The meat substitute dishes that could make meat eaters go vegan

A plant based world is inevitable:

Let’s face it, it all comes down to water and supplies to produce our food and it’s finite. By 2050 according to the Stockholm International Water institute, there’s just not going to be enough food produced for the 9 billion people who need to eat. Meat will become a luxury commodity reserved only for those well off. So before we bash another vegan, consider this – the longer they stop eating meat for whatever environmental, animal welfare or personal reasons – the longer we can enjoy meat.

Raising animals for food makes up the vast majority of the land footprint of humanity. All the buildings, roads and paved surfaces in the world occupy less than 2% of Earth’s land surface, while more than 45% of the land surface of Earth is currently in use as land for grazing or growing feed crops for livestock.

Populations of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians have, on average, declined in size by 60 percent in just over 40 years. Animal agriculture is a primary driver of the accelerating collapse in diverse wildlife populations and ecosystems on land and in oceans, rivers and lakes.

Based in California’s Silicon Valley, Impossible Foods makes delicious, nutritious meat and dairy products from plants — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals.

The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Patrick O. Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry at Stanford University and a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital, and Open Philanthropy Project.

“Impossible Foods cracked meat’s molecular code — starting with ground beef, which is intrinsic to the American market. Now we’re accelerating the expansion of our product portfolio to more of the world’s favorite foods,” said CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown . “We won’t stop until we eliminate the need for animals in the food chain and make the global food system sustainable.”

Big taste, small footprint

The company makes meat from plants – to satisfy the global demand for meat at a fraction of the environmental impact, Impossible Foods developed a far more sustainable, scalable and affordable way to make meat, without the catastrophic environmental impact of livestock.

Impossible Foods’ scientists discovered that one molecule — “heme” — is primarily responsible for the explosion of flavors that result when meat is cooked. Impossible Foods’ scientists genetically engineer and ferment yeast to produce a heme protein naturally found in plants, called soy leghemoglobin.

The heme in Impossible products is identical to the essential heme humans have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years in meat — and while Impossible products deliver all the craveable depth of animal meats, the plant-based innovations require far fewer resources because they’re made from plants.

Pork: World’s most ubiquitous meat

While cows and chicken are America’s favorite protein sources, pigs are the most widely eaten animal in the world, accounting for about 38% of meat production worldwide.

According to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation, the world is home to about 1.44 billion pigs; with an average weight of about 112 kg, total farmed pig biomass totals 175 billion kg. That’s nearly twice as much as the total biomass of all wild terrestrial vertebrates.

In order to satisfy humanity’s voracious demand for pork — from Spanish jamón and Polish kielbasa to Brazilian feijoada and BBQ ribs — 47 pigs are killed on average every second of every day, based on FAO data. More than half of the world’s pigs are eaten in China, where pork consumption has increased 140% since 1990, with dire consequences to the environment — including depletion of natural resources and increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Using pigs as a protein production technology comes with a high environmental cost — on both a global and local scale: Industrial pork production releases excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the environment, and the high doses of copper and zinc fed to pigs to promote growth accumulate in the soil.

Faeces and waste often spread to surrounding neighborhoods, polluting air and water with toxic waste particles. Because antibiotics are prophylactically added into pig (and cow and chicken) feed to protect and fatten the animals, pork consumption promotes antibiotic resistance — which the United Nations says could cause 10 million deaths a year by 2050 and trigger a global recession due to an increase in drug-resistant infections.

Swine (and avian) flus are the most likely pandemic vectors because they pass easily to humans via feces in slaughterhouses. A University of Minnesota study discovered fecal matter in 69% of its pork samples. A devastating epidemic of African swine fever has already wiped out roughly one-quarter of the world’s pigs and is expected to drive up worldwide prices of animal protein.

Impossible Sausage: The best of the wurst

This month marks the US launch of Impossible Sausage — a juicy, savory meat that pairs perfectly with traditional breakfast accompaniments or steals the show as a center-of-the-plate delicacy at any meal. It contains no gluten, no animal hormones and no antibiotics. A raw, 2-ounce serving has 7 g protein, 1.69 mg iron, 0 mg cholesterol, 9 g total fat, 4 g saturated fat and 130 calories. A 2-ounce serving of conventional Jimmy Dean’s raw pork sausage made from pigs contains 7 g protein, 0.36 mg iron, 40 mg cholesterol, 21 g total fat, 7 g saturated fat and 220 calories.

139 participating Burger King restaurants in Savannah, GA, Albuquerque, NM, Montgomery, AL, Lansing, MI and Springfield, IL will be testing the Impossible Croissan’wich. The Impossible Croissan’wich is made with 100% butter for a soft, flaky croissant piled high with a savory sizzling patty made from plants, fluffy eggs, and melted American cheese.

Based on current trends, forecasts and growing pop culture interest in clean eating and plant based sources of sustenance, Australians are estimated to see a growth in spending in this area of up to $4.8 billion a year in the next decade.

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