Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Make-Believe Meat and the Future

Shamburgers won’t replace steaks, but perhaps they’ll ease global warming a bit.

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Walter Russell Mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Walter Russell Mead
The Impossible Burger 2.0, the new version of the company's plant-based vegan burger that tastes like real beef is introduced at a press event during CES 2019 in Las Vegas on January 7, 2019. (ROBYN BECK/Getty Images)
The Impossible Burger 2.0, the new version of the company's plant-based vegan burger that tastes like real beef is introduced at a press event during CES 2019 in Las Vegas on January 7, 2019. (ROBYN BECK/Getty Images)

Last weekend I faced up to the 21st century. I walked into a hamburger emporium and ordered an Impossible Burger with all the trimmings.

Made with no beef or meat of any kind, the Impossible Burger claims to impart a beefy flavor to its plant-based ingredients through the miracle of heme, a chemical found in animal blood that carries, the company says, the true taste of meat.

Maybe. My Impossible Burger was exactly as meaty and unexciting as the patties traditionally served up in fast-food restaurants. Except for the heftier price tag, it was indistinguishable from what passes for the real thing served by the billions all over the world.

Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal "here":

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