Other Voices: Plant-based meat worries beef industry

The Impossible Burger, which first appeared in grocery stores in September, is made entirely of plant-based ingredients. But it looks, smells, feels and — most importantly — tastes so much like real hamburger beef.

In fact, plant-based burger alternatives from companies such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, both based in California, have evolved so far from the cardboard-tasting alternatives of yore that they have triggered a backlash from the beef industry.

The Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of the fast-food and meat industries, among others, has launched an “informational” campaign targeting plant-based meats. The campaign has included TV and online ads as well as print ads in newspapers.

The ads seem to imply that not only is a faux burger an “ultra-processed” patty, but that it might be junk food that is even junkier than the average beef burger.

While it’s true that a plant-based meat alternative is processed — meaning altered in the preparation process, like just about everything else at the grocery store — and it’s true that eating one is not as healthy as say, a pile of raw vegetables, it’s best to take the ads with a generous pinch of salt. (Or sodium, which the ads correctly note is higher in precooked plant patties than in the beef kind.)

For instance, the additives and preservatives in plant-based meat highlighted in one ad sure sound scary. Who wants something called titanium dioxide in their meal? But the truth is that additives such as those listed in the ads are regularly used in all sorts of packaged foods.

The truth is that beef and other industrial meats are often packaged with things a lot more dangerous to human health than food additives. You want to talk about a public health threat? The widespread prophylactic use of human-grade antibiotics in cows and other livestock has contributed greatly to the rise of lethal antibiotic-resistant organisms.

There are tremendous environmental costs to eating cows. Our global food production system emits more than a third of the world’s greenhouse gases. Yet we can’t seem to curb our meat appetite even knowing that huge swaths of the Amazon forest have been razed and continue to be cut down to make room for more cattle to feed the growing demand for beef.

Humans also know full well that many animals live short, brutal lives in appalling conditions for the sole purpose of becoming bacon, chicken thighs, pork loin, veal cutlets, filet mignon and other foods for humans to enjoy at dinner.

So why do we still do it? Because meat tastes soooooo good and it is such an efficient source of protein. Plus, did we mention it’s so tasty?

A plant-based meat that satisfies meat cravings and delivers protein but with a smaller climate footprint is a potential environmental game changer and the reason Impossible Foods was one of the recipients of the U.N. Global Climate Action Award in 2019. No wonder the meat industry is on guard.

The Los Angeles Times