Impossible Foods kicked off the new year by launching its new faux pork products. Customers can now enjoy ground pork and pork-sausage made from plants. It will be available at a number of Burger King locations later this year.
Of course, Impossible Foods had success last year with the Impossible Burger. The plant-based burger appears to “bleed” with help from a soybean protein.
But Impossible Foods CEO just couldn’t help himself when doing promotional interviews about the new pork products. Pat Brown absurdly claimed animal production as the worst thing ever:
“Again the thing that you just have to remember to anticipate everything Impossible is going to do is that our intention is to completely replace animals as a food production technology, the most destructive technology on Earth by far.”
Brown went on to confirm his company’s goal is to end all animal-agriculture. A goal I criticized him for setting last year. And I guess it makes sense if he honestly believes animal agriculture is the most destructive thing ever.
But I’m honestly not sure how he can say that with a straight face. Surely he isn’t suggesting that raising animals is worse than a nuclear bomb? Or any bomb for that matter. Or what about gunpowder? Its discovery changed warfare and the world forever.
Maybe he’s referring to animal agriculture’s impact on climate change? It certainly has an impact. But that has been grossly overestimated. And transportation and electricity contribute substantially more than than all of agriculture combined. Those two areas account for about 50 percent of greenhouse-gas emissions. Agriculture as a whole only accounts for 9 percent.
Also, there’s that minor point that we all need food to survive. So that seems kinda important.
Something tells me Brown knows that. Obviously he doesn’t like those facts though. He doesn’t care if it’s been misrepresented. He doesn’t care if family farms are hurt by it. He doesn’t care if farmers are demonized for raising animals.
Brown directly benefits from the anti-meat campaigns that have become so popular. As long as that false message is out there, he stands to gain big. Why? Because then people feel good about choosing an Impossible Foods option. And when people have that type of reaction to making a choice, they tend to continue making it.
I find it disgusting. It’s just as bad as companies putting a non-GMO label on products that don’t have any alternative genetically modified ingredients. It’s a lie. It’s a falsehood used to trick people into feeling better about their food when it isn’t true.
I’m open to meat alternatives because I think we’re going to need all the food we can get to meet future demands. But we all need to play nice if we’re going to reach that goal. Other alternative-meat companies are willing and able to do that. But Pat Brown and Impossible Foods has drawn a sharp line in the sand. And that’s not okay.
