BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY The Austrian family business Fleischlos (“Meatless”) grows king oyster mushrooms and turns them into sausages and other products that taste like meat, but are From Lab entirely plant-based. to Fork Will plant-based proteins brewed in bioreactors save the planet? by Andrew Standen-Raz o the late chef Anthony “We know from retailers like Spar that Bourdain, “Life with- 80% of the veggie products are bought by out veal stock, pork fat, meat-eaters who want variety,” confirms sausage, organ meat, Felix Hnat, an environmental economist demi-glace, or even and chairman of the Vegan Society Austria stinky cheese is not a (VGÖ). Plant-based familiar favorites are life worth living.” drawing in omnivorous “flexitarians” Vegetarians, he wrote in Kitchen Confi- tempted by ice cream, fish and chips, fried dential, “are the enemy of everything good chicken, scallops and even foie gras – Tand decent in the human spirit, an affront to all made with vegetable protein. Billionaires all I stand for – the pure enjoyment of food.” like Bill Gates and Richard Branson are Bourdain was no kinder toward vegans, investors in competing plant-based burg- calling them vegetarians’ “Hezbollah-like ers. Celebrities help, too. The increasingly splinter-faction.” popular “Veganuary” vegan month this In the ’90s, when a veggie plate meant year attracted Jay Z and Beyonce, who soggy courgettes, it was easy for the red lasted 22 days. meat guys to laugh along to Denis Leary’s “Should the methods we invented at the standup routine No Cure for Cancer. start of the Industrial Revolution always be “Eggplant tastes like eggplant, but meat the right answer to everything?” asks tastes like murder. And murder tastes Hanni Rützler, Austrian food scientist and pretty good.” author of the 2019 Food Report from her In the intervening years, ever-cheaper Future Food Studio. “We can’t go back, but meat seemed worth the cognitive disso- we can reinvent.” The continued success of nance it required to ignore its torturous plant-based proteins, and other alternatives journey to the table. Almost 40 years later, such as in vitro meat and insects, depends with a new generation raised on recycling, not only on how we continue to produce real electric cars and ethical consumerism, meat, but whether you believe farm animals vegans may be having the last laugh: “Plant- have a future at all. based proteins” – vegan food for a new age Rützler, who carefully sources her meat – are the fastest growing food trend in the from independent farmers, views change as developed world since organic farming. inevitable. “There’s a consciousness 40 JULY | AUGUST 2018 JULY | AUGUST 2018 41 BUSINESS “To sustainably feed 10 billion people by 2050, we urgently need alternative proteins.” Kurt Schmidinger, Austrian geophysicist & food scientist, founder of Future Food The EU Food and Farming Forum took place in Brussels, To Silicon Valley food scientists, May 29-30, aiming to waste and just 1 calorie for NYC chefs are impressed that it even devel- it’s all about total disruption – construct a comprehensive human consumption.” ops a Maillard reaction crust, the browning break what can’t be fixed. Pat Common Food Policy. Brown’s “Impossible that produces meat’s addictive flavors. Brown, the vegan CEO and found- The International Panel of Burger” packs almost But the process is genetic, done in a sterile er of the San Francisco-based Im- Experts on Sustainable Food identical good nutrients lab. Brown’s biotech team chose not to ex- Systems brings together possible Foods, calls cows a failed to beef, but is made with tract heme from soy roots, which would take experts from different “food production technology.” disciplines since 2015. 95% less land use, 74% up a lot of land, but to grow it by inserting Brown’s “Impossible Burger” is less water, 87% less soy leghemoglobin genes into Pichia Pasto- the most hyped plant-based prod- greenhouse gas emis- ris yeast. It couldn’t be further from the uct in years, a product he says was motivated sions, no antibiotics or hormones and zero happy “Farm to Fork” ideal of the natural, by wanting to solve “the most important and animal cruelty. It’s the realization of the organic farm movement. urgent problem in the world” he could. vegan’s dream of a future of hypocrisy-free, It’s a sentiment shared by Kurt ethical eating. With over half a billion dollars SHAKING UP PROTEINS Schmidinger, Austrian geophysicist, food in funding since last year, Impossible’s new A more radical, sustainable protein option is scientist and founder of Future Food, who 5,500m2 factory will crank out a million in vitro meat. At the Indiebio biotech accel- A plant-based diet is becoming increasingly met