A recent report by CBS Insights explores how the world is shifting toward a meatless future. In a market dominated by established big players, the vegan food industry has been heavily influenced by small businesses and startups.
These “game changing startups” are creating alternative proteins and bioengineering new food sources. Ultimately, this is uprooting the meat market, and revolutionising the current system.
More people than ever are turning toward veganism. Eating meat-free reduces the risk of health problems, helps to feed the growing population, and leaves a lighter footprint on the Earth. Small businesses and startups are playing a lead role in making it happen.
Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat are two companies paving the way for faux meat, both offering completely vegan patties that look, taste, and smell like meat. The Beyond Burger even appears to ‘bleed’ like animal products do.
Impossible Foods CEO Pat Brown, explains that “… the value proposition of meat has nothing to do with its coming from an animal”. According to Brown, it is “meat made a better way”.
Similarly, Beyond Meat (the “future of protein”), is dedicated to improving human health, climate change, and natural resource use. They are currently expanding, having recently teamed up with Sysco, the largest food distributor in the U.S.
Businesses producing faux meat provide a more comfortable stepping stone for people who want to make a change but don’t want to compromise the taste of meat.
Food technology company Memphis Meats produce lab-grown meat made from animal cells which are then multiplied; rendering them arguably cruelty-free, but meat nonetheless. They claim their ‘clean meat’ uses just 1% of the land and water that traditional meat production does.
According to the report by CBS, lab-grown meat producers are aiming to decrease production costs to make clean meat more available to the public. The initial price was valued at $9,000 per pound. However, this company has since more than halved this, with the value now at $3,800 a pound.
Hampton Creek, the company, known for its eggless mayo and dressings, says it’ll be first to market with clean meat. It had been working on it for several years in secret before making the announcement earlier this year.
Follow Your Heart is a vegan-run business that creates cruelty-free alternatives to cheese, mayonnaise, and eggs. Its production happens in a custom-made, solar-powered facility, which utilizes a “maximum conservation of resources”. Skylights, recycled flooring, energy-efficient lighting and heating and environmentally-friendly refrigeration are all priorities.
These businesses are small but powerful, revolutionizing the way our food is produced which a much-needed focus on environmental and health factors. The future is vegan, and small businesses are paving the way there.
Image credit: Impossible Food | Memphis Meat | Follow Your Heart
This post was last modified on December 15, 2020 7:00 am