That’s the thesis the independent research group, RethinkX in a new report, “Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030.”
Subtitled: “The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock Farming.”
I was introduced to this thought provoking report by an item that floated past on Facebook, an article about the report from BigThink.com.
From their summary:
From 2012 to 2023, the costs of protein in the U.S. from cows vs. precision-biology food technology will reach parity, says independent think tank RethinkX. It will be a tipping point after which acceptance of modern foods will accelerate quickly, leaving the cattle industry effectively bankrupt by 2030 and five years later down to 10 percent of its current size.
This “protein disruption” will be followed by the collapse of a wide range of related and supporting industries by 2035, it will be, according to the researchers, “the deepest, fastest, most consequential disruption in food and agricultural production since the first domestication of plants and animals ten thousand years ago.”
RethinkX’s startling predictions are published in a report released September 16 titled “Rethinking Food and Agriculture 2020-2030 — The Second Domestication of Plants and Animals, the Disruption of the Cow, and the Collapse of Industrial Livestock Farming.” The ramifications, the group says, will be profound, far-reaching, and overwhelmingly positive, affecting people everywhere. In sum, things are about to change. Big time.
The meat of the report, so to speak, is in sections that project the impact of new food technologies on the agriculture and livestock industries, associated economic sectors (transportation, etc), land use and values, and broader environmental, social, and economic impacts.
It’s a lot to digest, especially since at present there are only a couple of companies producing commercial quantities of engineered “meat.”
Together with the issue of a world heated by climate change, this is definitely pushing us to think outside of our typical limited range.
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No Thank You engineered meat a.k.a. Soylent Green!
Sell it to China! As the other fake White Meat?
Sounds like test tube gluten of cardboard for vegetarians. Ironically Burger King is first to test market…using a burger chain most popular with the African American community it is historic test ground to expose unknown effects on minorities first!
Actually, a number of small restaurants we’re selling Impossible Burgers more than a year earlier than Buger King. We had one in California a couple of years ago. It was mind bending. It tasted like the perfect broiled burger. Really. It was a long, long way from any cardboard flavor or texture. It seemed like magic.
Ian, FYI…moderation by deletion recommended!
My memory of 1960’s Castle Hospital previous policy of mandatory Vegetarian only cuisine as religious fair of Seventh Day Adventist diet of Glutton meat still lingers. Cross between cardboard and rubber with thick gravy!
As a former Honolulu Hale 1980’s internee, once asked Rolly the janitor from the Philippines who was a WW2 veteran who waged gorilla warfare against Japan…what did human meat taste like?
He replied “Just like beef, It’s ok!”
Several morticians friends say when cremation is about 85% complete it also smells just like good Bar-B-Que at Bob’s in Kalihi!
If we don’t know or question content, it’s not a problem! Like the Spam and Vienna sausage factory that is top secret till today!
The impossible burger is not the same as lab meat. You should be writing about the collapse of plant agriculture do to the degradation of soil, which scientists believe has about a 60 year life expectancy at most. We can’t grow plants if we degrade all our usable top soil. Animals can build top soil, they are part of the cycle. Right now we use fossil fuels to grow the plants that make up an Impossible Burger. Fossil fuels are the number one cause of man made greenhouse gases and are a limited resource. I wish people would take a step back and look at the whole picture. Check out regenerative agriculture as a solution rather than just damning meat, a very important source of nutrient dense food.
Thank you for telling us about that important report! There is in fact a direct relationship between animal agriculture and climate change. According to various reports, animal agriculture is responsible for somewhere between 15 and 51 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. (See jonathan Safran Foer’s “We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast” for more about that issue.)
Note the description “Industrial”—a very important distinction. Large production animal industries have wrecked havoc on the animals and land around them. You have a few cows that eat grass and fertilize your land, now that’s sustainable.
Support you local farmers
For breakfast I had a Beyond Sausage Sandwich an Dunkin. The “sausage” patty tasted great, not as greasy as a pork sausage patty. If given the choice I would pick the Beyond Sausage product not because I’m anti-meat, but because I like the product better.