The future of food is around resilience.”
-Impossible Foods
Have you ever wondered why plant-based meats like the Impossible burger are having such a moment right now? What’s the beef with beef, anyway? How could an innocent hamburger be so bad for the environment?
To get to the bottom of this, we invited Rebekah and Daniele from the Impossible Foods team to discuss the environmental impact of the meat industry.
We talk about how alternatives like Impossible have truly revolutionary implications for our environment. In this episode, they share why their mission to re-imagine the future of meat started with the hamburger and dish out some sizzling facts about the negative impacts of the beef industry. We explore why Impossible is marketed primarily to omnivores and not vegans or vegetarians. We conclude by exploring our hopes for the future of the American food system.
This episode is a must-listen for omnivores, carnivores, environmentalists, and curious grill-masters alike!
About Impossible Foods and Podcast Notes
- Rebekah Moses is the Head of Impact Strategy
- Daniele Bourne is the head of E-Commerce Sales
- For Rebekah, eating more plants is a no-brainer for the environment. She points to the fact that since 1970, over 50% of all animal species have gone extinct due to human activity. Deforestation due to cattle production is a primary culprit.
- Beef is the least efficient meat to produce from an energy standpoint. 97% of the plant calories needed to grow a cow are lost in production. That means that a cow yields just 3% of all of the calories that it ate during its lifetime!
- Compared to a beef burger, an Impossible burger requires 96% less land, 87% less water, and produces 89% fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
- Learn more about the impact of eating plant-based using Impossible’s impact calculator.
- You can find delicious recipes featuring Impossible on their recipes page.
- Rebekah recommends following the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, particularly their reports on meat consumption.
- Daniele loves the kimchi fried rice recipe from the New York Times.
- Imperfect has taken a stance on how confusing “best by” dates cause millions of pounds of food waste every year. Get the truth and stop dating your food!
- Daniele’s go-to karaoke song is “Case of the Ex” by Mya
- Project drawdown lists reducing food waste and plant-rich diets as two of the best ways to reverse climate change
If you enjoyed this, then tune in to Re-thinking Sustainable Apparel with Jenny and Stephanie of Rewilder
