Precis

Opening the winter season of Foreign Correspondent, Craig Reucassel reports on the food revolution underway in the US that could very well change what we eat, forever.

It is coming from the ultimate disruptors, Silicon Valley, where scientists and entrepreneurs are cooking up new types of foods which threaten to take a big bite out of the profits of the multi-billion-dollar meat industry.

On the menu are burgers made from plants which ‘bleed’, and chicken nuggets grown in labs from animal cells.

Critics call it ‘frankenfood’ but the substitute meat industry claims it wants to feed the world and save the environment. And it’s backed by big bucks, with investors such as Bill Gates and Hong Kong magnate Li Ka Shing putting their money where their mouth is.

In one recent float, a meat-less meat company’s share price almost tripled on its first day of trading.

But the West isn’t won yet. It’s fighting hard to preserve its divine right to make a living from livestock.

“Our farmers and ranchers grow these cattle like God intended them to be grown” explains a Missouri politician.

Many US States are protecting their cattle industries by passing laws which ban ‘new meat’ being marketed as ‘meat’.

“We want truth in advertising…we don’t want them to use the word ‘beef’”, says one Missouri cattleman. “And we don’t want them to say ‘This is a hamburger.’”

The stage is set for a mighty legal showdown as ‘new meats’ fight back. “Plant-based meat is meat…It’s just meat produced in a different way,” argues the substitute meat lobby, which is suing Missouri for breaching the US Constitution. “It’s rank protectionism…It’s something you’d expect out of North Korea, not in the United States of America.”

In High Steaks, Craig Reucassel rides with Texas cowboys who decry the “fakery”, visits the Silicon Valley labs driving this food revolution and persuades hard core, mid-west carnivores to take a blind taste test, with surprising results.

For Craig, it boils down to one question: ‘Cattle, soy, cells or beet. Will it really matter if it tastes like meat?’

Woman on horse at rodeo

Music

00:00

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  Welcome to America, where the cattle and the cowboys have always been the backbone of the nation. But are they facing the end of an era?

00:10

Man selling ribs at festival

MAN AT ROCK'N RIBS FESTIVAL:  We got everything… Beef, chicken, ribs. We're the only place for ribs in Rock'n Ribs.

00:23

Plant meat manufacture/ Craig peers into microscope

CRAIG REUCASSEL: As global demand for meet soars, billion dollar start-ups are taking on the meat industry. They're making meat with plants. And growing meat in labs, cell by cell.

00:32

Cells under microscope

VITOR SANTO: So you don't see necessarily like a steak or a chicken breast growing in the culture.

00:44

Simpson calls cattle

BOBBY SIMPSON:  “Cows, Cows, Cows, Cows…”

00:49

CRAIG REUCASSEL: The cattlemen call it fake meat, and say it will kill their traditions.

00:55

Craig with 'Flash' Cockrell

'FLASH' COCKRELL:  This is cattle country. This is what God made this country for, is to raise cattle.

01:02

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It's a battle for the future of food.

01:06

Craig holds 'chicken' nugget with Josh in lab

Craig: "And this is worth how much, this chicken nugget?"

01:08

Craig eats 'chicken' nugget and gags

Josh Hyman: "We say roughly around a hundred dollars."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: But will this new meat pass the ultimate test.

Craig: [gags]… "No, only kidding."

01:10

Drone over cattle grazing. Title:
HIGH STEAKS

Music

01:18

Super:
TEXAS
UNITED STATES

01:24

Craig to camera by cows. Super:
REPORTER
CRAIG REUCASSEL

CRAIG REUCASSEL: These cows are quite curious about what I’m doing here, because I'm here to look in to the industry that they're involved in. It's facing massive challenges from multi-billion dollar investments into new technology that's trying to take their job. Their job as our food. Because the big question here in America at the moment is 'What is meat?'

01:30

KB Carter ranch. Workers saddle horses and prepare for muster

Music

01:52

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  Dawn at the KB Carter ranch in Texas has started pretty much like this since the 1880s. A small tornado hurtled through last night, and the team have a wet muster ahead of them.

02:01

Texas is still the biggest cattle state in the US. And it’s still the home of the cowboy and the occasional cowbelle.

