Bill Gates on Why Vegetarian 'Meats' Are the Future of Food

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Philanthropist Bill Gates took to his blog to explore the environmental impact of meat consumption, and perhaps most importantly, alternatives to eating animals.

As Gates notes, meat consumption has doubled in the last twenty years alone. With more countries growing and developing, that number is expected to double again by 2050. But, raising livestock (who eat the plants we grow and drink fresh water) takes a whole lot of resources. More resources than this little blue planet can handle.

Gates writes, “Put simply, there’s no way to produce enough meat for 9 billion people. Yet we can’t ask everyone to become vegetarians. We need more options for producing meat without depleting our resources.”

So, what’s his solution? Companies that produce vegan meats. Products that are delicious but that don’t use any animal products.

Gates writes about two companies in particular, “Companies like Beyond Meat and Hampton Creek Foods are experimenting with new ways to use heat and pressure to turn plants into foods that look and taste just like meat and eggs. I tasted Beyond Meat’s chicken alternative and was impressed. I couldn’t tell the difference between Beyond Meat and real chicken. Beyond Eggs, Hampton Creek Foods’ egg substitute, doesn’t contain the high cholesterol of real eggs. Even spices are getting re-made: a company called Nu-Tek Food Science has found a way to make potassium chloride taste just like salt, with only a fraction of the sodium.”

Take a look at his entire argument for reducing your consumption of meat. Michael Pollan enters the conversation. He’s got graphs, video, recipes and more. Wouldn’t expect any less of a compelling argument from one of the greatest minds of our time. It’s an argument of pure reason if ever we saw one.