ChemistryNL Times: Vegetable revolution relieves the Netherlands of many problems

7 November 2050

Margarita is now displayed in a large glass display case in the Museum for High-Quality Food in Wageningen, which opened its doors in 2050. Margarita is a steel cow used for the first time in history to produce milk and milk proteins from grass via fermentation. It is the revolutionary invention of Jaap Korteweg, once founder of the Vegetarian Butcher, which he sold to Unilever in the 1920s and then, with his ‘Thosevegancowboys’ in a biotech lab in Ghent, to contribute with Margarita to the global transition in the human diet.

More efficient food production
‘Margarita’ and the established techniques of making artificial meat that is nutritionally and taste indistinguishable from animal meat have put an end to the milking of cows and sheep and the mass slaughter and consumption of livestock and poultry. Food production is now much more efficient. The fields are no longer full of corn and grain to serve as animal feed and are now used, just like the grass deserts of yesteryear, for the cultivation of soy, gluten, beans and peas for the production of vegetarian meat and vegetarian fish. Some animal meat is still eaten, but that is very expensive compared to the vegetable alternatives. Eating less animal meat has turned out to be the solution to many of the major problems facing the Netherlands. CO2 emissions have been greatly reduced, the climate objectives have been achieved and the manure problem, read: groundwater pollution, has been solved after decades of intensive livestock farming.

Neither Meat nor Fish
In the basement of the museum, the documentary ‘Vlees nor Vis’ is shown, with images of tens of thousands of chickens and pigs crammed together in stacked stables and of slaughterhouses that used 600,000 head of livestock and poultry every day in the Netherlands in the 1920s. Yet this was not at the root of the transition to ‘vegetable’, nor the nitrogen crisis, nor the climate change. No, it was the bird flu virus that mutated through the massive chicken populations in the Netherlands into a deadly variant for humans. This was the straw that made the consumer switch en masse to plant-based meat, fish and dairy products. Thanks to ‘Margarita’ and scientists at home and abroad who made the transition possible.

For example, the world’s first 100 percent vegetable steak, invented by Atze Jan van der Goot, emeritus professor of sustainable protein structuring at Wageningen University & Research, was born in the early 20s. Shortly afterwards, the hamburger with vegetable-based fat structures appeared on the market, followed by vegetarian meat that really tasted like meat due to the addition of modified hemi-iron molecules. In the 20s, meat giants such as Tyson and Cargill invested millions in the development of cultured meat and in factory lines for the production of plant-based sausages and meat products.

Atze Jan looks back: ‘That transition accelerated due to innovations, stimulated by private investors and governments. These innovations made the products even juicier and made them resemble meat even more. In the 30s, almost every butcher or restaurant had a machine that could turn beans, peas and wheat into fresh, tasty and succulent steaks and other meats as easily as baking bread.”

Vegetable meat products became cheaper than animal meat, which meant that the hamburger chains started to make more profit on animal meat. In the 1940s, vegetable products were finally introduced to the market that no longer resemble traditional meat at all, but differ strongly from it.

Text: Henk Engelenburg

This article is part of our ChemistryNL Times. These articles contain stories about the research and mission-driven innovations of today, with a look ahead to 2050.