02:21

Cowboys muster cattle

Music

02:29

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Cattle are a foundation stone of the American story. For centuries, this is how we humans have grown meat. But times are changing, and the cowboy’s future is threatened by a hi-tech revolution.

02:39

Craig with 'Flash' Cockrell

This is ‘Flash’ Cockrell – he’s the ranch manager, and he doubts taking a few cow cells and growing them in a lab can replace the real thing.

03:02

CRAIG REUCASSEL: With this cell based meat, do you think it’s meat?

03:19

Super:
WAYNE 'FLASH' COCKRELL
RANCH MANAGER

'FLASH' COCKRELL, Ranch Manager:  No, I don't. No it’s not meat. Meat is naturally on the animal. It’s protein, but it’s not meat.

03:23

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Do you think it'd be a shame for America to lose its kind of link to this industry?

03:30

'FLASH' COCKRELL: Oh yeah, absolutely, this is part of our heritage and it's good to have people managing the land. These are meat animals – in the US, especially, you know, we still love meat.

03:35

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Would I ever catch you eating a plant-based burger?

'FLASH' COCKRELL: Not that I know of. If you do – they tricked me! (laughs)

03:53

Golden Gate Bridge. Craig driving to San Francisco

Music

04:01

CRAIG REUCASSEL: The reinvention of meat in America is happening thousands of kilometres to the west of Texas -- in Silicon Valley.

04:11

Silicon Valley driving shots

This enclave of San Francisco has a reputation for shaking things up. We’ve already had its digital disruption, and now, they're getting ready for 'meat disruption'.

04:24

In this scientific hub they‘re trying to remove the cow from the burger.

04:41

Craig visits Impossible Foods

It may sound like ‘Mission Impossible’, but to them it’s just Impossible Foods.

04:46

Craig walks with Nick Halla to lab

NICK HALLA:  "We’re in over 7,000 restaurants now…"

CRAIG REUCASSEL: These guys are the new masters of non-meat meat -- made entirely of plants, yet aimed squarely at carnivores. Nick Halla started with Impossible Foods when it began eight years ago.

04:51

NICK HALLA, Impossible Foods:  So this is where we can take all the ideas and we'll test it at a really small scale. What actually is driving the flavour, aroma creation?

05:05

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Fuelled by half a billion dollars in investments, some from Bill Gates, Nick says this is where the future is being made.

05:15

NICK HALLA:  If you look closely there might be some new products out there…

CRAIG REUCASSEL: I can't tell what any of it is.

05:22

Manufacturing machinery

CRAIG REUCASSEL: And the company has a clear ambition driving it’s discoveries.

05:27

Nick Halla interview. Super:
NICK HALLA
IMPOSSIBLE FOODS

NICK HALLA:  So Impossible Foods was created to build the technology to solve one of the greatest challenges that we face as a civilisation today: How do we keep feeding the growing population while maintaining and enhancing our land and our environment?

05:31

We’re using animals right now and animals are extremely inefficient. And so a cow in the US, as a technology – is really the way we're using it – is a three percent efficient technology.

05:44

CRAIG REUCASSEL: What does that mean? What does three percent efficiency cow mean?

05:54

NICK HALLA:  For every calorie, every gram of protein we put into a cow, we consume three percent out of that as meat.

05:57

Manufacturing machinery

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Impossible's in-house research is making some big claims.

06:04

Nick Halla 100%

NICK HALLA:  We use 96% less land than meat from a cow, 89% less greenhouse gas emissions, 87% less water than meat from a cow.

06:09

Soy into machinery. Super:
Corporate Video

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Soy burgers aren’t new, but the latest science is delivering a product engineered to taste exactly like meat.

06:19

NICK HALLA: We are 100% aiming at the most stringent meat lovers of the world. Those are the ones we have to convert over to a more sustainable system.

06:27

Nick Halla 100%

We started in July 2011, and the first two years were all just basic research – understanding what actually makes meat, fish and dairy foods taste so absolutely delicious.

06:38

Soy into machinery

They learned there’s one protein in meat,

06:48

Nick Halla 100%

a protein called ‘heme’ that delivers all that chemistry as you cook. You can think about this as, in our blood we have haemoglobin. It takes oxygen from our lungs to our organs and our muscles.

