The veggie burger is enjoying a renaissance! They've been in America since the Kellogg Brothers first fed their soy-based burger to guests at their Battle Creek Sanitarium in the 19th century, but they've never been as popular as with the newest iteration: a genetically engineered plant-based burger that tastes, smells, and looks just like - meat. It even drips blood.
Why do we want a veggie burger that tastes just like meat? Are we obsessed with meat? No, but we do want more beef than ever and the planet can't sustain the amount of land, food and water necessary to cultivate enough livestock to feed our global population.
If a genetically engineered plant-based burger or lab-grown meat can lower our meat consumption a little bit, is that so bad? We talk about that.
We also taste a few and maybe, inspire you to try one too. You might like it.
Watch Chris Prosperi cook a meatless "Impossible Burger" in the WNPR studio below.
GUESTS:
- Chris Prosperi - Chef owner of Metro Bis restaurant in Simsbury and contributor on WNPR’s Faith Middleton Food Schmooze
- Deena Prichep - Freelance print and radio journalist and co-author with Bonnie Frumkin Morales of Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking
- Marta Zaraska - Freelance science journalist, contributor to the Washington Post and Scientific American, ?and author of Meathooked: The History and Science of Our 2.5-Million-Year Obsession With Meat
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Colin McEnroe and Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
