On the grounds that real meat is real trouble for the environment, tech guru Bill Gates wants the worldâs richest nations to have helpings of synthetic beef instead while leaving real meat for poor nations to eat.
Gates expounded upon how people should eat in an interview with MIT Technology Review.
âI do think all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef. You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is theyâre going to make it taste even better over time,â he said.
Gates said governmental compulsion is an option.
âEventually, that green premium is modest enough that you can sort of change the people or use regulation to totally shift the demand,â he said.
Gates criticized what he called politics for getting in the way.
âThere are all these bills that say itâs got to be called, basically, lab garbage to be sold. They donât want us to use the beef label,â he said.
While richer nations eat fake beef, genetically altered animals will provide meat for other places, such as Africa, he said.
âFor Africa and other poor countries, weâll have to use animal genetics to dramatically raise the amount of beef per emissions for them. Weirdly, the U.S. livestock, because theyâre so productive, the emissions per pound of beef are dramatically less than emissions per pound in Africa,â he said.
He said that his foundation is working to take âAfrican 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 U.S. beef lines.â
âI donât think the poorest 80 countries will be eating synthetic meat,â he said.
Gates said there are companies making synthetic meat that are successful.
âBut Impossible and Beyond have a road map, a quality road map and a cost road map, that makes them totally competitive. As for scale today, they donât represent 1 percent of the meat in the world, but theyâre on their way,â he said.
Gates noted there is a resistance to the new order of things as he sees it.
âNow Iâve said I can actually see a path. But youâre right that saying to people, âYou canât have cows anymoreâ â talk about a politically unpopular approach to things,â Gates said.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