06:54

Leghaemoglobin being poured from flask

We use a protein called ‘leghaemoglobin’, where that heme, which drives all that flavour chemistry, is identical.'

CRAIG REUCASSEL: So where do you get your heme from?

NICK HALLA:  We found it in legumes. So in the root system of soybeans.

07:05

Impossible Foods scientists at work

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  Scientists here, and at other start-ups around the world, are building entirely new foods. Impossible’s newest formulation uses specially designed soy protein; coconut oil; potato protein -- and their ‘Eureka’ discovery –heme – which they can now manufacture in huge quantities using genetically modified yeast. Heavily patent-protected, it looks like hamburger and it even bleeds.

07:17

Burger production line

Music

07:50

NICK HALLA:  Well what is meat? There’s coconut meat, there’s beef, there’s pork, there’s all kinds of different types of meat.

07:54

Nick Halla 100%

Really, what it is, is a profile of fats, proteins and nutrients that consumers are looking for and a performance in food.

08:00

Aerial. San Francisco

Music

08:07

Craig driving, San Francisco

CRAIG REUCASSEL: What is meat -- that really is the question. Does meat even have to grow on an animal?

08:13

Across town, science fiction is meeting reality.

08:24

Brian Spears at New Age Meats HQ

Brian Spears is head of a start-up using stem cells to make muscle you can eat, without killing the animal.

08:28

Sausage cooking demo

His company, New Age Meats, made a sensation last September when they had a pork sausage cook-up, with meat grown entirely in a laboratory.

08:40

Jessie the pig

And the invited crowd was introduced to Jessie, the pig that provided cells for the meat, and lived to tell the tale. 

08:50

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Do you have any cell-based pork sausage for me to try?

08:56

Brian Spears interview. Super:
BRIAN SPEARS
CEO NEW AGE MEATS

BRIAN SPEARS, CEO New Age Meats:  That’s going to be an unfortunate ‘no’.

08:59

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  How much would it be worth? How much is one of those sausages worth at the moment?

BRIAN SPEARS: Worth? Well, our cost of production right now is $190 dollars.

09:05

CRAIG REUCASSEL: 190 dollars for a sausage?

BRIAN SPEARS: For a 100 gram sausage, yes.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Bargain.

BRIAN SPEARS: Yeah.

09:12

The real challenge of the industry is dropping the cost down and scaling up the production. So that’s what we’re working on now.

09:17

Brian and Craig with Nick Legendre in lab

BRIAN SPEARS:  And here's Nick. He's our interim CSO.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: I don't want to ruin the whole process.

09:22

CRAIG REUCASSEL: I’m interested to know what the cells look like, and scientist Nick Legendre can show me.

09:28

NICK LEGENDRE:  So this is just a small flask of mammalian cells that we're working with.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: All right.

09:33

NICK LEGENDRE: So you can see those small kind of roundish looking things?  They’re the actual cells they’re growing, they’re attached to the bottom of the plate, and they’re growing in there. And that yellowish liquid, that’s called culture media, that has nutrients that keep the cells well-fed and happy.

09:38

Microscope/Petri dish

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Growing cells outside an animal is tricky; there’s no blood to feed them. Ironically, for a product that’s called clean slaughter-free meat, most companies are currently using FBS - or foetal bovine serum. 

09:53

Brian Spears interview

BRIAN SPEARS:  You note that’s not an ideal situation. Right now, it’s a by-product of animal agriculture. So round eight percent of the cows that go to slaughter are pregnant. And so they find that they’re pregnant, they’re like, okay, well this by-product is this foetal bovine serum, which then goes into tissue culture. And so we need to quickly move away from that system, just do better science and make better products.

10:08

CRAIG REUCASSEL: How close are you to a product that could be rolled out into restaurants or supermarkets?

BRIAN SPEARS:  So we’re about two and a half years away from that, yeah. 

10:30

Craig driving

Music

10:37

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Cell based meat is a hot destination for investors, and I’ve been promised I can taste some of the product at

10:43

Craig into JUST Inc.

another rapidly expanding company. This is JUST Inc., also backed by Bill Gates, along with Hong Kong magnate Li Ka Shing and others  -- with two hundred and fifty million dollars.  It makes plant-based food, and is also now moving into lab grown meat.

