Beware Vegan ‘Meat’ Peddled by Venture Capitalists
Investors will steer the industry to maximize consumption, at the expense of health and sustainability — unless the public demands better.
Market pressure may not be healthy for the field of meatless protein.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The potential of plant-based meat alternatives to lead to more ethical, more environmental sources of protein for the world is something to cheer. But the potential of venture capitalists and Silicon Valley controlling that market is not. With what we’ve seen in the behavior of leading tech companies over the past decade, we should be careful before their ethos takes over yet another critical industry.
The time to start thinking about these issues is now, with Beyond Meat holding its initial public offering this week, and the popularity of Impossible Burgers leading to shortages in New York. As with most emergent industries built on a benevolent premise, it’s easy to think about the utopian world these companies could usher in, where livestock are no longer raised to be slaughtered, and meat production no longer contributes to climate change or takes up so much land that could be used for housing or any number of other purposes. Maybe the cost of plant-based “meat” could eventually fall below the natural stuff, providing plentiful protein to the world at prices lower than we currently have.