Name: A Look Inside the Future of Sustainable Meat Substitutes
Uploaded: 2019-09-04
Duration: 25 min 6 s
Description: A discussion with the founder and chief executive of one of the world’s fastest-growing meat-substitute makers, Patrick Brown of Impossible Foods.

[ MUSIC ] Thanks, Kat. So let's just take a quick poll. Who here has tried the Impossible Burger? Wow. [ APPLAUSE ] All right, still has some work cut out for you, Pat. But in the US at least, there's so much buzz. And excitement over plant based alternatives to meat. And yet, we've had veggie burgers for decades. So why is this different? what is this class of alternatives that we're looking at now so different from what we've seen before? That's a great question. And it's an absolutely fundamental difference. That here too for before impossible foods came along. The problem was framed as creating meat like products for people who wanted to reduce or eliminate meat from their diets. And that made the design spec basically To just, you don't have to be better than the cow, you just have to be better than the next best veggie burger. It's a completely different problem, okay? And because our company was founded with a very explicit mission, which is to completely replace animals in the food system by making products that consumers prefer To the products they get from animals. We could've said we're gonna be a super successful veggie burger company. And we could have but we have had not impact on the global environment. We took the global challenge of we're not gonna succeed until we make meat. That hardcore meat lovers deliberately choose over the meat made from animals, which means that we had to solve the hard problem. It's easy to match and do much better in terms of nutritional value, overall health value. Food Safety and definitely sustainability and even cost. You could do that right now easily with just you know edamame, but deliciousness is hard and For us to be able to take that on, we had to build what I would say is by far the best r & d team in the history of food, and I would say it's arguably one of if not the best r & d team in the entire biotechnology industry, to look at a really hard problem, which was the most important scientific problem in the world. By far, why is meat delicious? That was the most important scientific question in the world. Why is it the most important scientific question in the world? Because if you can answer that question, understand it well enough that you can produce the most delicious need in the world. Without using animals, you solve the biggest environmental crisis that humanity has ever faced. And that is the catastrophic impact of our use of animals. Okay, so I have to ask them why is what did you discover why is meat so delicious? Well, okay, there's a There's many levels of answer that question but I would say the first and probably the most important really breakthrough discovery is that the magic of meat flavor. What makes meat taste immediately recognizable and not from the plant world. Is essentially entirely due to a single molecule called heme. And heme is a molecule that's found in every living cell on earth. It's what makes your blood red. It's what carries oxygen in your blood. It's also essential to how your cell generates energy by burning calories So every cell on earth needs it, but animals have tons of it. And that very high level of him. An animal tissue, enables him to catalyze him as a great catalyst. And it catalyst is the chemical reactions that produce the bloody flavor of raw meat. The explosion of flavor and aroma you get when you cook meat that makes it so craveble to meat lovers. So we discovered that very early on. We've also discovered some fundamental things about what protein properties enable the product to be juicy and have the textural changes and meat so for there's a really hard complicated scientific problem that we're We're still working on but we made a huge breakthrough. When we discovered that he has basically the magic ingredient for flavor. How to go back to something you said early early on, you said that you want you want to completely replace meat. No, no, I absolutely do not wanna replace need I want meat lovers to be able to get all the meat they want. Okay, but I want to replace animals as the technology that we use to produce meat to ,>> animals as a technology. Yeah, it's like when when the automobile industry came along, it was not we want to replace transportation It's that we wanna replace the horse as the power system for transportation. We don't wanna take away meat from meat lovers. We wanna give them the best meat they've ever eaten, but not use animals to produce it. With all the catastrophic environmental impact of that technology. Okay, so instead you're creating meat with plants. Yes. Okay. Yes, with ingredients from plants. So I wanna talk a little bit here about Asia because US first market, Asia second market. Why is this such a critical, critical area for you? Well, I think probably most of the audience is well aware of the fact that. More than 40 % of all meat consumption in the world is in Asia. A quarter of it is in China. And China is by far the biggest meat consumer in the world. And it's also Where most of the growth in demand is happening. So about half growth over the past ten years in demand for meat has been entirely in China. So from a mission standpoint, and our mission is to completely replace animals in the food system by 2035, which we will do You by 2035 by 2035. And the timing is important, because because the rate at which this environmental catastrophe of the impact of animals and the food system is unfolding is so incredibly urgent, that if we don't, you know, essentially completely Replace this system by 2035. We are going to be in terrible shape. But anyway, Asia in general and China, in particular, are essential markets for us and also the opportunity is huge. For China to build a domestic plant based meat industry using ingredients that are produced by farmers in China. And production facilities that take those ingredients and turn them into meat. Creating jobs in China. But the biggest issue is that China right now is entirely import dependent, completely import dependent for a large fraction of its meat supply. And that's a big food security, vulnerability. And of course, as you've heard earlier The animal agricultural system is responsible, it's a major cause of water pollution in China. It's huge component to the greenhouse gas emissions from China. Basically when you see smoke coming out of the Amazon, that's a reflection of the growth and demand for meat. Mostly in China. So these are all important to send for, from China's perspective. The big opportunity is China has about almost the lowest amount of arable