VanEck Agribusiness ETF (MOO)

Beyond Meat ($BYND) Has Been Giving Away Free Food — Here’s Why It Matters
Beyond Meat has been fighting declining sales, shrinking market share, and intense pricing pressure. To counter this, the company has increasingly turned to free product giveaways and sampling campaigns as part of its turnaround strategy. While not always highlighted in formal press releases, these initiatives are widely reported across retail channels, food-service partners, and consumer-facing promotions.

Why Beyond Meat Gives Away Free Food
The strategy is simple:
When demand drops, sampling becomes the fastest way to rebuild trial and brand loyalty.

Beyond Meat has used free food in several ways:

1. Retail Sampling & In-Store Giveaways
Major retailers like Whole Foods, Kroger, and Sprouts frequently run free in-store samples of Beyond Meat products. These events are designed to boost trial and lift same-day sales.

2. Food-Service Promotions
Restaurants and food-service partners have offered free Beyond Meat items during launches or limited-time promotions to drive traffic and test new menu items. This is common in the plant-based category, where trial is essential.

3. Brand Repositioning Strategy
Beyond Meat recently rebranded as “Beyond The Plant Protein Company”, shifting toward cleaner-label products. Free sampling helps introduce consumers to the new formulations and rebuild trust after years of criticism about “ultra-processed” ingredients.

4. New Product Launches
Whenever Beyond Meat debuts new items — such as its latest Beyond Breakfast Sausage lineup — the company pairs launches with sampling events and free product trials to accelerate adoption.

Why This Matters for Investors
1. Sampling Works in Food CPG
Free food is not a sign of weakness — it’s a proven tactic in consumer packaged goods.
Brands like Chobani, Oatly, and Impossible Foods used aggressive sampling to scale.

2. Beyond Meat Needs Trial More Than Ever
With revenues declining and the stock trading under $1, Beyond Meat must reignite consumer interest. Sampling is one of the few levers that can produce immediate, measurable demand.

3. Supports the Clean-Label Pivot
The company’s new “cleaner” formulations are meant to win back health-focused shoppers. Free samples help consumers experience the improved taste and ingredients firsthand.

4. Helps Retailers Justify Shelf Space
Retailers are more likely to keep Beyond Meat products stocked if sampling events drive traffic and lift sales.

Bottom Line
Yes — Beyond Meat has been giving away free food, and it’s a deliberate strategy.
With the company facing declining sales, a rebrand, and Nasdaq compliance pressure, sampling is one of the most effective tools it has left to rebuild momentum. $MOO $BYND

China is Now Painting Meat - Why?
$MOO

Scoreboard for the week: +2.48%

Nothing exciting during holiday time...

$50 is resistance seemingly...

For the week: -8.13%... careful!

For the week: -2.12%

TY... The link to your report from FOX News:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/03/04/food-farm-exports-record-year/

-1.65% is the scorecard for the week...

On Friday March 4, 2011, 12:54 pm EST

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Federal officials are expecting a record year for U.S. agriculture exports.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says farm and food products are expected to reach a record $135.5 billion in fiscal year 2011, which ends in September.

Vilsack told The Associated Press that U.S. agriculture may have its best export year ever. Compared to fiscal 2010, export value is expected to grow 25 percent.

Vilsack spoke Friday in Tampa at the Commodity Classic, a large convention and trade show for the U.S. corn, soybean, wheat, and sorghum industries that draws some 4,500 farmers from around the nation.

My friends, for the week: +4%!!!

Food/ag investments... only way to go 'cuz everybody eats.

A drop to test the MA50 is cause for a good day today on big volume. This may be a December to remember... the market will tell us, as usual!!!

Nothing but up for quite some time... strong trend.

'Bout time you came back!!! All the best!

MOO charts

it almost doubled since I posted about it. Not sure I want it any more

Looks like the old high will be challenged.

Moo,

I think with the Russian wheat problems .. The stocks in Moo could rise. I bought some today... Go Moo !

A bottom here under the MA40 weekly???

What a difference a month makes for MOO... and yet, food and energy consumer prices are up some 18 - 19% since early 2009... weird.

Agreed... the chart is really good...

MOO over 44.00 this morning after Terra (TRA) takeover news yesterday and Deere (DE) posted better than expected earnings.

On its way to $50.00

There is a food crisis going on... agribusiness is on the way up... the next leg up seems to be underway.

Everybody loaded up?

MOO up today with HOD of 42.73

Hows that chart looking?

Biggest holding POT taking a hit today on earnings. doubled down. in for the long haul.

And probably beyond as this is in a supercycle headed up.

Well what the hey. Finally took up a position in the mid 42's. Could have got in at the low 42's but hope to ride to 50.

All the fundamentals point to higher - much higher - prices longer term... this fund seems to be tracking what is seen in the futures markets but my very strong belief is that a powerful U-turn will happen.

Under 43.00 again and back up.

anybody else?

Close to buy time here.

Up 8% for the week for a food/ag play... everyone eats, right??? Just can't go wrong here -

BTW, did you know we have a World Food Crisis board her at i-Hub???

http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/board.aspx?board_id=16715

Big moves going on here.

Not a problem!

Looks like POT and MOS, two of this ETF's biggest holdings, are getting a lot of action PM. this ETF may take off!

This post is surprisingly inspiring to me... thank you for stopping by and leaving a message... I gave you member/person mark #2... only the highest and best.

Board marked.

Chart looks to be retracing to $42 level and I am consider entering under that.

"Agri-Food Thoughts" by Ned W. Schmidt, CFA, CEBS


http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/schmidt/2009/1215.html

Over the coming decade the global population will expand faster than the world’s ability to feed that population. A world short of Agri-Food is more likely than any time in a century.

