Here it is Canadian Thanksgiving. There's a turkey in the oven and my topic today is the key to the beyond meat and meatless trend these days. CBC Radio told me about it yesterday - it is heme protein. Impossible Foods have patents covering the use of heme in plant-based meat. The core ingredient is soy protein and star ingredient is heme made via genetically engineered yeast.
These are the proteins that transport and store oxygen in mammals. This is what makes the juicy, meaty flavour in non-meat burgers. It can be used to produce anything like this - cheese, milk, and so on.
The CBC interview was with Catherine Tubb from technology disruption think-tank company RethinkX - her point was that food and agriculture will no longer be raising livestock. Instead protein will be generated - like yeast - we'll be doing it at home. I found recipes for Impossible Burgers to make at home HERE. I have to try this - it looks fun.
So the prediction is that cows will be obsolete as a food source by 2030. With precision fermentation products, food will be cheaper and superior to animal-derived foods. The agricultural industry will collapse, including the value of agricultural land.
And the trend is unfolding - the Good Food Institute says that $16 billion has been invested into US plant-based meat, egg, and dairy companies in the last 10 years. Impossible Foods is now valued at $2 billion. In 2015, Google offered $300 million for the company.
Just in our recent past, disruption occurred when the car replaced the horse and carriage. There was no need causing it - there was opportunity. She says that disruption in agriculture is the same. There's more transportation disruption on the horizon. Their website says: "By 2030, within 10 years of regulatory approval of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), 95 percent of U.S. passenger miles traveled will be served by on-demand autonomous electric vehicles owned by fleets, not individuals, in a new business model we call “transport-as-a-service” (TaaS). This means that even if it is slower than 10 years, we will experience it.
Today we have a colourized version of one of the motion blur palm pictures.
