Imitation Meat

Does Meat Really Grow on Trees?

Have you ever gone to Friday's and ordered the mouth-watering beyond burger? If so, you have eaten a burger made out of plants! Plant-based meats, also called imitation meats, use plants and other chemical manipulations to mimic traditional red and white meat. Important qualities of this type of protein is that is tastes, appears, and feels like animal-based meat [13]. Plant-based protein substitutes include soy, tofu, and tempeh. With added flavor, these protein sources can taste like your favorite steak or pork-chop. The best part about imitation meat is that it is high in protein but low fat [14]. Soy, as the most researched option, is rather simple to prepare, so losses from the soybean curd are expected to be low [13]. Furthermore, soy has much lower energy inputs than other meat alternatives such as lab-grown meat.

Using soybeans to create the curd suggests that more land will be needed to grow this crop [8]. However, considering land used by livestock, researchers have concluded that there will be a net decrease in cropland area if soybeans replace 50% of current livestock production [15]. All of these estimations for imitation meat are highly dependent on climatic suitability. Worse growing conditions will require more soybeans to be planted to compensate for potential crop failure. Overall, imitation meat is the strongest alternative protein option because it has the greatest protein yield and the lowest demand for land.