Food and water... everyone needs them... fund allocation added to the i-Box.

This stock/fund has doubled since late last year. Can ya go wrong with food???

Food and water... super mega trends!!!

Still in the uptrending channel...

Still on a steady upward march.

The Future of Agribusiness Isn't Golden... And That's A Good Thing
By Brad Zigler

Just pointing out Brad Zigler's latest over at Hard Assets Investor. From the article (excerpt):

""Good as gold" is a phrase that's meant to assure the listener of an item's intrinsic worth. Lately, you wouldn't have used that idiom to describe agribusiness. No, you'd have to say that agribusiness is actually better than gold.

Agribusiness, represented by the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE Arca: MOO), has been outperforming the bullion-holding SPDR Gold Shares Trust (NYSE Arca: GLD) since late February. The Market Vectors portfolio tracks 44 global firms making up the DAXglobal Agribusiness Index. Index constituents include companies producing agricultural chemicals and farm equipment, livestock operations and biofuels manufacturers. The index roster is populated with large-capitalization issues such as Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan (NYSE: POT), Archer Daniels Midland Co. (NYSE: ADM) and Komatsu Ltd. (Pink Sheets: KMTUF) as well as smaller outfits including Maple Leaf Foods, Inc. (Pink Sheets: MLFNF) and The Andersons, Inc. (Nasdaq: ANDE).

Year-to-date, the agribusiness ETF has gained 10.3% compared with a barely perceptible 0.9% inching up in the gold trust's price."

The full article's available here: http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/component/content/article/3/1548-a-good-thing-agribusiness-future-isnt-golden.html?Itemid=39

Great! Glad you found it useful! While I'm at it, Brad actually wrote a follow-up to this article on Friday, looking at how Bunge Ltd in particular may have boosted MOO. That article's at http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/component/content/article/3/1524-bunge-leads-agribusiness-breakout-.html?Itemid=39. May be worth checking out, too!

That post is a great contribution here... thanks for bringing it to us!!!

The MOOve Toward Commodity Stocks--by Brad Zigler

Just wanted to point out Brad Zigler's latest on MOO, "The MOOve Toward Commodity Stocks", from www.HardAssetsInvestor.com (excerpt):

"There's been tension building between commodity investors for some time now. One camp figures the futures market is the best place to trade, while the other advocates commodity stocks.

The equity players' position has been bolstered by recent buoyancy in stock prices as commodities have slowly simmered. The boiling point may well be nigh, though.

Wednesday, the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (NYSE Arca: MOO), an exchange-traded portfolio tracking the 44-member DAXglobal Agribusiness Index, scored its highest close since the retracement of last year's commodity tumble began. Ending the day at $30.73, the Market Vectors ETF punched through a critical resistance level that could lead to a run-up to the $40 level."

Rest of the article and charts available here: http://www.hardassetsinvestor.com/component/content/article/3/1521-the-moove-towards-commodity-stocks.html?Itemid=39

Everybody must eat!!! MOO

MOO is climbing nice and steady...

Looks like a reverse head and shoulders in the chart... up this goes I think!!!

World Facing ‘Enormous’ Food Challenge as Water Scarcity Looms

By Alex Morales

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The world is facing an “enormous” challenge to feed a growing population because climate change is altering rainfall patterns and fresh water is becoming scarcer, the U.K. government’s top scientist said.

Governments need to boost spending on agricultural research and reconsider options such as genetically-modified foods, which have been historically rejected by consumers in Europe, John Beddington told the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

“We have at the global level a genuine issue of world food shortage,” Beddington told lawmakers. “Can you feed 9 billion people by 2050 in some form of equitable and sustainable way?”

A 60 percent rise in food prices from early 2007 until mid- 2008 caused riots in countries including Cameroon, Haiti and Egypt. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in June that as much as $20 billion a year was needed to invest in agriculture to tackle the issue.

The challenge is to grow more food, maybe 50 percent more in two decades “and doubling in four decades on less land because of urbanization, climate change and so on; with less water, and probably using less fertilizers and less pesticides” than before, Beddington said late yesterday. “It’s an enormous challenge.”

The problem for the U.K. is less pressing because the country is “relatively prosperous” and can buy food on the world market, the scientist said.

Genetically-Modified Crops

One challenge for European countries is to overcome aversion among consumers to genetically-modified, or GM, crops, he said. That aversion may be because when the technology was first used, its purpose was mainly to cut costs rather than solve “difficult problems” such as more frequent drought, saltier soils and declining rainfall, he said.

“GM is not the only answer but it may well be a part of an answer to a number of very difficult problems,” Beddington said. “If it can solve the problem, we need to be thinking about it.”

The scientist said the use of GM cotton in clothing is now “ubiquitous” and that GM foods are eaten in the U.S. and other nations outside Europe.

“I understand this is a behavioral response that something you put on your shoulders is a lot less of a concern than something you put in your mouth,” Beddington said. Still, “GM is being eaten widely throughout the world and we’ve not had indications of major problems.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 29, 2009 06:45 EST

"One sector that I continue to follow closely is agribusiness, which technically argues for upside continuation from a base-like pattern structure that has developed since early October. A hurdle of key resistance at 29.25/75 in the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (AMEX: MOO) should trigger upside continuation towards 35.00-36.00 thereafter.

Perhaps such a move in the MOO will be a reflection of global food deficits going forward and/or weather-related crop failures that enable agribusiness names. Whatever the case, as long as the MOO remains above its upturning 50 DMA (now at 25.43), I will be "friendly" to the sector."

--Mike Paulenoff