Are Plant- and Fungus-Based Meats Really Better than the Real Thing?

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Arts, Science, History, Food

4.7 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2021

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Move over, beef: there’s a new burger in town. Plant-based meats are sizzling hot right now; in 2020 alone, the alternative meat industry saw a record $3.1 billion in investment, with 112 new plant-based brands launching in supermarkets. These juicy, savory, chewy fake burgers are a far cry from the dry, weird-tasting veggie patties of the past. This episode, we visit the Impossible Foods labs to swig some of the animal-free molecule that makes their meatless meat bleed, try fungal food start-up Meati's prototype "chicken" cutlet, and speak to the scientists and historians who can help us compare these new fake meats to their predecessors—and to real meat! Can a plant-based sausage roll be considered kosher or halal? Are plant-based meats actually better for you and for the environment? And how might a mysterious protein-powerhouse fungus named Rosita help feed the world? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I actually can't wait to try it, right?
0:05.8	This is the weird part.
0:06.8	I'm almost like I never had pork, I never had like pork barbecue, but I love watching
0:11.8	like pork barbecue shows on TV.
0:15.0	You know, there's so many different like barbecue challenges on Netflix or Hulu and I love
0:20.4	them.
0:21.4	I can't get enough.
0:23.1	What A-Man is super excited to try.
0:25.1	But he's never had in his life is yes pork, but not the real thing.
0:29.9	It's pork made from plants.
0:31.5	A-Man is male is just one of our guests.
0:34.7	This episode as we figure out the science and history of plant-based meat.
0:40.6	Because we are gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and
0:44.6	history.
0:45.6	I'm Nicola Twilly and I'm Cynthia Graber and this episode we're going into the labs
0:49.6	and test kitchens where the meat analogs of the future are now being invented.
0:53.8	We have so many questions.
0:57.0	Starting with will all these impossible burgers and fungus-based chicken cutlets ever
1:01.8	really replace meat?
1:03.4	Are they better than meat?
1:04.5	Are they better for the environment?
1:05.8	Do they have a smaller climate change footprint?
	...

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