Kauffman, J. (2019, February 07). Plant-based burger battle heats up as culinary rivals roll out new products. Retrieved February 24, 2019, from https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Plant-based-burger-battle-heats-up-as-Impossible-13596414.php

 

There are two major companies that are dominating the food industry specializing in mimicking meat to create the taste and look, but not actually using beef. They are Impossible Foods, which originated in Redwood City, California and Beyond Meat from Los Angeles. The article says that “Beyond Meat has dominated the grocery market and Impossible Foods has owned restaurant sales”. Both companies are working on more versions of their meats and trying to get closer and closer to the real thing. The article says “According to David Lee, chief operations officer of Impossible Foods, his company continues to test 100 prototypes a day”, but they “ trying to be thoughtful about how we increase capacity, but we have enough demand to want to sprint”.

 

This is related to environmental science because this could change the way people and restaurants sell and eat meat. Lots of us already know the costly effects of real meat in burgers: the unethical farming, the amount of water and food, and effort it takes to raise cows and the toll that has on the environment. So with the technology of creating “meat” that is plant-based, and looks and tastes like real meat is a game changer. It can possibly convince people to switch to vegetarian. I wonder if more meats can be adapted this way. The article mentions that both companies are working on new products. As far as the competition I think it’s good. While it might be bad for the companies, it means both companies are working to create better and better products.