While some people can imagine a world without cows, because they don’t live around cows or eat beef or dairy, others can’t picture a life without them. Cows are an important part of our ecosystem and work industry. They eat the overgrown weeds, fertilize the ground and produce dairy and meat products. If you didn’t already know, cows drink a great deal of water starting when they are a calf all the way to when they are a burger on a plate. It takes about 441 gallons of water to create one pound of ground beef, according to a UC Davis study. Everyone is probably trying to save as much water as possible and starting to cut it out of daily activities that we do. People are taking shorter showers, taking less showers and turning off the water when they brush their teeth. That might hold off the water shortage, but that won’t stop it. Companies think that they’ve found a way around it. Organizations have unnaturally started replacing cows with labs. There are numerous companies that have started making animal-free animal products. Perfect Day, Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods are just a few that will affect everyone in the long run.

In 2014, Perfect Day, a company started by Ryan Pandya and Perumal Gandhi began creating animal-free dairy products. So far, they only offer milk, but their official website says that they wish to make more dairy products such as cheese, yogurt and ice cream though they won’t start selling their products until late 2017 as they are still working on them. In an FAQ on Perfect Day’s website, there is a question that asks, “Why is it called Perfect Day?” Ryan and Perumal said, “The name Perfect Day was inspired by a Lou Reed song. Two scientists discovered that calm, happy cows produce the most milk. And cows are happier when they listen to music! One of the songs that made cows produce the most milk was the song ‘Perfect Day’ by Lou Reed.” which I discovered on Perfect Day’s official website. I found that very interesting since they are creating an animal free milk, but they named their company after a song that makes cows produce the most milk. I’m sure that everybody is wondering what is in this milk if it’s not made out of cow milk. The three main ingredients are real milk protein, yeast and casein. Casein is the main protein found in milk, which is another item that I find odd. They say that their milk isn’t made from cows, but they took the proteins found in cow milk and put it into their product. Sounds fishy to me. This leads into a different part of the cow, the meat.

Beyond Meat is a company that wants to eliminate all non plant-based meat products, or so their official website says. Their meat is made mainly of peas and soy. Beyond Meat mainly makes beef related products but, they do have some chicken. When I was finding information on their website, I was appalled to find that their website looks unprofessional. Another piece of information on their website was a chart comparing plant-based meat and actual meat. They had their source listed so naturally, I went to it to check out the information they had gathered. I was shocked to realize that some of their information was wrong, which they received from the USDA National Nutrient Database. Most of the numbers that they copied onto their website were right, but some of them weren’t what the website said and they had changed the numbers while putting them into their website. I should say that overall, Beyond Meat seemed like the least worrisome company. The one that worried me the most was Impossible Foods.

Impossible Foods makes beef that turns into the burgers before it leaves their doors. After some reading on the website, I found out that Impossible burgers are “only made available for world-class chefs” which was stated on their official website. At Momofuku Nishi in New York, the burger costs $12 but $13 for a burger with cheese, which is a ridiculous price for a slab of meat. According to an article written by April Walloga called, “I tried the ‘bloody vegan burger’ that could change the world--here’s the verdict” on Revelist, if the burger is eaten with no fixings, it has a wheat and seaweed after taste. They make the burgers thin so the consumer can’t make out the non-burger like taste. On the Impossible Foods official website it says, “We make the Impossible Burger entirely from plants, without the destructive impact of livestock sot that you, your children, and your grandchildren's children will always be able to enjoy a good ol’ fashioned burger.” The matter that bothers me about this is that a “good ol’ fashioned burger” is made out of meat, not plants. Our parents, grandparents, great grandparents and so on, all ate burgers made out of meat and not out of plants since that wasn’t even an idea back then. Onto the ingredients, the main ingredient is water, which is ironic because Impossible Foods is all about cutting back the consumption of water. Three other ingredients that they use are coconut oil, wheat and potatoes. With the burger having wheat in it, it means that it isn’t gluten free and I don’t know about others, but I wouldn’t want to eat a burger made out of potatoes. After all of this information on these three main companies, what does that mean for us?

For farmers, this isn’t pleasing news because they will start losing their business and money. If they still grow alfalfa, no one will buy it from them because there will be no more cows and that is one way that they would lose money. Another way is that farmers might still have dairy cows, but no one will buy their milk because there will be dairy-free milk from Perfect Day and other companies that plan on making vegan dairy products. Farmers would most likely  up their prices on all their wares to make a profit, but very few people would be buying their products anyway. Farmers will also lose their jobs because they aren’t obtaining a profit and might not find another job because they have been working on the farm for probably most of their life. The only people that this whole situation is fortunate for are vegans. They will start gaining more options to buy from whereas there aren’t several right now. People can start acquiring their protein without eating products from an animal. In total, to me, this is a poor idea.

Overall, making plant-based meat was a solid idea because it takes up less water and land and emits less greenhouse gases, but in total, it will only be beneficial for vegans and vegetarians. Meat uses a substantial amount of water to make but humans were made with a hunger for meat and I don’t think that anyone can eliminate that from humans. Vegan diets aren’t safe. According to the article, “10 Vegan Diet Dangers” written by Catherine, a Certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner,  “You don’t get enough protein, plant foods don’t contain real vitamin A and plant-based diets can decrease digestive juices.” Once again, think about a world without cows. They are an important part of our ecosystem and work force. No company should try and replace them as it will throw our world off balance.