We have a meat problem. It’s a key driver of the climate crisis, drinking water pollution, and land overuse. And excessive consumption of factory-raised and processed meat increases the risk of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.

You probably know all this, but you still eat meat. Most of us do. Why is that?

According to the psychological theory of cognitive dissonance, humans experience extreme stress when there is an inconsistency between our beliefs (“Meat-eating is bad”) and our behaviors (“I like eating meat”). Our brains resolve the dissonance by altering either our beliefs or our behavior. “It is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior,” Leon Festinger, the theory’s originator, once wrote. So most humans, even those who know that meat-eating is bad, make excuses for their behavior rather than adhering to their beliefs and giving up meat.

That’s a problem for our personal health, and that of the planet. But what if we could have it both ways? What if we could eat meat without the consequences?

That’s the big idea behind Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. The competing food companies, which have grown rapidly over the past year, might be famous for creating vegetarian burgers that look, taste, and bleed like beef. But that’s not all they’re trying to do. They’re also trying to change the world by changing what society believes meat to be. In a way, it’s a scientific solution to the cognitive dissonance of eating meat.