land per capita of any developed country and the lowest amount of freshwater. Per capita of any developed country. And animal agriculture is hugely water and land intensive. That's why China can't produce its meat supply domestically. But using the technology that we've developed, with the water efficiency and the land efficiency that we have today, proven. China could produce all the meat That all its citizens consume using half of its own arable land and its own water supply. Okay, it could be entirely self sufficient for its meat supply, if it's switch to plant based meat production, using the technology that we've already developed. So I think it's a win for the world a win for China win for Asia in general. And, [ BLANK_AUDIO ] There you go. So how are you approaching the market? Is it is it a different strategy than for the US? Fundamentally, no, I mean, the fundamental way we're approaching the market is, we're not deluding ourselves, by thinking that we can create veggie burgers, and hope meat lovers will buy them instead of Meat from animals. We know that the only way to succeed in our mission is to produce the best meat as judged by the consumers in the world. And that means that, to succeed in China just as to succeed in the US or elsewhere, number one you have to be uncompromisingly delicious as meat. You have to be better nutritionally. That's easy. You have to compete on cost. at scale. That's completely doable. If you can do those things, deliciousness first, nutritional value, affordability, convenience, etc, the things that consumers value from meat [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You can win in the marketplace. So that's how we're thinking about it, and we also know that consumers around the world, and certainly in the US, across the US, people love their meat. Everybody here, I'm sure you're all meat lovers, otherwise, you'll starve to death if you're in [ UNKNOWN ] But do you raise your hands with if you're a meat lover, please? Who loves meat? Come on, admit it, you do. Okay, and who loves the fact that the meet is made from the cadaver of an animal with all the environmental damage that that- [ LAUGH ] I doubt that somehow. What that means is if you can use plant based ingredients with a vastly lower environmental footprint and deliver the things that consumers really value, deliciousness, protein, iron, nutritional value, convenience and affordability, the market is ready So let's talk about the nutrition piece cuz there are some critics who have said, this is not as healthy as it should be as an alternative. Is that something that you're working on? Are you trying to address that in some way? Okay, the first order of business is we were not gonna sell a product. If we didn't believe based on the best available evidence, it's healthier for the consumer. Then what it replaces, okay? Well, that's kind of a low bar and we've cleared it. Our product has no cholesterol. it's lower in calories, lower in saturated fat. Same protein content, higher quality protein than meat, even though people don't think that's possible with plants. Yep, it's higher quality, better amino acid composition and so forth. You know better food safety. We don't have fecal bacteria and our product unlike all the ground beef in the world, made from cows. So from it's it's, it's it's a much healthier product already, but we're not satisfied with that. So the great thing about The approach that we're taking it's the same thing about moving away from animals as a transportation system. That it's not that you're better right away. Although you pretty much are. It's that you can never stop getting better. Unlike the horse, the horse is no faster now than it was 200 years ago and nobody cares. Unless you're a bit better on horses. And, cows are no better at making meat than they were a million years ago. They were never very good at it. They were just the best thing that was available, when cows were domesticated. We can get better every single day. And when we are better, when we have products that are better than the very best thing that a cow has ever produced The next day we can be even better because we have that ability just like with mechanized transportation, you can you can, you can define a goal to make it better and deliberately go after it. And we definitely want to make our product better in every possible way nutritionally, we have so earlier this year We launched the second version of the impossible burger. We launched it at the consumer electronics show, of course. Which is sort of the biggest, I think it's one of the biggest trade shows in North America. And it's kind of a showcased renovations. Anyway Our product won essentially every prize. It was voted by the CES itself as the most innovative product and the best of the best products at the show where we were competing against Google and Samsung and Sony and LG and all the rest. Anyway And what was important to us about that is that the earlier product was selling as fast as we could produce it, but we knew we could make it better. And we set a goal that we would make it measurably better in flavor, in texture, in versatility, and in handling in the kitchen. Better protein quality. Lower fat, lower saturated fat. Lower salt. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Lower cost of production, everything. And we succeeded. And meanwhile, we launched that in January. We are already working on the next one. And the next one is going to be significantly better, in terms of calories, saturated fat, total fat, salt, and, you, as well as deliciousness, yeah .>> Okay, so I wanna go to the audience for questions here. We have one right up front, if you could just wait for the mic handler to get to you, and tell us who you are. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Mr Brown during the break I've found it impossible to find impossible foods and to you but there you are, I had the pleasure of attending the governor's audience with you awhile ago. Do you express your willingness to explore the Chinese market and find a local partner? Yes. So my question is, what essential factors do you think, do you need to form such partnership between you and our Chinese company What kind of assistance and help? Do you need to make it possible for impossible foods to set up shop in when? In the place like this? Okay. Okay. That's a great question. So obviously, finding a good partner Someone we can trust who its just a based on integrity and then many such partner in China [ UNKNOWN ] partners in China. They need to have the resources and the capability to scales supply change the scale production and so forth. That's really the big challenger for us. We have excess demand and scaling is an issue, and then there are, you know, communication