The Truth About Plant-Based Meat

The conversation about plant-based meat has been heating up lately, seemingly everywhere. Burgers that “bleed” like beef but are made mostly of plants are blowing up; you can get them at Burger King! And people ask me all the time about these products: how they affect animal welfare, the environment and our health. Over at Heated, we’re publishing a number of stories that explore these questions about plant-based meat; we even collaborated on a webinar to see what some experts had to say. The five biggest takeaways from that webinar are below, as are two other pieces that I really think are worth a read. Some provide pretty definitive answers, others ask pretty thought-provoking questions, all will hopefully get you thinking.

You’ll also notice towards the bottom of this newsletter that there’s a recipe for Chana Chaat Burgers (made with chickpeas, potatoes, and Indian spices). That’s because, in my humble opinion, the best plant-based alternative to meat is REGULAR PLANTS! Whole plant foods, not heavily processed or engineered in a lab. If you don’t want to grill these burgers, you can just cook them on the stove in a skillet. They’re tasty, and you don’t have to go to Burger King to get them.

—Mark

You have undoubtedly encountered the new wave of meat alternatives, whether online, on a plate, or both. As a result, people are asking questions about Impossible Burger, Beyond Meat, and related innovations: Are they good for you? Good for the environment? Overall, are they reliably better in important ways than the meats they might replace?