"Have a burger once a week." — Michael Pollan to Roy Wood Jr. on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Roy Wood Jr. loves burgers and fast food. His quest was to find out more about the alternative meat choices. Michael Pollan suggests Wood try some of the plant-based alternatives.
Wood's quest takes him to San Francisco to Impossible Foods. He tries the Impossible Burger at Impossible Foods. "How did you make the plant burger taste like the meat burger?" In the angel-devil scenario, the devil points out Wood is too old to switch sides.
Wood stays in San Francisco to go to Just Inc. to try real meat from cloning. "What we do is find the best tasting cows in the world. We take cells from those cows. You put that cell line in a bioreactor. The bioreactor enables the cell to double. At the end of it, you have raw meat." — Josh Tetrick, CEO, Just Inc.
He tries a chicken nugget that would cost about $50. Wood points out that a 6-pack would be $300. Tetrick points out that they don't have a burger yet.
Wood points out the plant burger costs more than the "fart burger" i.e., comes from cows.
Pollan's idea of limiting meat consumption to once a week is labeled as "crazy" by Wood. "You should be in comedy," Wood says to Pollan.
Wood refers to "broke-ass carnivores" such as himself. Ignoring the fact that eating hamburgers with buns means you are not a carnivore, Wood hits on the issue in the marketplace. People can switch if the costs are comparable. Those who can afford the Impossible Burgers aren't people likely struggling with food costs. The cloned meats will come down in price over time.
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The true efficiencies in switching to alternative meats will come in getting the price point to be seen as viable in the average consumer. This is grossly unfair given that mainstream meat production is subsidized by cheap feed and practices that sacrifice quality and taste. Fast food burgers should cost twice as much but the reality is that consumers won't pay that much.
The "good news" is that the alternatives don't have to taste as good since the quality marker is a typical fast food burger.
Pollan may have the solution: eat better quality meat but eat less meat.
video and photo credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
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