Tickle veggies pink Baseball’s insider

Meat processor Smithfield Foods — famous for its smoked hams — on Monday launched a line of soy-based meat products, joining an increasing number of companies catering to growing demand for meat alternatives.

The Pure Farmland products include soy-based burgers, meat balls, sausages and ground meat, and will be available at Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market and Target starting in mid-September, John Pauley, Smithfield’s chief commercial officer, said in an interview.

By February 2020, the brand will be available at more than 5,000 retail stores, Pauley said.

The Virginia-based company, owned by China’s WH Group, plans to branch out to the food services sector, he said, declining to provide further details.

Smithfield’s production and supply chain infrastructure and marketing and distribution network give it an edge over its rivals, Pauley added. “We’re not the new guy — we’ve been around for a long time.”

Established meat producers and upstarts are entering the market as consumers add more plant-based protein to their diet amid growing concerns about animal welfare, health risks from eating meat and the environmental hazards of intensive animal farming.

Companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, and meat producers including Tyson Foods, Maple Leaf Foods and Perdue Farms are selling sausages, burgers and imitation ground beef largely made from pea protein or soy.

Former Major League Baseball player Doug DeCinces was sentenced to eight months of home detention and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine for his role in an insider-trading scheme, a newspaper reported.

DeCinces, who played third base for the California Angels and Baltimore Orioles, was convicted in 2017 of insider trading for a stock buy that earned him over $1 million.

US District Judge Andrew Guilford on Monday sentenced DeCinces to one day in jail, the Orange County Register reported. Since DeCinces has credit for time served, he will not spend more time behind bars. The home detention will be part of two years of supervised release ordered by the judge.

DeCinces, 68, who long denied the charges, agreed to testify against another defendant, James Mazzo, in exchange for a shorter sentence.

Mazzo’s two trials ended with mistrials when jurors deadlocked. Prosecutors dropped the case against Mazzo in December.

Before Monday’s sentencing baseball Hall-of-Famer Rod Carew spoke on DeCinces’ behalf, highlighting his friend’s charitable contributions.

“I am here,” Carew said, “because he has done so much more for other people.”

DeCinces said in court that if he could go back and change his actions, he would. “I knew it was wrong,” he said.

DeCinces has also paid a $2.5 million fine to the SEC.