Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty
By Steve LeVine | Axios
From every direction, the underpinnings of everyday life are under challenge — from the jobs Americans once held, to the allies we once embraced, to the decorum we tightly observed. Now, it’s the hamburger — the very-nearly patriotic staple of every childhood and backyard barbecue — that’s under threat.
What’s happening: Last week, McDonald’s became the latest major fast-food chain to serve plant-based burgers, saying it will test the “Big Vegan TS” in Germany. By the end of the year, such non-meat burgers will be in 7,200 Burger Kings, 1,000 Carl’s Jrs., and hundreds of other fast-food joints.
That’s a lot of “imposter” burgers, as George Motz, one of the world’s premier hamburger experts, calls the boom in laboratory-invented burgers. “If the next generation embraces these 100%, we will lose a sense of what a real burger should be. They are getting away from the real thing.”
