Nestle has officially entered the race for the best fake-beef burger with the “Awesome Burger.”
The Awesome Burger, a veggie-based burger intended to taste like beef, will go head-to-head with the Impossible Whopper from Burger King, the Beyond Meat PLT from McDonald’s, and the Better Than Beef burger from Costco (to name a few).
As a vegetarian of nearly 20 years, watching these major brands battle it out for the best imitation burger is pretty damn amusing. When I first ditched meat, the only veggie burger on the market was the Boca Burger, which was absolutely disgusting (sorry, not sorry).
Obviously, things have come quite a long way since then. Not only are there more veggie burger brands available but some groceries even have entire sections dedicated to faux meat (Morning Star’s Chik Patties are absolutely delicious).
But it’s one thing to walk down the aisle of Trader Joe’s and have your choice of veggie burgers and quite another for worldwide fast-food joints like Burger King and McDonald’s to actually try to one-up each other to make the best imitation beef.
I personally haven’t had a burger since I was eight years old and would have absolutely no idea if any of these options tasted remotely like real beef (nor would I care — at this point, beef looks pretty unappetizing to me). But obviously having beefy-tasting plant patties is pretty important to the rest of America.
And being able to convince Americans — many of whom live and die by the burger — to actually give up their beef would be game-changing. The beef industry releases a huge amount of methane into the atmosphere, contributing greatly to climate change. The situation is so serious that scientists have actually suggested that we need to reduce our meat consumption by a whopping 50% worldwide.
Of course, this has become a huge talking point for Republicans who are determined to let our planet die. They claim that should Democrats get their way, they would ban beef altogether (not true).
So imagine if we could actually convince the good, meat-eating people of America that they don’t actually need all that beef? That other options are just as delicious?
Just don’t tell them that it’s for the planet. The Republicans would hate that.
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