Brown in 2009. “To sustainably feed 10 pounds of plant-based meat every month. erator in California, white-coated millenni- growing that it makes sense to reconsider Science reports shocking loss- popular in Austria, with Policy, to summon the spirit, if billion people by 2050, we urgently need al- The Impossible Burger, which struggled als grow proteins in petri dishes, using AI, how to feed animals, how they should live, es in biodiversity: 83% of wild numbers of vegetarians and not the letter of the ’68 genera- ternative proteins,” says Schmidinger. He to get full FDA approval, is a more funda- and brewing them in bioreactors. Finless how to slaughter them. How we want to mammals and half of plant va- vegans tripling since 2005 tion. “They asked for the im- echoes Brown’s statements on the ineffi- mental innovation than most. It’s designed Foods calculates they can produce one make our food.” As Lévi-Strauss wrote, we rieties, most in the last 50 (from 2.5% of the population possible, we ask for strategy!” ciency of cows: “The meat industry is a gi- to look, cook, smell and even bleed like real metric tonne of meat from a single fish cell. have to “think food,” not merely eat it. years. The journalScience con- to over 9%), says the VGÖ. Schutter reminded the dele- gantic wasting game. The average livestock meat thanks to heme, a plant-derived blood- Rützler was invited by the food scientist For Austrians under 40, the cludes that even the most “ex- gates to also focus on the vast animal converts 7 plant calories into 5 calo- like molecule analogous to the hemoglobin Mark Post to the first tasting of hisau naturel share rises to formidable 17%, THE POTEMKIN FOOD INDUSTRY tensively” farmed, sustain- with women in the lead. social inequalities created by ries of manure, 1 calorie of slaughterhouse that makes our blood red and meat pink. Top in vitro meat in London in 2013, funded by Cheap meat has costs. It’s no secret, able, low-impact organic beef our current food chain – deci- according to hundreds of studies, that our uses 36 times more land and sions made in Europe affect the global food chain is challenged in ways that produces six times more of the greenhouse globe. For the working group on proteins, affect us more deeply than we may realize, gases that contribute to global warming than the prospect of real change veered from cau- with livestock farming the principal culprit. plant-based protein, such as peas. tiously hopeful (a proud Tuscan farmer of Farm animals, totaling 65 billion, do also Politicians in Brussels believe the sustain- prize heritage cattle) to bleak: Saoirse “Should the answers we invented at constitute some 60% of mammals alive on ability issues can be fixed. Olivier De Schut- McHugh of Food Sovereignty Ireland moni- the planet, who occupy almost half of the ter, the co-chair of the 2018 EU Food and tored the decline of wild salmon by millions the start of the Industrial Revolution Earth’s territory, either for grazing or feed Farming Forum (EU3F) in Brussels, called each year at an Alaskan Salmon lodge. crops – land lost to human use or to other on 200 key food experts gathered to co- “There isn’t a future for eating fish unless always be the right ones?” species. The Israeli Weizman Institute of create a new, sustainable Common Food you’re really rich.” FORUM. & FARMING EDEN / EU FOOD TIMOTHY NEXT PAGE: FLEISCHLOS; THIS PAGE: FLEISCHLOS; PAGE: PREVIOUS PHOTOS: Hanni Rützler, Austrian food scientist & author of the 2019 Food Report 42 JULY | AUGUST 2018 JULY | AUGUST 2018 43 BUSINESS Genetically produced salmon is already on and heritage. For all our 10,000 years of there’s any replacement for the texture and sale. Memphis Meats, which just raised an- settled civilization, the best foods have musculature and funk of real meat.” “McDonald’s could be having us eat insect other $17 million, harvests cultured meat brought us together in a Julia Child-level Rützler points to the traditional Viennese from cells instead of animals, so “you can feel mess of smoky fats, unhealthy dairy creams café that now has fresh herbs on every table. burgers within two months.” good about how it’s made because we strive and charred proteins. Codes and symbol- “What will help is to focus more on quality Saoirse McHugh, geneticist & representative of Food Sovereignty Ireland at the EU3F to make it better for you … and for the ism reflect centuries of recipes, significant and respect for animals,” she says, “to real- world.” Even fruit flies are being researched moments with families, big deals and lov- ize that historically we didn’t have meat so in the Israeli startup scene, according to ers. The hyper-efficiency of plant-based readily available; that what we pay for meat Rützler.