The food chain without animals

Sustainability was always in it. I was once the first in Brabant to start organic arable farming using high tech. I also started the first farmers' union, aiming to produce sustainable food for a fair price. With the Vegetarian Butcher, sustainability was not so much the main driver, but animal welfare. We wanted to make the tastiest possible alternative to animal meat, and we succeeded. In 2018, we sold The Vegetarian Butcher company to Unilever and started working with Those Vegan Cowboys, on developing Margaret.

With Those Vegan Cowboys, we started a journey to turn grass into casein with precision fermentation where microorganisms act as cows. Casein is the milk protein in cow's milk from which cheese is made. Instead of cow's milk, we have Margaret, the stainless steel cow, and she now makes this casein from sugar. The casein can be used to make cheese completely identical to cow's cheese, as well as any other kind of cheese. The cheese is not yet for sale and development will also take several years. Next, we will look at how to get from grass to this casein. In the future, dairy farmers can replace their milking robot with Margaret, which has to be ‘fed’ with grass. Actually, Margaret is the cow of the future.

That target market consists of the large group of dairy and meat lovers, whether they are vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian or carnivore. For those people who fear missing out on their piece of meat or block of cheese, plant-based meat and cow-free cheese is a great alternative.

We recognise this at The Vegetarian Butcher: it is doing well in food service. Burger King, for instance, has a version of all products on its menu from The Vegetarian Butcher. Burger King is also very active in Germany, and the result is that one in four Long Chicken sandwiches sold is now plant-based. Then you really make an impact. And it is immediately a good way to introduce a broad public to the plant-based alternative. The same happens at Domino's Pizza and Subway. I would prefer that we stop using animals in the food chain altogether, simply because it is no longer necessary. I see that it is possible and I am going for that 100%.

The plant-based vegetarian burger is healthier than the beef burger. This was among the findings of a recent study by a well-known consumer platform. Unfortunately, the headline was that vegetarian burgers were not yet healthy enough. However, what was not in the title, but was in the article, is that they are generally healthier than, say, beef burgers. Healthier and more sustainable. For instance, veggie burgers and sausages often contain twice as much fibre as a carrot or apple (5% vs 2.5%), while meat contains virtually no fibre. You can also draw the same conclusion from the Nutri- Score that indicates the health of a food's nutritional value. For example, at Albert Heijn De Terra Vegetable Chipolata sausages have a better Nutri-Score with A than the D of AH animal Chipolata sausages.

I hope the protein transition will be 80% successful by 2050. I'm no prophet, but it's possible. Plant-based meat and dairy are an increasingly better alternative to animal products. This gives people room to become more positive about leaving the animal out of the food chain. Often people want to, but at the same time they are afraid of missing out, of selling themselves short. With good alternatives, space is created for the moral aspect: what are we actually doing to animals and the world? And as this moral aspect gets more space, it creates pressure on those left behind. Perhaps at some point we will reach a point where eating meat will no longer be tolerated. After all, we don't actually need meat at all, indeed it is a threat to our health and environment. And I personally think, how nice it would be to be able to eat together without this moral knot in our stomach.