Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates believes that affluent countries should transition to “synthetic beef” to help fight climate change.
During an interview with MIT’s Technology Review, Gates addressed his new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” and his belief that wealthy countries should switch to eating synthetic beef.
“I don’t think the poorest 80 countries will be eating synthetic meat,” he told the outlet.
However, he said, “I do think all rich countries should move to 100% synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time.”
Gates pointed to Impossible and Beyond Meat as a “quality road map” for how countries could shift to eating plant-based beef.
Impossible describes itself as a company that makes “meat, dairy, and fish from plants.”
The company’s website explains, “Our mission is to make the global food system truly sustainable by eliminating the need to make food from animals. Why? Animal agriculture uses a tremendous amount of the world’s natural resources. In 2016, we launched our first product, the Impossible™ Burger. It’s delicious, nutritious, and made using but a small fraction of the land, water and energy required to make meat from a cow.”
Gates continued, “Eventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the [behavior of] people or use regulation to totally shift the demand.”
“So for meat in the middle-income-and-above countries, I do think it’s possible. But it’s one of those ones where, wow, you have to track it every year and see, and the politics [are challenging],” he added.