UP #74: The Future of Meat is No Meat with Ethan Brown

Can you imagine a world where human beings evolved beyond meat? I certainly can. And so can this week’s Unplug podcast guest. Ethan Brown is the founder and CEO of the paradigm altering company, Beyond Meat.

Ethan’s vision for a better world is inspired by the calling in his heart to render the meat industry obsolete. How? By creating something better. Something more delicious, more health giving, and entirely cruelty free. Beyond Meat is changing the face of food at a time in our planetary history where radical transformation is our only option. Unless you live with your head in the drought-created sand dunes, or flood inspired mud pits of the world, you know what I mean.

Outside Magazine journalist, Rowan Jacobsen writes in an article about Beyond Meat, “I dumped meat a few weeks ago, and it was not an easy breakup. Some of my most treasured moments have involved a deck, a beer, and a cheeseburger. But the more I learned, the more I understood that the relationship wasn’t good for either of us. I knew that with every burger I consumed, I was helping to suck America’s rivers dry, munching on a fecal casserole seasoned liberally with E. coli, passively condoning an orgy of torture that would make Hannibal Lecter blanch, and accelerating global warming as surely as if I’d plowed my Hummer into a solar installation. We all needed to kick the meat habit, starting with me.”

Climate change is altering the face of the world and it’s waking us up to a new reality. It ain’t pretty. As Naomi Klein writes in the cover sleeve of her recent book, This Changes Everything, “Climate change is a civilizational wake-up call, a powerful message delivered in the language of fires, floods, storms, and droughts. Confronting it is no longer about changing the light bulbs. It’s about changing the world – before the world changes so drastically that no one is safe. Either we leap – or we sink.”

This week, we leap…far into a new reality. The only hurdle – the biggest hurdle – the human mind. But Ethan has it covered. His products are so innovative – and delicious – that even the toughest meat eater cocks his head in disbelief.

Beyond Meat’s blend of soy and pea protein isolates, fiber, and a few other ingredients has more protein than beef. More omegas than salmon. Ample calcium, vitamin B, and antioxidants. In their southern California headquarters, the scientists at Beyond Meat have created plant-protein-based meat alternatives that deliver the texture, taste, and juiciness of animal flesh without the cruelty and environmental degradation. It’s a win for all involved – the animals, the planet, and humanity.

Beyond Meat has the backing of big guns like Bill Gates and Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone. That alone, speaks volumes.

In this week’s conversation, Ethan and I speak about:

• Following your calling (and how it never leaves).

• The number one inefficiency with meat creation, is the animal itself.

• Aligning the parts within ourselves to live more consciously an congruently with truth.

• The changing face of food in desperate times.

• The power of transparency.

• The biggest obstacle to change is cultural conditioning.

• How culture conditions us to shut down our internal truth.

• Changing the world through food.

Sometimes it’s necessary to live a bad situation to its fullest before we’re ready to step into transformation. Our altered climate is no longer a future worry. It’s here now. We’ve remorselessly consumed everything good, true, and beautiful and the results speak for themselves. It’s ugly.

We all know it’s going to take a miracle to turn things around on this planet. But we can never let our current reality define our future reality. Our minds doubt that things will ever be much different from what we see and know.