The Future of
MUSE MAGAZINE
F a s t On July 9th 2018, A&W became the first national burger chain in Canada to sell Beyond Meat. At the time, it was simply an innovative attempt to stay relevant. Customers bought 900,000 burgers in the first three days and A&W sold out nation-wide in a matter of weeks. Now, this date marks a defining moment in the fast food industry — a shift in our definition of protein. The Beyond Meat Burger is “the world’s first plant-based burger that looks, cooks and satisfies like beef.” It is made mainly from pea protein, while its slightly younger competitor, the Impossible Burger, is soy-based. Ethan Brown and Patrick O’Reilly Brown, the respective founders of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, share not only a last name, but also a passion to eliminate our reliance on meat in an effort to counteract climate change, alleviate the stress on our resources, and improve animal welfare. The Beyond Meat Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land, 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and 46% less energy compared to a typical quarter pounder. A large portion of the remaining resources is a result of its plastic packaging. The Impossible Burger not yet sold in Canada - is similar, with 87% less water, 96% less land and 89% fewer GHGE. 56 Why is this significant? According to the United
Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), animal agriculture causes more GHGE than the entire transportation sector. Like it or not, meat is obnoxiously inefficient: it uses 80% of our agricultural land and yet accounts for only 18% of the world’s calories. To prevent the environmental degradation caused by animal agriculture from worsening, we need to halve our current meat production, yet global meat consumption is predicted to increase by 76% by 2050. The world is not going to go plant-based overnight. Still, meatless meats are no longer a vegetarian niche, they’re quickly becoming mainstream with experts predicting the market for alternative proteins could reach $140 billion by 2029. This represents almost half of today’s global beef market. Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods do not consider vegetarians and vegans (a group that represents approximately 9.4% of Canadians and 8% of Americans) to be their main customers. In fact, both companies have alienated this segment. Often the patties are cooked on the same grill as animal meat and Impossible Food used animals for food safety testing. Their real target market? Flexitarians. So far, they’ve been successful: 95% of Beyond Meat’s customers also purchased a beef burger within the last
