18 Jun 2020
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, food production accounts for 14.5% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. If everyone in the United States were to give up meat and dairy, the country’s carbon emissions would reduce by 70%.
However, giving up meat and dairy is not as easy as it sounds – the food preferences of meat, for instance, are deeply rooted in cultural and household norms, such as that of a holiday season turkey in the West or simply the correlation between the consumption of meat and wealth in South Asian countries.
So, if meat cannot be cut out from diets altogether, how can meat be made sustainable? Well, while animal-based meat has yet to be made sustainable altogether, several plant-based meat alternatives, such as the “Impossible Burger” and “Beyond Meat,” have been introduced and have received extensive media coverage. But, the previous question still lingers – are these imitation meats still sustainable? Does the “Impossible Burger” really make it “possible” to save the world?
The short answer is “yes,” and to explain “why,” let’s take a simple look at the tell-all statistics. As reported by Impossible Foods, a plant-based meat start-up and the creator of the Impossible Burger, their process uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and emits 89% less greenhouse gas as compared to the process of producing traditional beef burgers. With the Impossible Burger making its way into 17,000 restaurants in the United States as of 2019, a large-scale consumption of imitation meat as opposed to traditional meat could usher in a radical change in food production practices, and ultimately, sustainable development plans.
However, all of this seems almost too good to be true. That’s right, it’s not all hunky-dory. To understand, let’s take a little detour and unravel the mystery behind the flavour of an imitation meat burger, namely the Impossible Burger.
To replicate the taste, colour, and “bleeding” of a beef burger, Impossible Foods uses heme, or soy leghaemoglobin. Heme is a chemical found in animal flesh. It catalyses several chemical reactions that occur while a burger is cooking. Obviously, the heme in the Impossible Burger is not taken from beef, but is instead made by inserting the DNA from the roots of soy plants into genetically-engineered yeast and then fermenting that yeast. This is where the trouble comes in.
Not only do genetically-engineered foods generally ring bells of warning due to the uncertainty attached to their novelty, but more specifically with the Impossible Burger, soy contains isoflavones (a compound similar to estrogen), which is said to promote the growth of some cancer cells and also have a negative effect on fertility.
In addition to that, plant-based meat alternatives may not be as healthy as we’re made to believe. While the Impossible Burger has less cholesterol and more fibre than a similar traditional meat patty, the fat content is similar and the processed nature of plant-based meat could turn out to be a problem, given that we don’t exactly know what about processed food results in deleterious health consequences.
Moreover, tying back to what was said earlier about the traditions of meat-eating in many cultures, there is little to concretely say that fake meat will extend beyond a food fad in millennial homes. Despite knowing the health and environmental implications, few would be willing to give up meat, especially due to the higher cost attached to imitation meat.
Therefore, it can be said that while “fake meat” poses a potential solution for sustainable gastronomy environmentally and could potentially save the world, it is no silver bullet given the lack of will of the public to adapt and the unknown health consequences attached.
Nonetheless, a report by the EAT-Lancet Commission states that it may be possible to achieve a diet that is healthy and sustainable worldwide by 2050, but that will require a dramatic shift in our eating habits and significant investments from all related sectors. So, this World Sustainable Gastronomy Day (18th June), you could take a small step towards achieving that sustainable diet – you don’t have to shift to faux meat altogether for that, but maybe start by cutting down that one cup of cappuccino with milk in the morning?