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The naysayers in the comment thread are missing the understanding that the fundamental technologies driving this are all moving exponentially. Beyond Meat's inn
by technotony 7y ago
The naysayers in the comment thread are missing the understanding that the fundamental technologies driving this are all moving exponentially. Beyond Meat's innovation came from a Stanford professor who is an expert in RNA molecules (he helped them figure out their protein structure/selection), impossible foods is a synthetic biology company. Exponential techs always underwhelm in the beginning but soon deliver more powerful products than people imagined. That's going to happen with this industry and faster than people expect.
- AbrahamParangi 7y agoExponential improvement is a very powerful lesson, for sure. Exponential increases in capability or applicability or exponential decreases in cost describe the fundamental benefit of technology. But what exactly is an exponentially superior food?
- adventured 7y ago> But what exactly is an exponentially superior food? In this case, perhaps the ability in time to produce 10x the meat ('meat') at 10% the environmental damage of our current output. We're adding ~85-90m people per year. Most of them are going to want to eat things like beef, fish, chicken, bacon and so on. A billion new people per decade is an enormous increase in demand for meat, to say nothing of the already existing several billion people in the bottom 1/2 with rising consumer demands for meat. It looks like we're going to be able to solve this problem and relatively soon (it will still take decades to fully scale up globally and perfect complex products, however that will occur). It's an exciting time, getting to watch the innovation and real store-worthy products just starting to take off at a consumer level.
- technotony 7y agoIn this case it's mainly our understanding of protein structure/texture/taste which is a new capability.
- MR4D 7y agoThe thriving success of the Organic & Non-GMO food industry suggests that the naysayers will be correct for at least a section of the customer base, and therefore there will still be a beef industry.
- notJim 7y agoMaybe with Impossible Foods, but I don't see anything about RNA here: > The vegan meat substitutes are made from mixtures of pea protein isolates, rice protein, mung bean protein, canola oil, coconut oil, and other ingredients like potato starch, apple extract, sunflower lecithin, and pomegranate powder with a range of vitamins and minerals. Beef products that "bleed" are achieved by using beet juice Just sounds like a veggie burger that tastes better, and has a VC-funded marketing budget.
- tptacek 7y ago"Veggie burger that tastes better" is kind of a big deal, because (to at least a first approximation) the only reason people don't exclusively eat veggie burgers is that they don't taste better.
- asenna 7y agoI believe the parent meant these taste better than a regular veggie burger and not a beef burger.
- invisiblerobot 7y agoPeople also eat meat because it's a lot more energy efficient. One real burger lasts me for 7+ hrs where a veggie burger maybe 2.
- klipt 7y agoCould just be the veggie burger has less fat. Fat/oil keeps you satiated. But it's always easier to add more oil to a veggie burger, than it is to make a meat burger lean.
- thatswrong0 7y agoI thought protein was better for satiation than fat?
- 7y ago
- norswap 7y agoAbout the only technology that has ever improved "exponentially" for any amount of time is CPUs. I kind of get your point, but couldn't you have said "the technology is going to improve" instead?
- odyssey7 7y agoIf we went from veggie burgers this year to lab-grown beef patties in 2021, that would be more of a one-time leap.