The Possible Burger

In my position as State Veterinarian, husband, dad, son, and brother I would say that I enjoy most every day and what I get to be a part of. I am honored, proud and often humbled to work with people invested in animal agriculture along with the many good people here at the Department of Agriculture. There is, however, the occasional thing that I encounter that troubles me or maybe even causes irritation. For example, it troubles me that there are 10 hot dog wieners in a package and only eight hot dog buns in a package. It irritates me that some people do not take their shopping carts to the shopping cart rack in the Walmart parking lot. They have just walked 10 miles up and down the aisles looking at every brand of cereal and can’t walk the 10 to 20 feet to the cart rack! Then there is the rare issue that to be honest sometimes I get downright mad about.

A few weeks ago, Commissioner Pate gave me an article from a magazine that he thought I might find interesting. The information coming out of this article did leave me in this emotional state of being pretty upset and so I’ve decided to discuss it here. A side note might be advisable to add that I am aware of the Bible verse that says I can be angry but sin not! The article was about the founder and CEO of the Impossible Foods that has marketed the recently advertised Impossible Burger. I will say from the git go that it seems the intent of the author was to just report on this individual’s attempt to develop alternative protein food sources, reduce greenhouse gases from the earth and the marketing strategies to pull this off.

We have talked before about the fact that the world’s population will approach nine to 10 billion people by the year 2050 and that food production systems will need to double. Developing alternative sources of protein is certainly admirable along with enhancing existing livestock production systems. Things like genetic selections for increased feed efficiency of feeder calves and dairy cows that produce more pounds of milk per animal, feed sources that are drought-tolerant and insect-resistant, and mapping the genome sequence of cattle and chickens to map those resistant to diseases like E. coli 015H7 and Avian Influenza. It is certainly in style today to talk about global warming and climate change as if that were in our control. We humans must, according to the book I mentioned above, take care of this planet God has given us charge over. However, the culprit or bad guy in this discussion is NOT cows passing gas from either end as methane causing the greenhouse effect on the earth. These issues were discussed at the recent Alabama Farmers Federation Commodity Conference during the Beef Committee session. And the discussion was held the right way with real scientists presenting facts about the impact of livestock on the environment and fake meat and taking questions from the audience.

Now back to the troubling article. The author makes many seemingly factual statements on his own but doesn’t give sources and uses content that makes no sense. For example, he states, “Meat is essentially a huge check written against the depleted funds of our environment,” and that “a recent Finnish study found that, across a twenty-two-year span, devoted meat-eaters were 23% more likely to die.” Which implies that the rest of the population that didn’t eat meat were not going to die! How goofy is that? But the real frustration and scary part is over his comments about the founder of the Impossible Burger himself and that person’s opinion of animal agriculture. The writer states, referencing the founder of Impossible Foods, “By developing plant-based beef, chicken, pork, lamb, dairy and fish, he intends to wipe out all animal agriculture and deep-sea fishing by 2035.” He quotes the founder as to how he would do this as “Legal economic sabotage.” And more quotes like “We plan to take a double-digit portion of the beef market within five years, and then we push that industry which is fragile and has low margins, into a death spiral. Then we can just point to the pork industry and the chicken industry and say, ‘You’re next!’” and finally, “We’re just trying to remove the economic incentive for covering the earth with livestock.”

Now friends I’m not an alarmist and everyone is entitled to their opinions and if you want to eat a veggie thing that sort of looks like a hamburger, I guess that’s your choice. But the underlying intent of the founder of the Impossible Burger is not about alternative protein sources or choosing to not eat meat. It is a misguided mindset that climate change is due almost entirely to animal agriculture systems that must be eliminated. To me this seems more like terrorism.

I know this article seems more dark than usual, but I think this needs to be talked about. Livestock and poultry producers need to be aware that there are highly educated, highly motivated, well-funded individuals that would like to eliminate livestock for food. No livestock means no livestock producers which means no need for livestock veterinarians or state veterinarians like me.

So, what do we do? The producer now more than ever must be on the offense. This means being members of the Cattlemen’s Association, ALFA, BQA and staying as educated as possible. Develop a herd/flock plan with your veterinarian for things like a record-keeping system for vaccinations, deworming, pregnancy status, antibiotic usage and my soap box, animal ID for traceability. Be very aware that everyone has a cellphone that takes very good pictures and videos of dead cattle not properly disposed of. Have a plan for disposal of normal mortalities. Know the genetics of your herd as much as possible and what they are being fed and feed efficiency. Manage pastures, take soil samples, fertilize accordingly. All these things are probably common-sense practices that most of you already do. But be ready to give an account of how you manage your livestock to someone that wants to eat an Impossible Burger.

One last comment about the founder of this. He is a biochemist who has extracted the compounds of meat in a hamburger and put them back together with plants and soy and yeast proteins. It has genetically modified compounds, and while that doesn’t bother me too much, that’s why it’s labeled the Impossible Burger. Me personally, I don’t want to eat an Impossible Burger, I want to eat a Possible Burger that I know what is in it, BEEF!

The writer states, referencing the founder of Impossible Foods, “By developing plant-based beef, chicken, pork, lamb, dairy and fish, he intends to wipe out all animal agriculture and deep-sea fishing by 2035.”