Bill Gates said recently that he believes rich nations would help the global fight against climate change by consuming only vegetable meat products instead of beef.
In a recent interview with Technology Review, Gates discussed his new book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster” and emphasized the benefits that rich nations could produce by moving to “100% synthetic meat.”
“I think all rich countries should switch to 100% synthetic beef,” Gates said when asked about how countries can help reduce methane emissions when it comes to food production. “You can get used to the difference in tastes and the claim is that they will make you taste even better over time.”
The philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft explained at the outset that he hopes a shift to vegetable proteins will help combat methane emissions from livestock.
“Impossible and Beyond has a roadmap, a quality roadmap and a cost roadmap, which makes them fully competitive,” Gates said, referring to the popular plant meat companies. “As for today’s scale, they don’t account for 1% of the world’s meat, but they’re on their way.”
Gates told Technology Review that he acknowledges the alternative argument that getting rid of cows is considered an unpopular approach, but said the benefits of vegetable protein are worth changing for some countries.
“Finally, this green premium is modest enough to be able to change the file [behavior of] Gates said, “So for the meat of middle-income countries, I think it’s possible.”