup that's preparing to the flood the markets with its plant-based shrimp.]() *\Image: Marco Verch via Flickr/Victor Tangermann\* ## Alt-Shrimp Ready or not, "alt-shrimp" — a term newly [coined]() by *The Washington Post* — is almost here. Multinational food corp Tyson Foods today [announced]() its investment in New Wave Foods today, a Silicon Valley startup that's preparing to the flood the markets with its plant-based take on shrimp next year. "This is the first disrupter in this particular kind of protein, and there’s a clear advantage to coming in and being the first disruptive shrimp," New Wave chief executive Mary McGovern [told *WaPo*](). ## Meatish New Wave Foods finds itself in a [rapidly growing market](), with companies including Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat leading the field with their plant-based-yet-meatlike food products. The shrimp will be made from seaweed extract and plant protein — plus a bunch of top-secret ingredients. "We have been wholly focused on making this a product for the flexitarian," New Wave chief technology officer Michelle Wolf told the *Post*. "It has to provide the bite and texture and characteristic snap of shrimp. It was critical to get the texture, so much of the work has gone into that." ## Big Shrimp There are plenty of advantages to ending our reliance on real shrimp: the shrimp market has been infamously inconsistent, with supplies and pricing varying wildly. And [according to the World Wildlife Fund](), farmed shrimp can be harshly detrimental to wetland ecosystems. In fact, according to a 2018 study, the rapidly rising demand for shrimp could have a direct [impact on climate change](). **READ MORE:** [ Tyson launches alt-shrimp made from plants — and it could be jumbo]() \[*The Washington Post*\] **More on plant-based meat:** *[Impossible Foods Is Trying to Make Fake Fish Now]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()