to a new market, having a domestic partner. Who is trusted by Chinese consumers to kind of help leverage that trust for our introduction. We also have right now the main limiting factor for us to be in mainland China, we're in Hong Kong. And Macau and doing extremely well. But in mainland China, there's a regulatory process for a new ingredient. So our heme protein, which is the magic ingredient for flavor, even though he [ INAUDIBLE ] Is in essentially every food you eat every day. But this particular protein, which is produced by genetically engineered yeast is novel, has to go through a regulatory process and that has a very unpredictable timeline. So anyone who can help persuade the people who are doing the regulation, not to cut us any breaks, do the diligence. Make sure you're convinced that this is a completely safe and healthy product, but try to do it fast. Regulatory agencies tend to take their own sweet time at things. So that will be helpful to have partners who can use their powers of persuasion and really communicate the message that we want to help China with its food security and in the process, sell the Greatest environmental threat that humanity has ever faced. [ UNKNOWN ], I think as a Chinese customer, we need this great envision on this great product. And on behalf of the Governor, we'd like to invite you to discuss results off the stage For some more discussion, deliberation and then later on maybe negotiation. I'd love that. Inviting you to come to Unan and to set up your shop, we will be ready to offer all the assistance and conditions that can make it happen, thank you. Thank you very much. I would love to talk to you afterwards. So let me let me ask. We have another question. I'll go to you first. Thanks. And if you could tell us who you are, please. Yeah. Don rose, garden artist and fellow speaker. And thanks so much. You talked about flavor and progress. And I'm just wondering, like, why are you spending all your time energy obsession with creating something which from an experience level already exists? And are you not interested in experiencing or developing, a new flavor, a new sensation, a new experience? And if the answer is yes, what would it be like? Also an excellent question and a very, very important question. So the key to understanding why Given we know a ton about meat flavor, we can we understand the chemistry of basically every animal derived meat, okay? Which means not only can we make products that have the flavor profile of chicken or pork or beef. We could make something that has the flavor profile of a Brontosaurus if if we knew what that was. Or something entirely novel, that many consumers might prefer to the small number of kinda meat that exists in the market. But our mission is to. Replace animals by competing in the market against the incumbent industry and, and taking their sales away from them. Does that make sense we want to remove the economic incentive for covering the earth with cows. And and that means that the customer we wanna target Is someone who would otherwise be buying beef from a cow. And the surest way to do that is to deliver for them what they're looking for when they're shopping for that product. So that's why we made this choice and but And we went after beef because beef is the most destructive of the part of the [ UNKNOWN ] sector. But I think 10 years from now, 15 years from now, when, when consumers understand that we're no longer limited by the animals that were domesticated 5000 years ago for meat flavors, I think that's gonna be an extremely interesting area for development. Sorry, just [ INAUDIBLE ] in your opinion, in the future, what does the sustainable future taste like? Man. Well, I'll tell you what it tastes like. It tastes like whatever consumers want. That's what it tastes like. [ LAUGH ] [ APPLAUSE ] All right, let me ask a question here about technology, brought it up several times. The genetic engineering behind him [ INAUDIBLE ] product at CS. A lot of consumers have an aversion to technology in their food. Are you worried about. Off putting certain segment of the population. No, I don't. I'm not worried about, maybe I should be but I'm not. Because I think that what consumers are sometimes suspicious of technology when it seems alien and they don't understand it. And they way we approach this is we over communicate to consumers. Two or three years before we even had a commercial product, we were talking to the press and on our website about how we're producing our product. We're very transparent about it, the fact that we're using genetically engineered heme, why that's important, why that's safe, why that's a good thing. And we're always happy to answer those questions. I think that what consumers need to understand is the use of animals in the food system. There's nothing natural about it, okay? The animals that we're raising for food Have essentially replaced all the diversity. So, the total, you know the total number of living wild animals on earth today, according to the World Wildlife Fund and Zoological Society of London and academic institutions is 60 % lower than it was just 40 years ago. There's less than half as many wild animals on earth today. There were 40 years ago. And again, according to these same researchers, it's almost entirely due to the catastrophic impact of animals in the food system. Everything else is a tiny rounding error. So what we've done is now replaced all that biodiversity With a handful of domesticate animals. The cows living on earth today outweigh every remaining wild mammal, bird, reptiles, amphibian by more than a factor of ten, okay? Just the cows. There's ten times more cow on earth. Then there are all the wild animals, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians put together. There's two times more pig biomass on earth than all the wild mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians left on earth. Okay. There's nothing natural about this. I think the last time a cow was conceived Without the use of a long metal rod inserted into a cow, by, a technician wearing long gloves was probably 20 years ago. All the cows on Earth are produced by artificial insemination now. Everything about the industry is artificial We're about to get the rod. Yeah, okay. I'm sorry. But we will. It sounds like you will be back. You pushed my button there. Okay. It sounds like you will be back in Yunan, so we can hear more. Okay. So thank you so much. I really appreciate your taking the time. Great questions. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

A Look Inside the Future of Sustainable Meat Substitutes

Environment

A discussion with the founder and chief executive of one of the world’s fastest-growing meat-substitute makers, Patrick Brown of Impossible Foods. 