CALF_News_February_March_2020

15 CALF News • February | March 2020 • www.calfnews.net INNOVATION Significant funding for these projects is coming in by millions of dollars from Bill Gates and British business magnate Richard Branson. Other significant con- tributors are part of the infrastructure of the beef cattle industry – Cargill, Tyson and Archer Daniels Midland. The burgeoning of burgers Meanwhile, back at the restaurant, old standbys serving meats for the past 50 years are jumping on the veggie boat. Starting last September, McDonald’s tested a plant-based burger named P.L.T. (plant, lettuce and tomato) in 28 Cana- dian restaurants. It is crafted by Beyond Meat. Hardee’s is also partnering with Beyond Meat to endorse their Beyond Breakfast Sausage Biscuit. Pizza Hut is introducing Garden Specialty Pizza, made with “Incogmeato.” Dunkin’ (for- merly Dunkin’ Donuts), is now hawking a Beyond Sausage Sandwich, promoted by Snoop Dog. (Bing him if you don’t know what I’m talking about.) White Castle peddles the Impossible Slider and KFC’s synthetic chicken wings are reportedly flying off the shelf. Subway insists their clients can “customize their favorite sub to fit any lifestyle.” Hence, the introduction of the new Beyond Meatball Marina Sub. Burger King has become rebellious with its Rebel Whopper. These examples are a drop in the bucket of the synthetic food products coming down the pike. Perfect Day’s website states that microflora “can be fed nearly anything, and they can be trained to produce nearly anything.” If they can be trained, does that make them animals? Advertisements regarding the new products are not promoting them as an additional means of feeding an exploding world population. Their methods would be somewhat acceptable, if they did. They are instead attempting to blame animal agriculture of cruelty, waste and the inability to be sustainable. No excuses We can no longer wave off the pros- pect of plant-based or microflora-pro- duced foods by saying they won’t taste right. Plans are in the works now for bac- teria to produce cell-cultured animal fats to blend with vegetable burgers, making them taste even more like the real thing. Likewise, milk product derivatives from vats will have plant sugars added to aid in taste without scaring off lactose- intolerant folks. This is particularly sad, considering that the dairy industry has discovered genetic lines of real-life cows, through DNA testing, that are already producing milk that’s safe for the same people. The ambitious young upstarts will be hard to outrun. Additionally, the FDA is not particularly one to look out for farmers’ interests here at home. The ongoing struggle the dairy industry has had with food labeling is a perfect example. Almond milk, soy milk and rice milk all share shelf space with the real thing in the dairy case, legally being labeled as “milk.” U.S. dairy and beef producers are both scrambling with the FDA to enforce a legal definition of milk and meat. We should be hopeful that beef producers will have more success in convincing the FDA of necessary label- ing regulations; the dairy folks have been at it for years. We may not live in easy times, but no one can deny they are interesting. 