James Cameron’s Financial Advisor: “Plant-Based Food Is The Internet of 1994”

Barry Didato—the senior financial advisor of famed director James Cameron and wife Suzy Amis Cameron—explained in a recent interview with Bloomberg that plant-based companies are a hot commodity in the financial world, akin to the early days of companies such as Microsoft. On May 2, vegan brand Beyond Meat began trading on NASDAQ and registered the most successful initial public offering (IPO) of the year, with share-price spikes of up to 163 percent. “With the Beyond IPO, you’re in the right place at a unique time in human history,” Didato said. “Plant-based food is the internet in 1994.” For many years, the Camerons have been investing in plant-based ventures. Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister Rebecca Amis operate MUSE School in California—a fully vegan school concept positioned to expand globally—and program One Meal a Day, a pilot for which Suzy Amis Cameron launched in North Carolina last year to make plant-based food accessible to a wider demographic. In 2017, the couple launched plant-focused company Verdient Foods which entered into a four-year contract to support a facility in Canada that processes pea protein—a base used in vegan meat products such as the Beyond Burger.