Meat-Eating Agriculture Secretary Tries the Impossible Burger

(Bloomberg) -- Sonny Perdue may be a champion of big agriculture and agribusinesses in all its forms, but even he isn’t immune to the lure of a vegan burger.

On Thursday, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture visited the Impossible Foods Inc. headquarters in Redwood City, California, where staff cooked up their signature alternative-meat burger for him. He said it tasted “very good,” and that it was a “good facsimile” of real beef.

Impossible Foods is a closely held rival to Beyond Meat Inc., which has gained almost 600% since going public last month. The California company is also a critic of the beef industry, and its executives have said their goal is to eliminate cow meat as a significant part of the food system. Impossible Foods says its burgers use 87% less water, 96% less land and emit 89% fewer greenhouse gases than beef from cows.

Perdue, who grilled on a Tokyo rooftop last month to in an effort to push for more Japanese purchases of U.S. meat, said he didn’t agree that beef was bad for the environment. When asked about its environmental footprint, he said: “I think I’m a meat eater.”

The secretary was also mindful that alternative meats could be a boon for U.S. farmers. He praised Impossible Foods’s innovation and said it could help soybean farmers, since the vegan burger contains the oilseed.

Impossible Chief Executive Officer Pat Brown has criticized ground beef for containing fecal bacteria and having negative health consequences. The Impossible Burger has made inroads. It is offered at thousands of restaurants in the U.S., including fast-food stalwarts like White Castle and Burger King. Some customers have run out of the burgers, which are designed to “bleed” like real meat.

Perdue is seen by some smaller farmers as favoring large farm operations, big companies and agribusinesses, including the beef industry. The North American Meat Institute said it was pleased to see Perdue visiting an alternative protein facility.

“He is a veterinarian who has long understood consumers benefit from a variety of protein products in the marketplace, including meat which has environmental, nutritional and economic benefits,” said Sarah Little, vice president of communications at the institute.

As Perdue walked away from the press gaggle, he could be heard talking to Brown, who told him he agreed that ultimately “the consumer is right” and that it’s up to producers to win them over.

“I know there’s some anxiety out there,” Perdue said. But “the main answer is the labeling question - consumers ought to know what it is and where it came from.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Brown said.

Wholesale beef prices on Thursday fell to a four-month low, USDA data show.

--With assistance from Deena Shanker.

To contact the reporters on this story: Josh Eidelson in Washington at jeidelson@bloomberg.net;Lydia Mulvany in Chicago at lmulvany2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Attwood at jattwood3@bloomberg.net, Millie Munshi

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