For all of you meat lovers, and I count myself among your number, there are some sobering facts we need to face. No, I don't want to talk about the impact of meat on your health, or the morality of breeding and harvesting animals for food. There are dozens of excellent websites where you can find information on those topics. Instead, in this post, I want to discuss something we rarely consider. Specifically, I would like to review the inefficiency, and enormously negative environmental impact, of meat production. Here are a few facts for you to chew on:
- To produce one pound of beef requires approximately 1,500 gallons of water
- One pound of chicken requires 468 gallons of water
- One egg requires 53 gallons of water
- 1,000 gallons of water are required to produce the food and drinks consumed per person, per day, in the average U.S. diet
- Livestock production is responsible for 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Some technology companies feel that this is an industry ripe for disruption, and their approach would certainly shake things up. In fact, their solution to the problem is to remove animals entirely from the meat production process. For example, a group from Maastrict University is studying the viability of using laboratory-grown muscle cells to replace meat harvested from animals. An early investor, Sergey Brin, the Co-Founder of Google, said of this approach, "Sometimes a new technology comes along and it has the capability to transform how we view our world."
Other tech investors seem to agree that this is an exciting new technology. Whereas most start-up companies find it challenging to raise money, Memphis Meats had so many potential investors, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, that they actually had to turn some of them away. You can learn more about Memphis Meats here.
Another start-up is Impossible Foods. This company has created a burger made entirely from plants that, according to the company, tastes, smells and even bleeds like a normal meat-based burger. However, the burger made by Impossible Foods uses 95% less land, 74% less water and is responsible for 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. You can read about the Impossible burger here.
Other tech investors seem to agree that this is an exciting new technology. Whereas most start-up companies find it challenging to raise money, Memphis Meats had so many potential investors, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson, that they actually had to turn some of them away. You can learn more about Memphis Meats here.
Another start-up is Impossible Foods. This company has created a burger made entirely from plants that, according to the company, tastes, smells and even bleeds like a normal meat-based burger. However, the burger made by Impossible Foods uses 95% less land, 74% less water and is responsible for 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. You can read about the Impossible burger here.
So if you love meat, but you're not a big fan of green house gases, you might be craving one of the new meat substitutes. Although most of these products haven't hit the market yet, the Impossible burger is available at a number of restaurants in the U.S. Though it hasn't yet come to my city, I hope to try it the next time I travel. If you try it first, please leave a comment to let me know what you think. Bon appetit!