Some people on Twitter have beef at Bill Gates again.
The Microsoft MSFT,
founder-global health philanthropist discusses ways to tackle climate change in his new book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” which hit the shelves Tuesday. And among his calls for action: switch to synthetic beef to reduce methane emissions, or the gases that cattle and sheep release when they bend or pass.
While Burger King QSR,
has experimented with adding lemongrass to the diet of some of its cattle herds to limit the methane emissions that contribute to climate change, and researchers are feeding seaweed to cattle in Maine and New Hampshire in another effort to reduce the methane that these herds release reduce. merely a biological fact of life that the bacteria in the digestive tract of livestock release methane when it breaks down food. “I do not know if there will be a natural approach,” Gates said.
His solution: the richest countries should keep the beef, period and switch to plant-based or synthetic proteins.
“I do think that all rich countries should switch to 100% synthetic beef,” Gates told Technology Review. ‘You can get used to the taste difference, and the claim is that it will taste even better over time. In the end, the green premium is modest enough that you can change the kind [behavior of] people or use regulation to shift demand completely. ”
Many readers on Twitter are not yet ready to give up their burgers and steaks completely. This led to Gates tending to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon when critics chewed him out.
Even Gates realized that this idea is hard to swallow. “Telling people ‘you can no longer have cows’ – talking about a politically unpopular approach to things,” he also told Technology Review.
Some other critics have also questioned why Gates should prescribe what countries should do to address climate change when Gates cites a new report in the Nation as one of the world’s best carbon emitters. It is noted that he lives in a 66,000-square-foot mansion outside Seattle, and his private jet consumes 486 gallons of fuel every hour it flies.
This is certainly not the first time Gates has been roasted on social media, as he found himself at the center of several denied conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, despite the setback to its synthetic meat plan, global hunger for plant-based foods continues to grow. Morningstar predicts that the beef market will reach $ 74 billion by 2029, up from $ 12 billion in 2019. And Beyond Meat BYND,
works with McDonald’s MCD,
and Yum Brands YUM,
fast food chains Taco Bell and KFC to roll out sandwiches with plants and other alternative meat items this year.