Patrick Brown of Impossible Foods Mark Lennihan/AP/Shutterstock

Governments should introduce meat taxes to encourage people to reduce their impact on climate change, according to Patrick Brown, chief executive of meat-free burger firm Impossible Foods.

The former biochemist at Stanford University started his California-based company in 2011 and five years later launched plant-based burgers designed to taste, smell and bleed like meat. Analysis for the company found that its burgers emit 87 per cent less greenhouse emissions than ones made from cows.

Brown’s goals are anything but modest: he wants to end global beef production by 2035. He isn’t alone in …