Breaking the Food Chain: Pat Brown's Mission to Transform the Meat Industry with Impossible Foods
In this episode of Breaking Precedent, host Leah Solivan dives deep with Dr. Patrick Brown, the founder of Impossible Foods, who left a celebrated career in science to take on one of the most urgent issues of our time - animal agriculture. Together, they discuss how a plant-based alternative could dismantle an outdated, destructive food system and catalyze planetary restoration. Brown shares the origin story behind Impossible Foods, recounting his bold pivot from Stanford professor to food-tech pioneer. He unpacks the global environmental costs of livestock farming and o
Guest Bio and Links:
Patrick Brown is a biochemist, former Stanford professor, and founder of Impossible Foods, a company revolutionizing the way meat is made by eliminating animals from the equation. Through science, sustainability, and purpose-driven entrepreneurship, he is working to replace the global animal agriculture system by 2035.
Listeners can learn more about Patrick Brown on his website, on LinkedIn @PatrickBrown, and on Stanford Profiles
Resources:
Show Notes:
(0:00) Intro
(2:30) Leah introduces guest and founder of Impossible Foods, Patrick Brown
(3:30) How Patrick challenged the status quo
(4:30) ”Impossible Foods has been called a game changer, a disruptor, it's even been called a threat by the traditional meat industry.”
(7:30) Early life and growing up with a father in the CIA
(12:30) Patricks early career life
(19:30) Patrick takes a sabbatical that sparked a revolution
(24:00) ”The basic problem is not that people love meat. It's that we're using the wrong technology to produce it.”
(26:30) Reversing climate damage through food system reform
(32:30) Mission over market - a scientist's radical path
(37:00) Launching a meat revolution - Impossible Foods
(39:00) Winning over chefs - Dave Chang and strategic launch
(44:30) Declining Google’s buyout
(45:30) Barriers to scale - cost, regulation, and disinformation
(51:30) The 2035 vision - what it will take to succeed
(53:00) Final thoughts
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Leah Solivan is the host of Breaking Precedent, a podcast that explores the stories of innovators who are pushing societal boundaries and setting new precedents in their fields. Leah is General Partner at Fuel Capital, where she invests in early-stage companies across consumer technology, hardware, education, marketplaces, and retail. Leah has 15 years of experience building and creating technology products that have reached millions of people around the globe. She started her career at IBM as an engineer in the software group, working on Lotus Notes and Domino. In 2008, Leah founded TaskRabbit, the leading on-demand service marketplace in the world.
Connect with Leah:
Website: breakingprecedent.com/
Instagram: @labunleashed
