Bill Gates Hopeful Fake Meat Products, Plant-Based Alternatives Will ‘Eventually’ Be ‘Very Good’

Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and chair of the Gates Foundation, walks to a morning session during the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2022. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has said that he believes that fake meat products will eventually be a “very good” option for consumers, noting that most people will be unlikely to turn to a vegan or plant-based diet in the future.

Gates made the comments during his annual Ask Me Anything session on the social news website Reddit.

“There are companies making ‘beef’ in new ways and people working to still use cows but reduce the methane emissions,” Gates wrote in the Reddit thread.

“I have backed a number of innovators in this space, including Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods and Memphis Meats. I think eventually these products will be very good, even though their share is small today,” he added.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November cleared meat grown in a laboratory for human consumption, marking the first time the agency has done so.

The agency’s decision means that Memphis Meats, which has since rebranded under the name Upside Foods, will be able to bring its “cultivated chicken” products to the market once it has been inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

Beyond Meat products are seen in a refrigerated case inside a grocery store in Mount Prospect, Ill., on Feb. 19, 2022. Nam Y. Huh/AP Photo

Most People Unlikely to Go Vegan, Gates Says

Upside Foods grows meat, poultry, and seafood by harvesting the cells from live animals and using them to grow the meat inside laboratory environments, namely a cultivator.

According to the company, the meats can be molded into any shape and made to look identical to typical conventional-raised poultry.

The products are not vegan or vegetarian but simply lab-made alternatives to traditional meat, which the company says hopes will reduce or eliminate the need to slaughter animals.

Gates noted on Wednesday that he believes it is unlikely that most people will want to turn to a vegan or plant-based diet in an effort to reduce climate impact. “For people who want to go vegan that is great but I don’t think most people will do that,” he wrote.

Gates’s comments regarding fake meat products come as shares of Beyond Meat dropped nearly 80 percent in 2022 amid dwindling consumer demand as customers looked for cheaper options to beat rising prices.

However, shares rose slightly in December when fast-food restaurant chain McDonald’s announced it was rolling out the new Double McPlant—made with Beyond Meat patties—in all restaurants across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

A sign promoting McDonald's "PLT" burger with a Beyond Meat plant-based patty at one of 28 test restaurant locations in Ontario, Canada, on October 2, 2019. Reuters/Moe Doiron

Another Beyond Meat Executive Departs

On Monday, Just Food reported that Beyond Meat’s chief brand officer, Beth Moskowitz, had departed the company, making her the latest executive to leave the firm.

A spokesperson for the company told Just Food: “We have no comment on Beth Moskowitz. We have hired a marketing executive to lead our global marketing efforts who will begin early February.”

In September, COO Douglas Ramsey was suspended from the company after allegedly biting a man’s nose during an altercation that took place in Arkansas. He was subsequently arrested on charges of terroristic threatening and third-degree battery, according to the Washington County, Arkansas, information page.

He was released the following day after posting an $11,085 bond.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Gates discussed climate innovation, artificial intelligence, and his ownership of 275,000 acres of farmland, which makes him the top private farmland owner in the United States.

“I own less than 1/4,000 of the farmland in the United States,” Gates said in the thread. “I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn’t some grand scheme involved—in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.”