Meat, meet your match

Last week I had a friend from out of town visit me who left the water on when he brushed his teeth. I lived California for four years and ever since the sound of water rushing down a drain grates on my soul.

With the state in a dry spell, Californians are usually given the same advice: Don’t leave your sprinklers running and boycott almonds. Those evil, evil almonds.

But almonds are the second largest consumer of water after alfalfa. Who in the world is eating so much alfalfa? Our beefy friends, the cows. Couple that with keeping grazing pastures green and quenching the thirst of 5.2 million large animals, and the beef industry comes in as the single largest user of water in California. In fact, a 2012 report by Pacific Institute found that “almost half of the average Californian’s water footprint is associated with the consumption of meat and dairy products.”

That’s not even taking into account the sewage runoff from factory farms known for poisoning nearby water sources and the methane gas produced by cows that contributes to global warming even more than carbon dioxide. So why isn’t reduced consumption of meat encouraged by environmentalist groups?

Some are too skeptical that consumers would change their eating habits to even recommend it. But I see it as great news that something as simple as substituting a veggie burger for lunch can save 660 gallons of water or about a month’s worth of showers.

This is part of the reason plant-based meat was listed as the most important trend in technology by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, even beating out 3-D printing and virtual reality. These new proteins are not only kinder on animals, the environment, and our health, but also have the exciting potential to feed the hungry all around the world where traditional meat is too expensive.
Forward-thinkers like Bill Gates recognize that producing conventional meat isn’t sustainable for our growing population and believe the more informed people are, the more they will start buying plant-based knock-offs. This is why he invested millions of dollars in Impossible Foods to create a plant-based burger just as tasty as the original for those that see vegetarianism as too restrictive. The “Impossible Burger,” which even “bleeds” beet juice, will be sold in grocery stores next year, and other plant-based meats by Beyond Meat, Morning Star or Gardein are now sold in most grocery stores. You won’t believe how good the future of meat tastes, especially when it means treating yourself to that long hot shower at the end of the day.