10:49

Craig  greets Josh Tetrick

Co-founder and CEO Josh Tetrick is on a mission.

11:09

Josh Tetrick interview. Super:
JOSH TETRICK
CEO JUST INC

JOSH TETRICK, CEO JUST Inc.: I grew up in Birmingham Alabama. I grew up on Burger King chicken sandwiches and grew up in a very meat-centric culture. I think the idea of eating well -- which I would define really simply, food that tastes good, food that is healthy, food that is good for the planet, and food that people can afford -- should be a basic right.

11:14

Craig with Vitor in lab. Looks into microscope

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Can I have a little look through.

VITOR SANTO:  Sure.

11:324

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Down in the lab, JUST is focussing its energies on cell cultured meat. Vitor Santo heads up cell agriculture.

VITOR SANTO, Cellular Agriculture, JUST Inc.: The cells are invisible to our eyes,

11:27

Super:
VITOR SANTO
CELLULAR AGRICULTURE
JUST INC

so you don’t see it necessarily like a steak or a chicken breast growing in the culture, right?

CRAIG REUCASSEL: He’s currently developing wagyu beef cells for hamburgers.

11:46

CRAIG REUCASSEL: So you take this and you put it in a kind of a machine that then grows it. Is it one of those machines over there? Are we allowed to look at that?

VITOR SANTO:  Yeah, unfortunately no.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: No?

VITOR SANTO:  No it’s a little bit-

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It’s the IP, okay, okay.

11:57

Cells under microscope

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Over the next 10 years, cell based and plant based alternative meats are expected to capture 10 percent of the global meat market  -- a cut worth around two hundred billion dollars.

12:08

Josh Tetrick interview

CRAIG REUCASSEL: You seem to be motivated by the ethical background of this, are your investors also motivated by that, or are they just motivated by profit?

12:21

JOSH TETRICK, CEO JUST Inc.: I’m sure some are, and some aren’t. We have like 135 of them, so collectively though, they're motivated to make an industry better and figure out a way to make money from making an industry better.

12:28

Josh Hyman with Craig.

JOSH HYMAN, Product Development, JUST Inc:  There it is.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Up in the test kitchen, I’m about to taste one of the first chicken nuggets ever made in a laboratory.

12:39

CRAIG REUCASSEL: So this is the nugget.

JOSH HYMAN: That is our chicken nugget.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: And this is worth how much, this chicken nugget?

JOSH HYMAN: How much is the chicken nugget? We say roughly around $100 right now.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: $100, okay.

JOSH HYMAN: For right now.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: No pressure,

12:50

Super:
JOSH HYMAN
Product Development JUST Inc

don’t mess this up.

JOSH HYMAN:  It's better than the $250,000 burger they had a few years ago.

13:01

Josh cooks nugget

CRAIG REUCASSEL: The chicken cell protein there, does it have to be pushed together?

JOSH HYMAN: So we actually utilise our mung bean protein as a scaffolding system for this.

13:06

CRAIG REUCASSEL: So it's got the cell based chicken and it's got the mung bean.

JOSH HYMAN:  Yeah, because it just adds a little bit of extra texture to it.

13:15

CRAIG REUCASSEL: You call it cultured chicken.

JOSH HYMAN:  Cultured chicken. Because a lot of the process is very similar to how wine is made, how beer is made…

13:21

And here we are!

CRAIG REUCASSEL: That's looking good.

JOSH HYMAN:  So I'm just going to let that sit and relax for a minute.

13:28

Craig samples nugget

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It looks very similar to a nugget.

13:39

CRAIG REUCASSEL: V/O:  And now, my guinea pig moment has arrived.

CRAIG: [gags]… "No, only kidding."

13:49

JOSH HYMAN: What do you think?

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It tastes like a nugget.

JOSH HYMAN: You’re joining a very select group.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It tastes like chicken nugget. Wow! That is amazing.

JOSH HYMAN:  That’s because it’s made with chicken.

14:00

CRAIG REUCASSEL: JUST is hoping the nuggets will be on the market later this year, and they know they have to get over a 'yuck factor'. Some have tagged lab-grown meat ‘frankenfoods’.

