By Michael Rimer, Y11
Welcome to my journey to discover sustainable foods that, 20 years from now, might become a substitute to modern-day, environmentally degrading processed foods.
For pictures, go check out my Instagram handle @inandoutgeneva.
Burgers
For the past 2.6 million years, humans have been actively consuming meat. It has become such a large part of our diets that in 2018 (in the United States alone) the beef industry’s export amounted to more than 8.3 billion dollars. Since 1950, the industry has nearly centupled in size. However, despite being positive for economies, the negative consequences of beef are more pernicious. In recent years, beef production, including cattle, enteric methane and manure has accounted for more than 6% of the global greenhouse gases. This trend is also on the rise, as cattle farming slowly overtakes that of poultry. Because of our selfish and consumerist ways, entire ecosystems have been lost, and sea levels have risen.
With all of this in mind, I asked myself: 20 years from now, would I be willing to give up meat? I thus began investigating beef alternatives, specifically, different burgers in Geneva.
Today, I will analyse The Hamburger Foundation by comparing three burgers: the Veggie a Portobello mushroom patty base, the Beyond a plant-based patty with 20g of protein and the Hamburger/the Regular consisting of ground cow meat (all three burgers are topped with iceberg salad, tomatoes, red onions, pickles, ketchup, and mustard.)
The Regular burger represents the constant variable in this tasting. It has a smoky charred flavour and is tender, sweaty, greasy, and juicy. Visually, this burger embodies the saying “People eat with their eyes;” it is aesthetically pleasing, and mouth-watering. Yet, upon finishing the burger, one rapidly feels the meat sweats, the sudden fatigue as the body attempts to digest this unhealthy masterpiece.
In contrast, The Veggie burger is nothing like The Regular. There is little grease, no juice, and much less salt. The Veggie is not as beautiful and looks more like a deluxe sandwich. However, on a positive note, it is much healthier than a regular hamburger; I did not feel completely bloated after finishing it. However, I can not say I could consider The Veggie as a substitute. If anything, The Veggie is an alternative: a delicious mushroom sandwich.
The third option is the Beyond burger. Texture-wise, it is tender and as mushy as a rare steak. Its pores enable the patty to absorb the oil it is cooked in, which makes for a buttery taste. Its smell is to some extent putrid. Due to the lack of smokiness, the taste does not identically resemble that of a fresh piece of meat and is clearly vegetable-based. However, it has a huge advantage over a regular burger: it is healthy and sustainable. As I sat there devouring my “burger,” I realised that although I was missing out on some of the tasty, greasy char that I love in beef burgers, it was worth it, because I knew I was making less of a negative impact on the world.
Coming back to the question I set out to answer, YES, I could find myself switching from meat burgers to a beyond burger.
