Some people on Twitter are having meat with Bill Gates again.
Microsoft MSFT,
the globally founded health philanthropist discusses ways to tackle climate change in his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Advances We Need,” which hit the shelves on Tuesday. And among its calls to action: switch to synthetic meat to reduce methane emissions, also known as the gases that cattle and sheep release when they wrap up or pass gas.
While Burger King QSR,
has experimented with adding lemon grass to the diet of some of its beef herds to limit methane emissions that contribute to climate change and researchers are feeding algae to Maine and New Hampshire cattle in another attempt of reducing the methane released by these herds. simply a biological fact of life that the bacterium in the digestive tract of cattle releases methane while breaking down food. “I don’t know if there will be any natural approach,” Gates said.
Its solution: the richest countries should contain beef, knit and switch to vegetable or synthetic proteins.
“I think all rich countries should switch to 100% synthetic meat,” Gates told Technology Review. “You can get used to the difference in taste and the statement is that they will make it taste even better over time. Finally, this green premium is modest enough to change it. [behavior of] people or use regulation to completely change demand. ”
Many Twitter readers are not yet ready to completely give up their burgers and steaks. So this sparked Gates ’trend on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon while critics chewed him.
Even Gates acknowledged that this idea is hard to swallow. “Tell people,‘ You can’t have cows anymore ’- talk about a politically unpopular approach to things,” he also told Technology Review.
Some other critics also wondered why Gates should dictate what countries should do to address climate change when a new nationwide report named Gates as one of the world’s leading carbon emitters. He is seen living in a 66,000-square-foot mansion outside of Seattle, and his private jet consumes 486 gallons of fuel every hour he flies.
This is certainly not the first time Gates has roasted himself on social media, as he has been at the center of several discredited conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the backlash against its synthetic meat plan, however, world hunger for plant-based foods continues to grow. Morningstar predicts that the plant meat market will reach $ 74 billion in 2029, up from $ 12 billion in 2019. And Beyond Meat BYND,
works with McDonald’s MCD,
and Yum Brands YUM,
the Taco Bell and KFC fast food chains to launch vegetable sandwiches and other alternative meat products this year.