Impossible Foods to Replace All Food Animals by 2035

Plant-based food technology company Impossible Foods revealed this month its intention to replace all farmed animals with plant-based food products in coming years. In 2016, Impossible Foods debuted its premier product—the vegan Impossible Burger, which mimics the taste and texture of beef due to a plant-based protein called “heme.” “We’re not a burger company,” company chief communications officer Rachel Konrad said. “We’re a tech platform for food. Our first product was ‘proof of concept.’ We can have second, or tenth, products after that.” During a recent press briefing, company CEO Patrick Brown said that he plans to follow the success of the Impossible Burger with new product launches that aim to replace chicken, lamb, pork, milk, cheese, eggs, and, eventually, fish. “We want to completely replace animals as a food production technology by 2035,” Brown said. “We are working on producing all foods that we get from animals.” The company increased production of the Impossible Burger last month at a new facility in Oakland and plans to reach 1,000 points of distribution by the end of the year—eventually landing at grocery stores along competing brand Beyond Meat’s plant-based Beyond Burger.