“Being able to change the game in terms of how we deliver protein to the growing human population is probably the single biggest thing anybody could do,”
Obvious Corporation, an incubator created by Biz Stone and Evan Williams, is backing a company that makes a plant-based meat substitute that it claims is going to make people forget that meat has to come from animals. After shaking up how we communicate, will they change how we eat?
Even the most devout vegans and vegetarians have to admit that today’s meat substitutes are no substitute for the real thing. Some of them are tasty, but none actually have the same taste and texture of a piece of chicken, a burger, or a steak. They’re not fooling anyone. That’s why most people in meat-loving countries like the U.S. haven’t traded in their steak for Tofurky, even when they have health problems that should compel them to do so, and even when they realize that livestock are responsible for approximately 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Beyond Meat, a startup that makes vegan meat analogues, is manufacturing products that purportedly taste and feel like real meat (we haven’t yet confirmed this ourselves), have a better nutrition profile (no cholesterol, no saturated fat, but lots of protein), and will eventually be available at a lower price point than the industrially farmed stuff. The company has some surprising backers, including the Obvious Corporation–a company founded by Twitter co-founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone and former Twitter VP of Product Jason Goldman–and venture capitalist powerhouse Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. Why is Beyond Meat garnering so much interest?