What would your reaction be if someone told you that the delicious steak you were gorging on was actually made of plants? No, I’m not talking about cheap (read: horrendous) substitutes like tofu, or those godforsaken nutri nuggets. This is actually ‘fake meat’.
Ethan Brown is the mind behind this. Founder and CEO of the startup ‘Beyond Meat’, Brown wants to manufacture fake meat by using patented technology, and plant products, eliminating animal slaughter, along with any other negatives that meat brings to the table.
He realised that meat is nothing more than just a combination of amino acids, fats, carbohydrates, trace minerals and water. Convinced that he would only do epic stuff in life, and nothing else, he took the exact same nutrients from the plants and combined them to match the taste, texture and nutrition of real meat. Boss!
1. But why avoid something as delicious as real meat? It’s the greatest ever, right?
Because it requires huge efforts and resources to get meat, he says. “Raising livestock is an incredibly inefficient way of producing protein. It takes a lot of land, a lot of energy, and a lot of water just to generate one pound of meat from an animal. About 30% of the animal is meat we eat; the rest is not useful.”
2. Manufacturing meat can solve a bunch of other issues like global warming, animal welfare, natural resources, and the alarming effects processed meat has on the health of humans.
3. Not to forget, it also addresses the concerns of people who have been fighting against the slaughter of animals.
While the company’s main plant is located in Missouri, it’s headquartered in El Segundo, California.
3. Not to forget, it also addresses the concerns of people who have been fighting against the slaughter of animals.
While the company’s main plant is located in Missouri, it’s headquartered in El Segundo, California.
In fact it worked so well at blind tastings that people really could not tell the difference. Even people like Bill Gates and the founders of Twitter got up and took notice of Beyond Meat. Bill Gates even went out to call it the future of food for humans. Writing a blog post describing his experience of having a Chicken Taco made from plants at Beyond Meat, he said – “Like most people, I don’t think I can be easily fooled. But that’s just what happened when I was asked to taste a chicken taco and tell whether the meat inside was real or fake. The meat certainly had the look and the smell of chicken. I took a bite and it had the taste and texture of real chicken, too. But I was surprised to learn that there wasn’t an ounce of real chicken in it. The ‘meat’ was made entirely of plants. And yet, I couldn’t tell the difference.”
This is something really cool, but none of us would actually believe how authentic it feels until we test it out on ourselves. Anyhoo, if this technology does work out, it will totally change the way the food industry functions. Keeping our fingers crossed.
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