Some people on Twitter are arguing with Bill Gates again.
The Microsoft MSFT,
founder and 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 shelves Tuesday. And one of his calls to action: switching to synthetic beef to reduce methane emissions, which are the gases that cattle and sheep are released when they burp or pass gas.
While Burger King QSR,
has experimented with adding lemongrass to the diet of some of its cattle herd to limit the methane emissions that contribute to climate change, and researchers are feeding seaweed to livestock in Maine and New Hampshire in another effort to reduce the methane that these herds are released. simply a biological fact of life that the bacteria in the digestive tracts of livestock release methane when it breaks down food. “I don’t know if there will be a natural approach there,” Gates said.
His solution: the richest countries should control meat, period, and switch to vegetable or synthetic proteins.
“I think all rich countries should switch to 100% synthetic beef,” Gates told Technology Review. “You can get used to the difference in taste, and the claim is that they will make it taste even better over time. Ultimately, that green premium is modest enough to earn the [behavior of] people or use regulation to shift the demand completely. ”
Many readers on Twitter aren’t ready to give up their burgers and steaks altogether. So this led to Gates trending on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, while critics chewed him out.
Even Gates acknowledged that this idea is hard to swallow. “Telling people, ‘You can’t have any more cows’ – talk about a politically unpopular approach to things,” he also told Technology Review.
Some other critics also questioned why Gates should dictate what countries should do to address climate change when a new report in the nation named Gates as one of the world’s greatest carbon emissions. It notes that he lives in a 66,000-square-foot mansion outside of Seattle, and his private jet uses 486 gallons of fuel for every hour it flies.
However, it’s certainly not the first time Gates has been roasted on social media as he has been at the center of several debunked conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite backlash against his synthetic meat plan, the global hunger for plant foods continues to grow. Morningstar predicts the plant-based meat market will reach $ 74 billion by 2029, up from $ 12 billion in 2019. And Beyond Meat BYND,
partners with McDonald’s MCD,
and Yum Brands YUM,
fast food chains Taco Bell and KFC will be rolling out plant-based sandwiches and other alternative meats this year.