14:12

Josh Tetrick interview

JOSH TETRICK:  When we think about the anxiety that some of this causes, it really is important to look back in history, and realise that whether a car, whether milk, whether a smartphone --  it's funny--  if it provides a better thing for a person, right? If it makes it easier to live the life that they want, people have a way of getting around it.

14:23

St Louis GVs

Music

14:50

CRAIG REUCASSEL: The state of Missouri is the scene of the first battle in the new meat wars. Historically, it was the gateway to the Wild West. But this year, the city of St Louis was the frontier for one of the New Meats. There’s no cell based meat on the market yet, but plant based is already causing a stir.  And Impossible’s latest formula went on trial at 59 Burger Kings in St Louis.

14:56

Craig into Burger King

I decided to test it myself.

15:21

Craig orders burgers

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Can I just get a Whopper and one of the Impossible Whoppers please. One of each… Are you selling a lot of the Impossible Whoppers?"

15:30

BURGER KING EMPLOYEE:  "We sold out twice.”

15:42

Craig samples burgers

CRAIG REUCASSEL: The trial has gone so well it’s being rolled out nationally.  With around 60% of America’s beef being ground beef, burgers are a huge market to crack. So could I tell the difference?

15:45

CRAIG REUCASSEL: “Tastes like a burger. Looks a bit different, but you know, when has a burger ever looked good? There’s a slight difference, but as to which one tastes more like meat, you can’t really tell. Does this mean I’m going to have to eat two burgers?"

16:03

Rock'n Ribs festival GVs

CRAIG REUCASSEL: But I wondered how it will go down with hard core carnivores? And for that you can’t go past the Rock'n Ribs festival in Springfield, Missouri.

16:26

MAN AT FESTIVAL:  "We have the meat that you can't beat."

16:35

CRAIG REUCASSEL: This is an annual meat mecca, where samples of Missouri’s famous barbecued meat are handed out for free.

16:41

Rib spruiker

MAN AT ROCK'N RIBS FESTIVAL:  We got everything… Beef, chicken, ribs. We're the only place for ribs in Rock'n Ribs.

17:00

Festivalgoers line up for ribs

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Americans eat around 12 billion kilos of beef a year – and most of it looks like it’s here. Chicken, pork or ribs -- consumption’s going up, and because of intensive farming practices, the price is kept low.

17:09

Cooks take meat trays to judges

Music

17:22

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Some of the stalls are competing for best cooked meat, and take trays up to the experts for judging. It’s a serious affair. I wondered how a plant burger would go amongst this lot? Surely they couldn’t be fooled?

17:27

Craig in supermarket buying Beyond Meat burgers

So I whizzed out to get some. In amongst the meat shelves I found Beyond Meat – another hi-tech soy product aiming for the meat market.  It recently listed on the stock exchange at $36.00 a share, and quickly rocketed up to be a multi-billion dollar company.

17:40

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Look at that, Impossible Burger. That could have fooled me. Let's see if it'll fool some experts."

17:59

Craig cooking burgers

Music

18:06

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  Its heme oozes out as the burger cooks. Fake blood for your fake meat!

18:14

“Look at this one. Look at the blood coming out… Beautiful.

18:19

Look at that.

WOMAN: "They're cooking a little bit better now.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "I know, thanks for your tips."

18:22

Craig walks with plate of burgers

CRAIG REUCASSEL: I think we're ready for the test.

18:27

Couple at festival sample burgers

WOMAN EATING BURGER:  "It's actually really good."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "What do you think?"

WOMAN EATING BURGER: It's good.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Does it taste like beef?"

WOMAN EATING BURGER: "It tastes like hamburger."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "It tastes like hamburger."

18:32

Guys and young woman sample burgers

"There's not a single animal – this is a plant based one."

YOUNG MAN EATING BURGER: "No way!”

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Does it taste like meat you reckon?"

YOUNG MAN EATING BURGER: "It's good. I'd eat it, for sure. Delicious."

18:41

Craig takes burgers into judging hall

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Well, that was pretty surprising, but will this imposter fool the judges?

18:53

With Autumn and David sampling burgers

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "So I want to get some expert advice on these burgers, okay?"

