Saving the planet ... one dumpling at a time
Canadian scientists have collaborated with Hong Kong climate campaigners to create meat-free dumplings in the hope of persuading the world’s biggest carnivores to stop pigging out.
China eats more meat than any other nation — twice the amount consumed by people in the United States — and a campaigning Hong Kong business is launching a more sustainable, plant-based diet that it says has less impact on global warming, but all of the taste.
“Just to tell people what not to do is not going to solve the problem. You’ve got to give them alternatives,” says David Yeung, founder of Green Monday.
“Climate change, water scarcity, food security — these are giant problems. The easiest way to help the planet is to reduce meat consumption,” the business founder says.
Green Monday was founded in 2012 as a social enterprise — a business with a mission to benefit society as well as turn a profit. It will launch Omnipork at its sixth Green Common food stores in Hong Kong at the beginning of June.
It is the latest substitute meat product aimed at carnivores who are open to finding ethical meat alternatives that have less of an impact on the environment.
Scientists attribute nearly 15 percent of global greenhouse gases to meat production.
The industry is the largest driver of global environmental change due to feed production, land use and methane emissions, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization.
Food, glorious food
China, which has around four times the population of the United States, consumes about twice as much meat as the US. People in China ate about 74 million tons of pork, beef and poultry in 2017, according to US government estimates.
Omnipork is the first food product created by Green Monday, which campaigns for people to ditch meat at least once a week.
Made of shiitake mushroom, rice and pea protein, the new food will initially only be available in prepared dishes such as dumplings and the traditional Asian dish of dan dan noodles.
As well as running grocery stores, the social enterprise has an online directory of restaurants with vegetarian menus and has invested in Beyond Meat, a California-based firm that produces a burger made from plants.
Yeung says it took Canadian food scientists about 18 months to achieve the right texture, moistness and taste to create a product that is “almost indistinguishable” from real pork.
Nearly three quarters of consumers globally are limiting or avoiding meat altogether, according to GlobalData, a data-analysis company that surveyed nearly 27,000 people in 36 countries, including China.
“The shift toward plant-based foods is being driven by millennials, who are most likely to consider the food source, animal welfare issues and environmental impact,” says Fiona Dyer, a consumer analyst at GlobalData.