Oh, Nestle!

"The reason I like the plant-based so much is this is where the two [concern for the environment and red meat consumption health effects] kind of connect."
"There's an environmental side to it, and there's a healthy nutrition side to it."
"There is the environmental side. We fully own up and step up to the plate when it comes to that responsibility."
"Clearly, if we want to feed a planet of ten billion people in a few decades, having more plant-based alternatives and a more plant-based diet is going to be a big support."
Mark Schneider, chief executive, Swiss food giant Nestle, Lausanne, Switzerland

The Awesome Burger is designed to look, cook and taste like real meat

As the world's largest food company, Nestle has placed itself at the center of two massive social trends; support of the environment at a time of great changes in climate and the spectre of global warming -- and social consciousness over the impact of a meat-based diet further exacerbating a changing climate. Nestle, along with other corporations from food production to energy extraction find themselves under greater pressure from the public and from scientific interpretation of these issues.

Plastic production and incineration accounts for an estimated ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions, while agriculture is responsible for over a fifth of all such emissions, leading to pressure on manufacturers and agricultural enterprises, along with food processors to launch their own responses meant to help minimize the effects of climate change.

The Awsome Burger in all its glory   CNN Business

The world's largest investment fund, BlackRock, through its chief executive Larry Fink, has placed companies on notice that they will be expected to not only generate dividends for their shareholders, but commit to serving a social purpose in joining government and the public in cooperating to find new ways to counter global warming.

This is an issue that is being taken seriously on a global scale, where company shares for those perceived as environmentally responsible have been seen to outperform shares of companies not involved in a  universal effort to reduce humankind's footprint on the environment, according to a recent study published by Deutsche Bank. According to the report, consumers are moving increasingly to buying decisions based on whether they feel brands are environment-conscious.

Pea protein is a key ingredient in Sweet Earth's plant-based Awesome Burger.

Nestle's, according to Mr. Schneider, has committed to the environment and to upgrading public nutrition. The size and array of products under the Nestle imprimatur based on the shore of Lake Geneva in Vevey, has frequently gained unwelcome attention from activist groups. With its over 300,000 employees and sales of $93 billion last year, its reach is enormous, with a notable presence internationally.

Nestle has gained the reputation of promoting obesity through its sugary, fatty products; in its defence Nestle claims to have reduced sugar in its products by over a third since 2000 and intends to cut it even further by next year. It has also set targets for the reduction of saturated fats and for salt in its many products consumed all over the world. More vegetable products and fiber-rich ingredients such as nuts, whole-grains and beans are to be added to product constituents.

In certain areas of the world like Florida and California, Nestle, it has been pointed out, contributes to the depletion of spring-fed aquifers by using 'public' water, bottling and advertising it, and realizing a hefty profit. As for its reputation as a moral producer of food products, the giant corporation suffered quite the blow post WWII, when Africa, South America and Asia were flooded with baby formula made by Nestle and advertised as the  healthiest food babies could consume.

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Poverty in those countries didn't stop mothers from believing that if they only spent the money to buy baby formula rather than breast-feeding their babies they would be robust and healthy as the advertisements promised. Poverty, on the other hand, convinced mothers that watering down the formula given to their babies and relying solely on that nutrition-deficient liquid, led inevitably to poor health impacts and issues of babies perishing from lack of nourishment.

On the plus side of Nestle's newfound social conscience, in the Swiss village of Henniez, Nestle acquired the Henniez mineral water brand from a family company in 2008. Nestle then worked with the farmers to improve agricultural techniques that also protected the water. A biogas plant next to the Henniez bottling facility was fueled with local manure from farms, along with spent coffee grounds from recycled Nespresso pods. Th waste was used by farmers as fertilizer, further cutting down on  the use of agricultural chemicals.

And now Nestle is looking to make the leap into producing vegan burgers, along with every other major food processor, eager to become part of a growing consciousness trend in the avoidance of eating meat in favour of consuming greater agricultural products. In the recognition that cattle and dairy farming are known to be major sources of greenhouse gases, vegetables processed to resemble and taste like meat represent the food-industry wave of the future.

A pilot project for the Nestle brand has produced a product that resembles a bacon cheeseburger, a faux-meat, dairy-free product seen to be the food industry's future focus. It's a new food option venture embraced happily by food processors advertising to convince conscientious foodies that in eating the faux-burgers they'll be doing something for the environment while consuming a product as nutritious as the original without the damning reputation of raising cattle and increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

The proverbial fly in the ointment in this good-news nutritional story is the issue of just how nutritional and healthy overall are veggie burgers? True, their major constituent is a vegetable, usually peas, but processed well beyond the ken of Mother Nature. All the chemicals and transformations of whole foods that usually go into the preparation of processed and convenience foods are there in living technicolour in the veggie burger; as a healthier option for a real meat product it fails to make the grade.

The solution? If commitment to cutting out meat products is the end-goal, just do it. And commit to eating larger portions and greater varieties of fresh vegetables, raw and cooked. That's where the nutritional benefits are in vitamins, minerals and fibre, all good-health requirements. Balanced by the use of nuts, grains, beans. Adding an occasional meal of meat or fish and dairy is a reasonable alternative to dependence on heavily processed foods.

Tucker Bunch, culinary innovation and development chef at Sweet Earth, prepares food in the office's test kitchen