Yesterday, a co-worker sent me this article so I have to go on a little rant this morning. Working at a company that is focused on trying to fix or at the very least do our part to contribute to a better food system, getting into deep discussions on topics like this is very common.
The summary of the article is that there is a new player in the world of fake food; Climax Foods, who just raised $7.5 million towards its mission of essentially replacing animal agriculture by using technology to reproduce animal products, starting with cheese.
While the tech side of this story is undoubtedly “cool” this is a huge problem not only for the health of our nation but the health of our planet, which is the problem many of these fake food companies claim to be targeting.
Climax and other fake food companies realize that the current state of animal agriculture is not sustainable, healthy, or morally sound. Big players realizing this is a huge win. It leads to the right questions being asked. How do we fix it?
The problem is that like most of the health and nutrition world, the food industry is starting to ask the right questions but they are getting the answers wrong. The solutions have many holes in them. The solutions, while they may temporarily be a better alternative to what is currently going on, are not permanent solutions and they come with many concerns.
Animal agriculture is crucial to our survival…when it’s done right. Of course, there are many animal ag operations that are following practices that are hurting our environment (and our health). These no doubt need to be addressed and corrected. However, there are sustainable methods of animal agriculture that actually have a huge net positive on the environment. Many farmers are following these practices and we should be incentivizing more to do so.
To me, this is the answer to the questions being asked. Improving our animal agricultural practices and our buying and consumption habits as consumers is a much better alternative to improving the current state of the food industry than fake food is. The problem with many of the fake foods we have seen to date, like fake meat, is that they are loaded with highly processed nutrients that not only are bad for our health but also require ingredients that encourage plant agriculture practices, such as monocropping and pesticide use, which are also highly destructive to our earth.
Of course, it’s not just about our environment. As the agronomist Peter Ballerstedt points out, we also have to consider the economic burden of poor health. Real meat, animal products, and whole foods contain the essential nutrients that we are actually able to digest and put to use for optimal health. Fake food does not.
This topic is becoming increasingly important as we are experiencing more threats to animal agriculture. Through spreading awareness and supporting the right animal ag practices, hopefully, we can begin answering these questions we need to be asking with the right answers.
Thanks for reading,
Chris Irvin
P.S.
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