Pat Brown, founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, said that his company will replace the meat industry. The statement came during an interview by Laura Reiley, business of food reporter at the Washington Post, at the 100,000-attendee online conference Web Summit.
“Our mission is to completely replace the use of animals as a food technology by 2035. We’re dead serious about it, and we believe it’s doable…I was confident that we would succeed when I launched this company, and now I’m completely confident. It’s game over for the incumbent industry – they just don’t realize it yet,” said Brown.
Brown acknowledged that environmental concerns aren’t enough to make people change their diets, so his company has taken a different approach.
“The whole reason we took the approach we did is that we’re depending on making a product that consumers who don’t care about climate change will choose – because it’s delicious and for its nutritional value, affordability, convenience. And sustainability is just a bonus,” Brown said. “By far, the biggest factor in climate change and the collapse of global biodiversity is the use of animals as a food technology. Nothing comes close. We have to get rid of it. It’s much more important than replacing fossil fuels in terms of benefits for the world.”
