CNN guest host of At This Hour, Dana Bash pondered on Friday if "'swearing off meat completely" is necessary to save the planet from climate change as she hyped a CNN Special Report that would be airing later Friday night on the future of food, hosted by Bill Weir.
Weir joined Bash to preview the special entitled Eating Planet Earth: The Future of Your Food, to preview some of what he found. For Weir, changing the way we eat is necessary because, "there are about 1.4 billion cows on the planet now. If you put them all together, it’ll third behind the United States and China as the biggest emitter of climate-cooking pollution."
He then hyped some companies, including Impossible Foods* for trying "to break this cycle and pretty much not eat ourselves out of our planet is to come up with something that is just as tasty, just as juicy, and just the same price, or even cheaper now."
Weir did acknowledge "that, of course, has a real ramification for ranchers and farmers. So we look at the whole system tonight to see all the waste that's in there and the insanely crazy new ideas that may just help fix this."
At this point, Bash returned to suggest that maybe people are, or should be, coming for your burgers, or at least burgers with real beef, "Yeah, Impossible burgers are very, very good. I can attest to that. Before I let you go, I don't want to give away the ending of your special, but generally speaking, is swearing off meat completely -- is that the big solution here?"
For his part, Weir gave a convoluted answer, declaring some people say yes, but others, "believe there is sustainable ranching that can happen," but what is certain is that "it can't happen the way we're doing it right now and others suggest, you know, maybe you don't want to have sausage for breakfast and a chicken Caesar for lunch and a t-bone for dinner seven days a week and sort of transitioning out of that would be healthier both for you and the planet."
*The author has family in senior-level leadership at Impossible Foods. Any description or opinion that could be taken as an endorsement of their product given above is solely that of CNN.
This segment was sponsored by Subway.
Here is a transcript for the July 23 show:
CNN
At This Hour with Kate Bolduan
11:51
DANA BASH: So, bill, what did you find?
BILL WEIR: I found it is a brave new world when it comes to what we're going to be filling our bellies with going forward right now. Of course, it starts with the idea there are about 1.4 billion cows on the planet now. If you put them all together, it’ll third behind the United States and China as the biggest emitter of climate-cooking pollution and so, there’s this booming new movement for competitive protein not just at Impossible, where they use plant-based stuff, there are lab companies where they will take cells, a few cells from a cow or chicken and grow that meat in labs. There is a new company that we're going to profile, they found a new form of protein in the geyser water at Yellowstone National Park. But Pat Brown, who is the head of Impossible, really set out to disrupt Big Meat in typical Silicon Valley fashion. He was a Stanford medical school professor who looked at the amount of pollution, air pollution, water, the deforestation that comes with all of us trying to have steak for lunch and dinner and said the only way we're going to break this cycle and pretty much not eat ourselves out of our planet is to come up with something that is just as tasty, just as juicy, and just the same price, or even cheaper now, and I think we're sort of on the cusp of that, and, but, that, of course, has a real ramification for ranchers and farmers. So we look at the whole system tonight to see all the waste that's in there and the insanely crazy new ideas that may just help fix this.
DANA BASH: Yeah, Impossible burgers are very, very good. I can attest to that. Before I let you go, I don't want to give away the ending of your special, but generally speaking, is swearing off meat completely -- is that the big solution here?
WEIR: Well, I think some people would say yes. Those who are very sort of serious about veganism for different reasons would say yes. I think, I met a lot of other people who believe there is sustainable ranching that can happen, but it can't happen the way we're doing it right now and others suggest, you know, maybe you don't want to have sausage for breakfast and a chicken Caesar for lunch and a t-bone for dinner seven days a week and sort of transitioning out of that would be healthier both for you and the planet.
