Impossible Foods might be
the world's most ambitious company.
Just listen to founder and CEO, Pat Brown.
People wonder how big the plant-based
meat industry's gonna be.
It will be the meat industry in 20 years.
We're gonna look back, and basically say,
"Wow, remember back in the day when we
used to use animals to make meat?"
Yes, Impossible's stated goal
really is to replace the use of animals
as a food production technology globally
by 2035.
That would mean supplanting a $1.2 trillion industry,
not to mention a source of sustenance as old as time.
To be fair, the company has got a lot of people
talking about its products.
So there's this thing called the Impossible Burger.
It's called artificial meat.
The realest, fakest burger in the world.
Not bad.
But before Impossible Foods
can take over the world,
it's going to have to overcome
strong competitors, penetrate tough new markets,
and generally transform its product
from a conversation piece
into a ubiquitous staple food.
With the coronavirus turning the world of food upside down,
this could be the moment
when Impossible's newfangled meat goes mainstream.
Impossible Foods was founded in 2011 when Pat Brown,
a longtime vegan, was nearing the end
of an accomplished career in biochemistry.
I've been a scientist my whole life,
and just came to this realization
that by far, the most important scientific question
in the world is, "What makes meat delicious?"
Pat Brown, some would call a zealot for his mission.
He really doesn't hold back when it comes to talking
about wanting to completely replace animal agriculture.
Producing meat from animals is the most destructive
technology on earth, and if we're going to avert
catastrophic climate change, then we have to find
a better way to produce meat.
You've probably heard about the dangers
of cow flatulence.
Their digestive systems produce large quantities
of the powerful greenhouse gas, methane.
In fact, it's estimated that livestock farming
is responsible for nearly 15 percent
of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Impossible claims it takes 89% less GHGs,
87% less water, and 96% less land
to produce its burger.
The key of course, would be to get people
to actually eat the thing,
which is where the company's secret ingredient comes in:
heme, a genetically engineered substance
with a bloody iron-rich taste like red meat.
So heme is a very controversial part
of the Impossible Burger.
It's also what makes the Impossible Burger what it is.
There are a lot of consumer groups
and anti-GMO groups that oppose the Impossible Burger
because of the heme.
The studies on its safety are pretty short term.
But FDA has approved it and the company says
it's completely safe, and there isn't any evidence
that it isn't.
Critics have also challenged
the company's claim to health advantages
over traditional meat,
pointing out that while the Impossible Burger
has less fat, sodium and calories that its beefy cousin,
it's also more highly processed.
But let's be real,
we're talking about mimicking hamburgers here,
not kale salads.
These burgers are definitely better for the environment,
so that's a plus,
but they are not necessarily better for your health.
After years in the lab,
Pat and his colleagues were confident
they had a product even Ron Swanson could love,
and the Impossible Burger made its debut
in 2016.
Their burger began its life in the public
when it was sold at David Chang's Momofuku,
and they went from sort of
higher-end fine dining restaurants
into higher end burger restaurants,
like Bareburger and Umami Burger.
And then suddenly, they started popping up everywhere.
This tastes like a burger.
It tastes like meat.
This is all made from plants.
It's all made from plants.
This tastes like beef.
Doesn't that look like real meat?
So meatlike.
They always say it's just like a burger.
It tastes like... yuckers.
Beef farmers of the world, relax.
No, doesn't taste like a burger.
Opinions differed on the Impossible
Burger's relative meatiness,
but the debate itself was fantastic free advertising,
helping to propel Impossible into major chains
like White Castle, and then, in the summer of 2019,
into more than 7,000 Burger Kings
across the U.S.
To date, the company has raised over $1 billion
and a funding round in March valued the company
at around $4 billion.
But fake meat is a happening space these days
and Impossible faces some daunting competition.
Time now for the stock of the hour,
and that is Beyond Meat.
Shares of the faux meat or plant-based protein company
are soaring today.
Beyond Meat is also making a very meaty burger
from plants.
They're very non GMO, they stress that all the time,
to differentiate themselves from Impossible.
It'd be much easier to genetically modify
plant material to make it take on
the texture, appearance and aroma of the animal protein,
but we won't do that.
Beyond Meat had one of the biggest IPOs
of the year in 2019, so Impossible,
which is still privately held,
has some catching up to do.
But you won't hear Pat Brown
knocking his biggest competitor.
I wish them nothing but success.
They have the same mission we have.
The only rival we care about is the incumbent
animal-based industry.
Rivals or not, Impossible and Beyond
certainly agree on one thing.
The true prize isn't the American market, it's China.
27% of the world's meat is consumed in China
compared to just 9% in the U.S.
The Chinese population eats a ton of meat,
they're a huge market.
China's a really interesting case because
they have long had vegetarian cuisine
as part of their culinary culture,
and whether they are looking for meat replacements
is still an open question.
What we found in our reporting,
is that some consumers are excited about them.
We just don't know if it's gonna be enough.
To improve its prospects,
Impossible is developing a plant-based
replacement for pork.
Globally, pork is the most widely consumed meat.
It's almost 40% of all the meat consumed globally.
Number one in Europe, number one in China,
so if we're gonna achieve our mission,
pork is right up there.
No word yet on when Impossible Pork
will be available.
This morning, growing concerns about the nation's
food supply.
From butchers to national supermarkets,
supplies now limited and prices rising.
The impact of the coronavirus on the price
and the availability of meat has given a boost
to companies like Impossible Foods.
Over the four weeks ending April 19th,
sales of plant-based meat increased.
But Impossible has acknowledged some negative effects
from the pandemics as well.
This being a product that has primarily been served
in restaurants, they took a pretty big hit
with all the food service shutdowns.
Although the company doesn't want to say how much
of a hit. They have, however, announced some new
retail rollouts.
Recently, they announced that they're going to be
rolling out with Kroger supermarkets,
and that's big, that's great for them.
The question of whether this is like a long term
sea change for these companies,
I dunno. we'll just have to wait and see.
It's safe to say
Impossible stands a slim chance
of achieving its goal of replacing the entire
meat industry, but it's early days
for the science of plant-based meat,
and it's not impossible that these products
could one day contribute to a greener,
more humane future.
In the meantime, as the technology improves,
we get to look forward to many more years of this.
This is meat.
No this is Impossible.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
This is the meat burger.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
I like it better.
It's not even close to a veggie burger or tofu burger
or anything like that.
It's very, very much a burger.
This tastes like a burger.
It tastes like meat.
Substantial meat.