Recently, Bill Gates was in the headlines again in an interview with MIT Technology Review. The billionaire tech mogul, discussing solutions to climate change, suggested that “rich” nations should move to “100% synthetic beef” as soon as possible.
That may seem strange, but there is a growing body of experts who claim that animal agriculture is one of the leading causes of climate change either due to issues of unsustainable land and water use or, stranger still, increased methane emissions from livestock flatulence. In the last regard, the humble bovine which provides us all with tasty steak and burgers is a primary culprit.
Climate activists and tech brahman like Gates have been pounding the drum for years against animal agriculture, and for obvious reasons. Raising large herds of cattle is a sure-fire contributor to climate change, but at the same time, global demand for meat is on the rise. Many experts suggest switching either to plant-based meat products or else so-called “synthetic,” or “cultured” meat (meat grown in a lab). While the latter is still largely experimental and generally more expensive, intensive, and in some cases still requires limited animal harvesting, plant-based meats have been proven effective and, relatively, cheap and easy to produce. In either form, the plan has a simplicity that recommends it.
But making the switch to 100% imitation or synthetic meat has a lot of hurdles. For one, there is the obvious problem that many people aren’t a fan of what is currently the most available alternative meat products, plant-based meats. This was born out in a 2020 Gallup poll that found remarkable growth in positive consumer sentiment towards meat substitutes from people who had tried them, but still large cohorts that would “most likely” or “definitely not” continue consuming plant-based meat. That’s good, but definitely shy of 100%.
To reach the 100% alternative beef threshold that some climate activists are hoping for, unfortunately, we would have to functionally ban ranching save for maybe milk cows. This would not only decimate the economies of several states but also cost around 700 thousand people their jobs. That’s leaving aside the issue of the government banning beef ranching, which is a bridge too far for even most Democratic politicians. And that’s also just confining the issue to beef, whereas the goal for many activists is a complete move away from most meats.
There’s another issue, however, with plant-based meats like those produced by Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, the latter of which, in the interest of full disclosure, Gates was heavily invested in until he sold his stock off ahead of a precipitous dip for the company’s IPO in 2019.
Plant-based meats like those produced by the aforementioned companies are heavily processed foods. So much so that they drew criticism from Whole Foods CEO John Mackey after his stores started carrying Beyond Meat’s vegan “chicken strips.”
Mackey told CNBC, “some of these [meat substitute brands] that are extremely popular now that are taking the world by storm, if you look at the ingredients, they are super, highly processed foods.”
Having looked into it myself, Mackey isn’t wrong. A blog published by Harvard Medical School did a breakdown of the nutritional balance in several substitute meat burgers, plus a traditional beef burger and a turkey burger. While all were comparable in terms of protein and fat content, the imitation meat burgers had around four times the amount of sodium. The chart gave me acid reflux just looking at it, given that a 4 oz Beyond Burger came in at a whopping 390 mg of sodium. High sodium, among other things, is a significant contributing factor to heart disease and stroke, which, in turn, are the first and fifth leading causes of death.
That is to say, while a lot of red meat isn’t good for you, an Impossible Burger isn’t either and might even be worse. The effort to save the planet seems like it might cost us all our health, and frankly, that’s a bad trade.
So what’s to be done? While there are difficulties with substitute meats, there are also problems as a result of a deteriorating climate. The answer is actually quite simple, although Americans are allergic to hearing it. Eat less meat, and don’t replace it with anything else.
It may seem like I’m advocating for vegetarianism, but I’m not. I’m advocating for restraint. Modern people should start viewing meat as a luxury item, available for special occasions or maybe for Sunday dinners or other such circumstances, but not a go-to ingredient for every meal. We might consider increasing our intake of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables for those times when we’re fasting from meat, and if we can’t help ourselves, white-meat fish are a great alternative given that they are easily bred in large quantities in captivity, taste great, and are a high-protein, low-fat substitute for other meats. Steaks are delicious, bacon is delicious, and rather than torturing ourselves by banning them outright, we should reserve them for special occasions like any other succulent, much-beloved food.
So maybe saving the beef for date night, birthday meals, or the 4th of July would give our favorite foods the place of honor they deserve—and save the planet in the process.
Photo Credit / Business Insider
You use synthetic and plant-based meat interchangeably. The two are very different. Synthetic meat is meat, just not taken from a slaughtered animal.
Thanks for catching that Danny. Just updated the post to remove any hint of equivocation.