The US Egg Industry Has Fought Dirty in Its Takedown of Vegan Mayonnaise

You may recall that a couple of weeks ago, the Food and Drug Administration sent a "strongly worded letter" to Silicon Valley vegan startup Hampton Creek warning that their eggless mayo could not, in fact, be officially considered mayonnaise at all.

Hampton Creek has been openly intent on getting consumers to switch to their plant-based products, which include mayonnaise and cookie dough, and subsequently eat fewer eggs. And that is really getting on the nerves of the American egg industry. As it turns out, the aforementioned warning letter may not have just been a technicality in syntax.

According to The Guardian, The American Egg Board—a US government-controlled industry marketing group—hasn't been playing nice in trying to bring about the demise of the Silicon Valley-backed startup. The AEB is targeting food bloggers, publications, and even celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern in an attempt to promote eggs and bring down the anti-egg Hampton Creek. The attack may actually violate US Department of Agriculture rules, which prohibits disparagement in advertising and press releases, according to a public health attorney that The Guardian consulted.

Evidently, the egg industry sees Hampton Creek as a "crisis and major threat to the future" of the $5 billion-a-year egg industry. The egg industry's campaign against Hampton Creek even has a name: "Beyond Eggs," which was Hampton Creek's original company name, and the AEB has hired Edelman, the world's largest PR firm, to devise the strategy.

The Guardian recently got hold of 600 pages of internal emails from the AEB through a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails reveal the extent of the conspiracy, with the egg board seeking to pay food bloggers up to $2,500 each to post about the virtues of eggs. Some of the bloggers have disclosed that the resulting articles were sponsored; others didn't even realize that a marketing company was paying them.

The emails also revealed that the AEB has targeted publications that wrote positive articles about the startup, and that the board also tried—without success—to recruit food activist Temple Grandin and food author Ree Drummond to promote egg consumption in response to Hampton Creek's advent. They even sought to buy ad space for eggs that would pop up when people search "Hampton Creek," or the name of its founder, "Joshua Tetrick."

In a move of cartel-like oversight, the AEB made plans to "confront" Andrew Zimmern. Why? He did a positive feature on Hampton Creek on his Travel Channel show Bizarre Foods.

Are you wondering why in the world the egg industry would be so damn rattled and go to such lengths to try to quash a relatively small startup?

Hampton Creek is hot. The food technology company, founded in 2011, has raised over $100 million from backers including Bill Gates, Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla, and other Silicon Valley big-wigs. Its manifesto is to provide high-tech and sustainable alternatives to various foods—including factory-farmed eggs and products made from them. Hampton Creek's products—Just Mayo, Just Cookie Dough, and Just Cookies—are resolutely eggless.

Hampton Creek, however, has not been without its own problems. As we reported in August, the FDA warned Hampton Creek that the name of Just Mayo was misleading because "mayo," in the FDA's opinion, means there are eggs involved. They have also faced allegations of suspect science and hazardous work environments, including in an expose on Business Insider.

And, this is not the first time that the company has faced the ire of big food, big time. Unilever, the $62 billion juggernaut, sued the vegan upstart last year, alleging false advertising. Hellman's was also on the warpath, although they dropped their case, which was essentially the same as the no-eggs, no-mayo claim by the FDA.

Still, the egg board says it is not unduly targeting Hampton Creek. The AEB's chief executive, Joanne Ivy—named 2015 Egg Person of the Year (a lofty title indeed)—recently said: "While egg replacers have been around for many years, we recognize that the interest in this category has increased recently. [I]n response, we bolstered our efforts to increase the demand for eggs and egg products through research, education and promotional activities."

She claims that the campaign against Hampton Creek is just a strategy that is "common within the consumer products industry, [and] include[s] continuing to work with industry thought-leaders, conducting a paid social media strategy to balance existing media efforts and liaising with partner organizations."

Tetrick, on the other hand, feels that the AEB has gone way too far. The Hampton Creek founder called for a congressional inquiry on Thursday. "They have gone way beyond what they are allowed to do," Tetrick said of the egg lobbying group, and that their retaliation against his company is "hard to wrap your head around."

It's not easy to take on Big Egg. But Hampton Creek is doing it.