Producing meat without slaughtering cows — these new innovations are challenging the meat industry in ways that will help fight against climate change.
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00:00I've joked in the past that those first versions of the veggie burgers were a conspiracy by
00:05the meat industry to discourage people from becoming vegetarian because you tried them
00:09and you said, I never want to do that again.
00:11As these products continue to improve, as consumers get more and more aware of the option,
00:17and as concern around the climate and other concerns around health continue to grow, these
00:22products become more and more appealing.
00:30How is it?
00:40Good.
00:46Tastes like pork?
00:54Almost.
00:55Now what happens is instead of putting these products in the freezer section where the
00:59vegetarians shop, we see Beyond Meat carried in the meat section, adjacent to the animal-based
01:05meat.
01:06And as a result, we have a much wider audience.
01:08And so rather than trying to convert everyone to become vegan or vegetarian, if we can get
01:12everyone to have one or two more plant-based meals per week, that's far more powerful.
01:17And I think it's also far more realistic.
01:30If my wife doesn't tell me that this is a vegetarian burger and won't give it to me,
01:35if I eat it, I think I won't be able to say anything about the meat.
01:44Special sandwich at Dunkin'.
01:46That's right, y'all.
01:47That's that Beyond Meat sausage patty, man.
01:50You can tell them snow dogs, ain't you?
01:59So rather than just mushing a bunch of plants or vegetables together into the form of a
02:21disk that is intended to replicate a hamburger, we looked at a hamburger from a molecular
02:28level.
02:29We looked at the way it's structured, what it is composed of.
02:31And so at Beyond Meat, we said, let's skip the cow.
02:33Let's take the plants and use our own process, using heat and pressure and cooling, and align
02:40the fats and the proteins together in a way that replicates the taste and texture of meat.
02:51The general idea is that we take cells from a cow without slaughtering it.
02:56And this small amount of cells serves as a basis for getting more and more cells.
03:02And from these cells, we create the different cell types that comprise the muscle cut, which
03:08is actually the steak that we are eating.
03:26.