Limited-supply Whopper is Burger King’s climate solution

Burger King will begin selling Whoppers sourced from cows that belch out less methane as the fast- food industry grapples with a questionable sustainability record.

The chain, owned by Toronto- based Restaurant Brands International Inc., debuted a sandwich Tuesday made from cattle raised on a diet supplemented with lemon grass, the company said. That’s expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions from those animals by about a third.

The new menu offering comes as a growing number of major food brands reckon with their large role in contributing to global emissions. Meat producers and retailers have been under growing pressure from investors and consumers to cut the climate impact of their products.

“To make a real impact in the world, we need the whole industry to change,” Fernando Machado, Burger King’s global chief marketing officer, said in an interview. “Just offering at Burger King is kind of like a drop in the ocean.”

Agriculture- related industries are second only to energy in terms of greenhouse gas emissions, and raising animals accounts for about 14.5 per cent of the global total. Cows emit methane that’s about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the planet.

The logistics of selling low- methane beef at scale across a fast- food empire are daunting. Meat suppliers and retailers will need to be ready to pay up more for that sort of beef. Any feed supplements or modified diets are likely to carry extra costs for cattle farmers who are already grappling with squeezed incomes, a problem compounded by the coronavirus pandemic.

Machado didn’t say how much the lower- methane beef would cost Burger King, which doesn’t plan to charge more for the limited- time product. The burger will be on menus at selected stores in Miami, New York, Austin, Portland and Los Angeles while stocks last, the company said. It’s also partnering with suppliers in Latin America and Europe to expand on the effort.

This isn’t the first green initiative taken by the company, which sells meatless burgers under a partnership with Impossible Foods Inc. Still, the restaurant doesn’t disclose its target for cutting emissions, making the impact of this latest step difficult to gauge. Green product releases, meanwhile, can help companies dodge calls for transparency while giving them a sales and public-relations boost.

While initial experiments have shown that Burger King’s modified diet cuts methane emissions by an average of 33 per cent, the method is still pending validation from an academic peer review after initial experiments. If sold on a mass scale, lower- emission beef may require the right certification to win consumer trust.

The company said it will openly share its cow diet formula to convince others to follow suit.