美国国家公共电台 NPR Saving The Planet, One Burger At A Time: This Juicy Patty Is Meat-Free

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

A Michelin-starred bistro in New York City is serving up a new dish - a burger made entirely¹ of plants. Now, this isn't just another veggie-tofu knockoff burger. This burger looks, cooks, even bleeds like the real thing. As part of our Food and the American Dream series, NPR's Allison Aubrey introduces us to the scientist who created it.

ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE²: For 25 years, Pat Brown was a professor at Stanford University. He was one of the stars in his field studying a range of biomedical topics.

PAT BROWN: Genetics, genomics, stuff like that, cancer research - nothing to do with food.

AUBREY: But about seven years ago, his work took a turn when during a sabbatical he decided⁴ to tackle what he saw as a really big problem for the planet.

BROWN: Basically the use of animals as a technology for food production is the most destructive technology on Earth.

AUBREY: In other words, he says, the meat industry is causing big problems for the environment. It's a strong position, but he says there's lots of science to back him up.

BROWN: Animal farming - it's been very well-studied as a scientific environmental issue.

AUBREY: Think of all the U.S. cropland. Two-thirds of all the calories produced from these crops are used for animal feed to produce meat, dairy and other animal products. Livestock⁵ production uses a lot of water and is a big contributor to climate change. He says when you think of all these effects...

BROWN: It's just insane.

AUBREY: The ecological⁶ footprint of meat production, he argues, is just not sustainable. But the obvious problem is this - billions of people around the world love meat. We've been eating it for thousands of years.

BROWN: You're never going to get people to just change their diet, you know, stop eating meat, fish and dairy - ain't going to happen.

AUBREY: After all, veggie burgers have been around a long time, and they certainly haven't replaced beef in most people's diets. Now, what Brown wanted was to literally⁷ recreate the taste of beef without cows, so he started by deconstructing its composition down to the molecular⁸ level.

BROWN: Why does meat taste like meat? So we had to take on that question.

AUBREY: There had to be something that gave beef its unmistakable flavor. Early on, he and his team honed in on one compound in the blood of cows. It's called heme. You and I have it, too, in the hemoglobin in our blood.

BROWN: Heme is responsible for the bloody⁹ flavor of raw meat, and you generate this explosion of flavor and aroma¹⁰ when you cook it.

AUBREY: He says discovering this was the key to his quest because it turns out that plants have heme, too, but in very small amounts. For instance, soybeans have heme in their roots. So to recreate the taste of beef, he had to figure out how to produce large quantities of this plant-based heme. How did he do it? He and the scientists he works with went right down to the soybean gene³ that helps the plant produce its heme.

BROWN: We took the gene from soybeans and put it in yeast¹¹.

AUBREY: And he ferments¹² the yeast in a big steel tank.

BROWN: It's just like making beer, basically. You just grow vast quantities of this. I mean, it's scalable and very low environmental footprint.

AUBREY: So little impact on the environment and lots and lots of heme, more than enough to make a juicy burger. Brown has lots of people excited about his burger. Bill Gates has invested in his start-up, Impossible Foods, which is already supplying seven high-end restaurants.

(SOUNDBITE OF BURGER SIZZLING)

AUBREY: So how is the burger?

BRAD FARMERIE: I'll give this a little flip¹³.

AUBREY: That's chef Brad Farmerie of Public, the Michelin-starred bistro in New York City. He has just put Brown's burger on the menu at Public and at a second restaurant, Saxon and Parole.

FARMERIE: I'm just going to season it with a little bit of salt.

AUBREY: In the skillet, the patty looks remarkably¹⁴ similar to ground chuck. As he puts one in the hot pan, he tells me in addition to all that heme, the patty has bits of wheat protein and potato protein to add bulk.

FARMERIE: It looks, cooks and sizzles like beef, and when you see me flip it over, you're going to be amazed. It carmelizes like beef as well.

AUBREY: After a few minutes in the pan, Farmerie offers up a taste.

Whoa, it's really juicy. I can see what people are saying that it's so like a burger that it almost bleeds.

FARMERIE: I like it a lot. I think it has that nuttiness that you get from good beef. I think it has great moisture, great mouthfeel.

AUBREY: Farmerie is known for his unusual and fancy meat offerings, like kangaroo and sweetbreads, so his customers weren't expecting a bleeding plant burger. Phillip Duff, who was sitting at the bar, decided to try one. He says he likes it, but...

PHILLIP DUFF: You know, it kind of falls apart a little bit.

AUBREY: And he's not sure about the $17 price.

DUFF: I think this would sell for about the same price as a regular burger.

AUBREY: To charge a premium¹⁵, Duff says the makers¹⁶ will have to work hard to tell the story that this burger is better for the Earth because he doesn't think the taste will stand out for people.

DUFF: But if you never told people about this, they quite literally wouldn't know.

AUBREY: But that's exactly what Pat Brown wants, for his burger to be so tasty that it's indistinguishable from a regular beef burger. He knows he needs to scale up in order to bring the price down. And eventually he wants to out-compete beef, even if it takes him years to get there. Allison Aubrey, NPR News.

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 livestock   

n.家畜，牲畜

参考例句：

• Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
• The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。

6 ecological   

adj.生态的，生态学的

参考例句：

• The region has been declared an ecological disaster zone.这个地区已经宣布为生态灾难区。
• Each animal has its ecological niche.每种动物都有自己的生态位.

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 molecular   

adj.分子的；克分子的

参考例句：

• The research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
• For the pressure to become zero, molecular bombardment must cease.当压强趋近于零时，分子的碰撞就停止了。

9 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

10 aroma   

n.香气，芬芳，芳香

参考例句：

• The whole house was filled with the aroma of coffee.满屋子都是咖啡的香味。
• The air was heavy with the aroma of the paddy fields.稻花飘香。

11 yeast   

n.酵母；酵母片；泡沫；v.发酵；起泡沫

参考例句：

• Yeast can be used in making beer and bread.酵母可用于酿啤酒和发面包。
• The yeast began to work.酵母开始发酵。

12 ferments   

n.酵素( ferment的名词复数 )；激动；骚动；动荡v.（使）发酵( ferment的第三人称单数 )；（使）激动；骚动；骚扰

参考例句：

• These chemically active ferments cause havoc. 这些化学活性的酶造成广泛损害。 来自辞典例句
• High solid ferments and yeast lees contract to highlight textural qualities. 采用固体发和酵母分离技术提高酒的品质。 来自互联网

13 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

14 remarkably   

ad.不同寻常地，相当地

参考例句：

• I thought she was remarkably restrained in the circumstances. 我认为她在那种情况下非常克制。
• He made a remarkably swift recovery. 他康复得相当快。

15 premium   

n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的

参考例句：

• You have to pay a premium for express delivery.寄快递你得付额外费用。
• Fresh water was at a premium after the reservoir was contaminated.在水库被污染之后，清水便因稀而贵了。

16 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》