I wonder what the cost basis is of an Impossible Burger vs. a beef patty. The meat industry has built up some economies of scale but it's hard to believe that raising and slaughtering cows is the most cost effective way to feed people protein.
There is a LOT of interesting writing on the economy of the meat industrial complex.
In essence: It is totally propped up by with subsidies from the US Government. They LOSE money on every cow slaughtered. They destroy our planet. All of the profits go to the billionaire farm owners who lobby to keep the laws in place. It is so horribly corrupt.
Personally, I find it disgusting that we give hand-outs so these billionaire ranchers can:
- Feed us unhealthy food
- Destroy the environment with greenhouse gasses and farm run-off
- Take up MASSIVE amounts of space
- Use massive amounts of water
- Create drug-resistant bacteria by pumping the animals full of antibiotics
- create horrible living conditions for animals and suppress anti-meat propaganda with ag-gag laws
- Pay their workers in the factory farm a pittance to do depressing, disgusting work so the owners can hoover up all of the profit.
Check out https://meatonomics.com/ for more information.