In a 2021 MIT Technology Review interview, Gates argued that wealthy countries should move toward fully synthetic beef to reduce livestock emissions. He also said plant-based meat represented less than one percent of the global market and questioned whether cultivated meat would ever become economical.
Gates has invested in Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat, which make plant-based products, and in UPSIDE Foods, which grows cultivated meat from animal cells. Those are different technologies. The internet placed all three inside the same suspicious stainless-steel lunchbox.
Harvest Public Media reported that cultivated chicken won U.S. regulatory approval in 2023 but remained far from mass-market scale, while states began banning or restricting it. The technical problem is still cost and production. The political problem is that “billionaire-funded meat tank” writes its own Facebook caption.
The conflict question is fair: Gates promoted a category in which he invested. The claim that he secretly owns agriculture and is coming for your cheeseburger is not reporting. It is seasoning.