102
Impossible Foods CEO Says The Plant-Based Sector Became Too 'Woke And Partisan'
(plantbasednews.org)
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2025
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He brings up a good point in an utterly trash way.
Most people see “meat replacement” shit like impossible/beyond/morningstar/gardein/etc as “vegan/vegetarian” food. Thus, if they do not identify that way they pass it over.
Would it be best to convert said people to veganism? Of course. But is that likely a pipe dream? Probably also yes. And given that it is still a net benefit from both an animal welfare and climate perspective for meat eaters to integrate this stuff into their diet as much as possible.
The unfortunate truth is that veganism and animal welfare has absolutely played into the culture war bullshit and you will be lumped into the “sjw left” for not eating meat. He needs to work on how he delivers this message though because alienating the core demographic will just bankrupt the company (although oh well if so, fuck impossible). But at the same time the ultimate goal needs to be getting as many people as possible eating as little meat as possible. Unless you plan to make harvesting animals for food illegal somehow and if so good luck, I guess
That said in my experience most vegans don’t eat much impossible anyway. I don’t know how widespread this knowledge is but fwiw even though it is advertised as vegan that is only because it contains no animal products. Impossible utilized a great deal of animal testing that required destruction (read: euthanizing/killing) of the test subjects so that they could fast track FDA approval of soy leghemoglobin (branded as “heme”), the plant based analog for hemoglobin that gives impossible its “meaty” taste (and concerns about long term safety, especially if you eat a lot of it).
However this is not the only approach - beyond is big on being soy free so they do not use soy leghemoglobin. Instead they achieve the “meaty” flavor with a combination of amino acids, glutamates, and typical flavorings one would expect (smoke flavor, rest is unknown and proprietary. Thank the USA regulatory state for allowing this practice of hiding tons of shit under labels like “natural flavors”).
Impossible just sucks tbh. The interesting stuff is up and coming. Chunk foods is starting to get national distribution and is a far superior product (though expensive, unfortunately). It’s created through a process of fermentation of soy and wheat gluten. The end result is a product much closer to steak with a meaty flavor that avoids all the binders, preservatives, and flavorings that are in many other options (though you still get things like beet juice for color and coconut oil for fat content)
Or you know, just eat like, tofu and lentils
I like impossible/beyond.
I cook/eat a lot of it, making big cottage pies and the like, as tofu just doesn't taste good for replacing meat in these applications. I'm unfortunately gluten intolerant as well.
I do worry about the heme a bit, much more interested in beyond when given the choice.