18:57

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Autumn Suckow and her husband David agreed to judge our ‘special burgers’. Surely these multi-award winners would pick it?

19-02

AUTUMN SUCKOW:  Mm, very good. You did great with just salt and pepper, that’s awesome! Sometimes the basics are the best.”

19:14

CRAIG REUCASSEL:  “Now, would it surprise you guys if I told you that this was 100% plant based? There’s no meat in that."

DAVID SUCKOW:  “That would surprise me, actually.”

AUTUMN SUCKOW: "That would surprise me, because I'm a carnivore."

DAVID SUCKOW: "It's fantastic."

19:21

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "I’m a carnivore too."

DAVID SUCKOW: "Absolutely. May I?"

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Yeah, go."

AUTUMN SUCKOW:  "It's very good. I'm going to steal some of this right here, actually."

DAVID SUCKOW: "That's very tasty."

19:31

Driving shots

CRAIG REUCASSEL: With reactions like that, it’s not surprising the traditional meat industry is worried – and Missouri was the first state to kick back against these meats that don’t use animals. I’ve arranged to talk to their cattlemen, deep in the heart of this mid-western state, down in the Ozark ranges.

19:40

Craig drives with Bobby Simpson

20:02

Simpson calls cattle

BOBBY SIMPSON:  “Cows, Cows, Cows, Cows…”

20:12

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Bobby Simpson comes from a long line of ranchers, and he wants the family tradition to continue. 

20:16

BOBBY SIMPSON, MISSOURI CATTLEMEN'S ASSOCIATION:  I think I’m a fifth generation and that makes my son the sixth and then his sons or daughters will be the seventh.

20:25

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Bobby heads up the Missouri Cattlemen’s Association, and they’re leading the charge  against the new meats.

20:34

Simpson and Craig in field

BOBBY SIMPSON:  We were proactive; we were the first state in the union to pass legislation on this what we call ‘fake meat’.

20:41

CRAIG REUCASSEL: This meat labelling law could prevent alternative meats from using words like burger and sausages.

20:49

Super:
BOBBY SIMPSON
Missouri Cattlemen's Association

BOBBY SIMPSON:  We’re not opposed to new products. I want to make that clear, because we are a country of free enterprise, and I like that. But we want people to know what they’re buying. We want truth in advertising. We want labels that say where these products came from or how they’re made.

20:55

CRAIG REUCASSEL: What are the particular words you’re worried about? Is it the term meat? I mean if somebody says plant-based meat, are you fine with that?

BOBBY SIMPSON:  We don’t want them to use 'beef'.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Beef, so beef’s...

BOBBY SIMPSON: And we don’t want them to say, “This is hamburger”.

21:14

CRAIG REUCASSEL: But if beef was grown in a lab, isn’t that beef?

BOBBY SIMPSON: I don’t think it’s beef. It’s meat.

21:26

We do not want them to call it beef, because that’s our term, those are our products out there that you’re affecting when you’re using our good name to sell your product. That’s what we don’t want.

21:34

Driving shots

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Missouri is one of the country’s biggest agricultural states, and up in the capital legislators are defending their laws to protect their ‘sacred’ cows.

21:44

CHRISTIAN RADIO: "We  begin with the truth of all truths; the truth about God."

21:59

CRAIG REUCASSEL: This is a God-fearing community. Aside from the Almighty, they honour the flag, the family and free enterprise. 

22:04

And in the spring, when the woods burst with blossom and dogwood, it’s time for hunting and fishing.

22:11

CHRISTIAN RADIO: "And yet God cannot be silenced…"

22:17

CRAIG REUCASSEL: They have a heart-felt sense there’s a natural order to the world. 

22:20

CHRISTIAN RADIO: "Because in the heart, in the humanity of every one of us is this need to know God."

22:24

Interior. Jefferson City State House

CRAIG REUCASSEL: When I arrived at the State House in Jefferson City, the session was just starting.

22:33

SPEAKER: "May we stand forth with the historic members of the past, who achieved righteousness, tamed wickedness and contributed to the ethics of their day."

22:41

Jeff Knight in legislature

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Representative Jeff Knight sponsored the meat labelling Bill.

