How do you imitate a beloved taste? The answer could lie in the world of meat substitutes. Climate researchers warn that meat consumption is one of the main causes of the climate crisis. So people around the world are researching convincing alternatives.

Even if we stopped driving cars and flying tomorrow, we can no longer meet the 1.5-degree target – unless we also radically change our diets. Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climate impact researcher at NASA, lays out with impressive clarity why we can’t continue consuming meat the way we have been.

An ever-increasing proportion of the population describes itself as ‘flexitarian’. But many people can’t imagine giving up meat without some kind of replacement. So it’s no wonder the market for meat alternatives is growing rapidly. “The Great Meat Debate” takes a look behind the scenes of this industry. Traditional meat producers like Rügenwalder Mühle have entered the booming meat-alternative business with plant-based alternatives. Companies like Impossible Foods in Silicon Valley and the Israeli start-up Future Meat use high-tech resources – and hundreds of millions of dollars in investments – to produce real meat in the lab.

This documentary looks at questions like: What do you have to look out for if you want to authentically imitate a taste? Why would no one buy a schnitzel that is brown on the inside? Optimists have their say, as do skeptics. ‘The Great Meat Debate’ Playlist (5-Part Series):

• The Great Meat Debate - Part 1: Factory farming, animal welfare, and the future of modern agriculture
• Factory farming  -Part 2: Do we need to eat meat?
• Do we need to eat - Part 3: Ethics and meat consumption
• Ethics and meat - Part 4: The world of meat substitutes
• The world of meat - Part 5: A vegan lifestyle: Is it the future? - [Coming soon]

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