b'Wheresthe Meat?With plant-based protein products becoming a bigger commodity every day, we touched base with some experts to get the skinny on how plant-based foods look so much like their meat counterparts.Alex MartinPLANT-BASED PROTEINS.Just mentioningdairy farm and working at General Mills, the idea can stir up a roomimmedi- Halla sees that our current food system ately, people take sides. Pro-meat, neutralisnt working.or pro plant-based. Its hard not to haveFrom the economic challenges in agri-an opinion on them, even though manyculture and the resource pressure, theres people havent had the chance to tasteplenty of problems popping up in our land these proteins.resources, Halla says. The life we grew However, according to the website Plantup with doesnt exist anymoreinstead, Based Foods, theres been a 14.7% growthwe need to change the system and how of plant-based proteins since 2014, andits run.by 2020, the global plant-based proteinBoth companies saw different answers market is projected to reach $5 billion.to this problem and created two different, While there might be strong opinionsunique products. about plant-based proteins, theres also anImpossible Foods saw a huge problem increasing curiosity amongst the globalin the fact that animal agriculture occupies market. almost half the land on Earth and con-In the past years, theres been asumes a quarter of our fresh water. Their growing global awareness in the U.S. andsolution? Lets not use animals again, andUdi Lazimy serves as senior [around] the world. People are startinginstead, create a copycat beef productsustainability and sourcing to understand that we live in a finitemade of these plant proteins. And thus,manager at JUST.world and resources matter, says Udithe Impossible Burger was formed.Lazimy, senior sustainability and sourcingJUST saw that the food systems tools manager at JUST, a company based in Sanwere limited, and there were a lot of under- 70 %Francisco, Calif., that has been researchingused foods that could provide tremendous and working with plant-based foods andbenefit to them instead of the core ingre-cultured meat.dients that big food companies use: soy,OF CANADIANS SURVEYED We wanted to look at how to makecorn, processed sugar and animal protein.SAY PLANT-BASED MEATS ARE HERE TO STAY.the food system better, and we think thatAfter a lot of exploring, JUST created JUST plant-based solutions offer a path to solveEgg, a plant-based, protein-packed egg39 %a lot of the problems within our currentthat cooks up and tastes like real eggs. food system, he says. Animal protein isnt necessary to Nick Halla, senior vice president forcreate really good food, Lazimy says.OF CANADIANS SURVEYED International of Impossible Foods, theWere looking to use plant protein toHAVE TRIED PLANT-BASED company that created the Impossiblereplace things like eggs and dairy, becauseMEATS.Burger, agrees. After growing up on athey arent necessary if plants can functionSOURCE: ANGUS REID INSTITUTE POLL50GERMINATION.CA NOVEMBER 2019'