Why Illinois Will Rule the Meatless Future

[mucifer]

More than a decade ago, Harold Wilken, a soybean farmer in Iroquois County, transformed his 2,200-acre farm into an organic operation and, rather than growing animal feed, began supplying beans for soy milk and miso soup, and to the Edgewater tofu maker Phoenix Bean.

Was Wilken ahead of his time? Since the fall of 2018, Burger King has introduced the soy-based Impossible Burger, White Castle has added the Impossible Slider, and KFC has begun selling the chickenless Beyond Fried Chicken. That means plant-based meats, once on the menu only at vegetarian restaurants, are now in every neighborhood. The Economist called 2019 “the year veganism goes mainstream.”

For Illinois, which grows more soybeans than any other state, the rise of vegan hamburgers is an Impossible dream. Just as we once dominated the meat industry with the Union Stock Yards, we can dominate the meatless industry with our farms. “Illinois is the ideal place to develop this industry,” says Vijay Singh, director of the University of Illinois’s Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory in Urbana, which is developing alternative proteins. “We have some of the most fertile ground in the world.”

Illinois’s soybeans can be converted into vegan eggs and into heme, the additive that gives the Impossible Burger its meaty taste, Singh says. Protein can also be fermented from corn sugar, providing a new market for the state’s other staple crop — which needs a new market now that high-fructose corn syrup is flavoring fewer soft drinks. “All the [food] startup culture is happening in California or Massachusetts, but where are they getting all their sugars?” asks Singh. “The sugars are coming from Illinois. It’s a great thing for our corn and soybean farmers.”

more: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2019/Plant-Based-Burgers/