22:50

SPEAKER: “And the House says Amen.”

22:53

Jeff Knight interview. Super:
JEFF KNIGHT
MISSOURI HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JEFF KNIGHT, Missouri House of Representatives:  Well, my argument there would be our farmers and ranchers grow these cattle like God intended them to be grown, through a food chain, being given the proper nutrition, taken care of well, and then harvested, production, processed, and given back to the public.

22:56

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Missouri led the way on this legislation to define what meat is. Why did that happen in Missouri?

23:16

JEFF KNIGHT:  Several years ago our dairy industry in the United States got hit really hard with soy milk and almond milk. In turn, it has killed the dairy industry all over the United States, but especially in Missouri.

23:24

CRAIG REUCASSEL: What are the cattlemen most worried about?

23:38

JEFF KNIGHT: We just want them to be labelled correctly.

23:41

Knight shows picture to Craig of Beyond Chicken Strips

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Jeff’s got an example of the type of labelling he says the law is trying to prevent.

23:43

JEFF KNIGHT: There’s the actual picture of the package of chicken tenders with a picture of a chicken.

23:48

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It says Beyond Chicken Strips, lightly seasoned. Yeah, okay, and plant based is right down the bottom.

JEFF KNIGHT:  And there was no chicken in the package at all.

23:53

CRAIG REUCASSEL: So that’s the sort of thing you’re trying to stop? You think people are-

24:03

JEFF KNIGHT: We just want the consumers to know exactly what they are getting.

24:05

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Twenty-five other states are now bringing in meat protection laws  And the alternative meats industry is fighting back. They’re suing Missouri and I’ve come up to Washington to find out more about the battle.

24:08

Craig walks with Friedrichs in Washington

Bruce Friedrichs heads up a not-for-profit called the Good Food Institute – it’s a party to the legal action. He calls it a meat censorship law that's violating the right to freedom of speech.

24:29

Friedrich interview. Super:
BRUCE FRIEDRICH
CEO GOOD FOOD INSTITUTE

BRUCE FRIEDRICH, CEO Good Food Institute:  Plant-based meat is meat, clean meat is meat. It’s just meat produced in a different way.

24:41

CRAIG REUCASSEL: And this is where the Bill comes in that says you can’t call it. That in actual fact meat is something that comes off a slaughtered animal. And that's what they're trying to stop you doing, is saying that this is  actually meat.

24:48

BRUCE FRIEDRICH:  And it’s exactly the same as if you said “This isn’t a camera; 99.9% of photographs are taken on this thing. It’s a camera. Or it’s got a camera on it.

24:57

The Missouri legislation bans meat nomenclature, even if it says ‘plant based’, even if it says ‘vegan’. And you can literally go to jail for a year for calling a veggie burger a veggie burger.

25:05

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Isn’t that fair enough?

25:15

BRUCE FRIEDRICH: Well no, it’s rank protectionism. It’s basically a command and control economy. It’s something you would expect out of North Korea, not in the United States of America. They are afraid to try to compete on a level playing field with these products.

25:18

CRAIG REUCASSEL: But what about that packaging for Beyond Meat's chicken strips?

25:35

BRUCE FRIEDRICH:  It says “Beyond Meat”. Like the biggest words on the package are Beyond Meat.

25:39

CRAIG REUCASSEL: But couldn’t you think that that was a chicken product?

25:44

BRUCE FRIEDRICH: I would be very surprised if anybody thought that was a chicken product.

25:46

Rodeo GVs

CRAIG REUCASSEL: I decided to check out if people would be fooled by such packaging, and outside a rodeo was an ideal place.

25:50

Craig with group of young men outside rodeo showing plant based burgers

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "What about these chicken strips?"

These dudes were hanging out the back.

26:01

“This product here; have you guys ever eaten it?

GUY 1: "Yeah, it's a hamburger isn’t it?

CRAIG REUCASSEL: It's a hamburger?"

GUY 1: "I mean it's big."

GUY 2: "Oh, it's vegan."

26:05

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Do you think that you could get confused and buy that in a ship if it was next to the other burgers?"

GUY 2: "Probably, I just grab and throw."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "You don’t do a lot of reading when you pick it up?"

