Vegetable meats are a real alternative for human consumption?

It is something that remains to be seen but every day has more appearances of plausibility. And the reasons are ecological and economic.

We must know that in order to consume 1 kg of meat, according to experts, there are needed 25 kg of food for the animal, 20,000 liters of water, and it generates 22 kg of greenhouse gases.

On the other hand, 50 billion kilograms of meat are consumed annually in the world and this consumption is on the rise.

It therefore seems more than logical that the means be sought to find alternative substitutes for this type of animal consumption.

And an alternative (among others) is to try to obtain a product similar to meat and with plant origin, and for the good future it offers there are many companies that are working in this field around the world.

One of them is an Israeli start-up called Redefine Meat that prepares something similar to a steak and “makes” it using a 3D printer to shape it as desired.

They do it with vegetable products and give it the appearance, and according to them, the texture and flavor of a meat.

As I have not tried it so I cannot confirm it.

But one thing is very clear, and that is that we cannot afford the current meat consumption that we have today in the developed world.

It is true that the flavor of good meat is very difficult to substitute, but it is more than clear that we have to look for alternatives to our current food system. For its environmental impact and for its cost.

Humans have changed a lot throughout our history, and we will continue to do so. I think the time has come to consider a profound change in our eating habits.

The climate change that we already have on top of us (I am writing this reflection with an outdoor temperature close to 40 ºC), the warning from the Covid-19, etc … are very clear messages for us to change the way we live.

Will we do it?