Bill Gates says ‘All Rich Countries Should Move To 100% Plant-Based Beef’

One of the richest people on the planet, Bill Gates urges all wealthy countries to switch from animal farming and meat toward plant-based and lab-grown meat. 

In the interview with MIT Technology Review he said that all rich countries should move to 100 percent cell-based and plant-based beef to fight the climate change. 

The billionaire and entrepreneur launched his new book last week called  How to Avoid a Climate Disaster in which he discuss the current food system and gives solutions to save the planet. 

 He also talked about plant-based meat companies Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat and said they both have a ‘quality road map and a cost road map, that makes them totally competitive.’

“As for scale today, they don’t represent one percent of the meat in the world, but they’re on their way,” he said. 

The journalist asked him whether ‘plant-based and lab-grown meats could be the full solution to the protein problem globally, even in poor nations’.

He said: “I don’t think the poorest 80 countries will be eating synthetic [plant-based or lab-grown] meat. I do think all rich countries should move to 100-percent synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is they’re going to make it taste even better over time.

“For Africa and other poor countries, we’ll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them. 

“Weirdly, the US livestock, because they’re so productive, the emissions per pound of beef are dramatically less than emissions per pound in Africa.

“And as part of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s work, we’re taking the benefit of the African livestock, which means they can survive in heat, and crossing in the monstrous productivity both on the meat side and the milk side of the elite US beef lines."

Gates has invested in plant-based and cell-based startups that are on the mission to end industrial animal farming, including Beyond Meat, Memphis Meats and Nature’s Fynd.