GUY 2: "Nah man, if it looks like a burger, it’s going in!"

26:13

GUY 1: "Is it real?"

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "What do you think?"

GUY 1: "Is it real beef? Or is it vegetables? To be honest with you man, I wouldn’t eat it."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "You wouldn’t eat it?"

GUY 1: "I wouldn't even look at it."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "See, it's vegan burgers. You wouldn't eat it?"

26:27

GUY 1: "I wouldn't touch it."

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Why's that?"

GUY 2: “Because we want that one right over there."

26:39

Cutaway to cattle in pen

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Turns out these blokes do want to know what type of meat they’re buying.

"What about,

26:44

Return to Craig with two guys outside rodeo

they're talking about growing meat – like meat actually from an animal, but doing it in a lab. So it doesn't come off the body of an animal. It just gets grown in a kind of dish. It gets grown from cells. So it's actually the same as meat. Would you eat that?"

26:48

GUY 1:  No sir. With the lab and the growing it, you don’t know what they’re putting into it. So straight off the hoof is best.

27:02

Craig driving to feedlot

CRAIG REUCASSEL: While these guys might prefer ‘Off the hoof’, I wonder if most Americans know how their meat is actually produced. Factory farming and feedlots face significant criticism on environmental and welfare grounds.

27:09

Craig at feedlot with worker

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "We're from Australian TV, Australian Broadcasting Corporation…"

The cowboys here don’t ride horses and aren’t so camera-friendly.

27:24

"How big's this particular place? How many cattle head have you got here?"

27:32

MAN:  We got 4700 right here.

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "4700."

27:36

MAN:  "Who you with again?"

CRAIG REUCASSEL: "Australian Broadcasting Corporation."

We weren’t welcome to film inside.

"We're with a show called Foreign Correspondent."

27:38

Craig to camera

CRAIG REUCASSEL: In the United States, nine out of ten cows don't finish their life on the ranch. They're taken to feedlots, like this one in Missouri, and intensively fed to fatten them up before slaughter.

Now this is only a small one here, this is a tiny operation, but around America 40 per cent of meat comes from feedlots like this

27:44

Drone shots over feedlots

– but with 32,000 head of cattle or more on them – huge industrial scale operations. For all their size, the cattle industry defends feedlots, saying that they're efficient, produce high quality meat, and that the animals are well looked after. As for methane emissions – they claim they're overstated.

28:04

Craig with Simpson in field

Do you think that the new change in this debate that threatens you is the climate change debate? I guess the methane emissions from cows?

BOBBY SIMPSON:  Well, I think that that's just kind of a fraud on our consumers that we're putting out these emissions. Before we had cattle, we had a million herds of buffalo, and they put out the same kind of emissions,

28:24

and I think agriculture really, in the big picture of things, is very minute in putting bad things into the environment.

28:47

Friedrich interview

BRUCE FRIEDRICH:  Well, you're not going to find an environmental scientist, or anyone outside of the beef industry itself, that will tell you that the beef industry is environmentally friendly for any reason, including that one.

28:56

Simpson with children. Boy feeds calf

Music

29:09

Boy on corral fence

BOBBY SIMPSON:  “What’s your name?"

BOY: "Rhett."

BOBBY SIMPSON: "Rhett, are you a cowboy?"

BOY: "Yes."

BOBBY SIMPSON: "What are you going to do when you grow up?"

BOY: "Work on the farm.”

BOBBY SIMPSON: "You're going to work on the farm are you?"

29:16

Bobby Simpson with family members

CRAIG REUCASSEL: Bobby has a big investment in the future of the cattle industry. And dressed in their Sunday best, so do the younger generations.

29:28

Eagle over San Francisco

CRAIG REUCASSEL: These laboratories in San Francisco seem light years away from the ranches of the mid-west,

29:46

Craig to camera at lookout of San Francisco

and yet they are caught in this battle over our meat dollar. But can these disruptors convince us that their products are not only better for the environment, or animals, or health, but also that they’re normal and affordable and something we can eat every day? Because in the end, what’s in a name? Cattle, soy, cells or beet – will it really matter if it tastes like meat?

29:50

Credit start over Golden Gate Bridge

Music

30:12

Outpoint after credits

30:37