The vegan entrepreneur

It doesn’t just taste like chicken. It looks and cooks like one, too.

That’s what Ethan Brown ’94 says about “Veggie Chicken,” a new meat substitute that replicates the fibrous structure of animal tissue and can substitute for meat in any dish. But fooling the palate is only one of Brown’s objectives. The 40-year-old entrepreneur also aims eventually to “dramatically underprice meat.”

Many of the meat substitutes available at grocery stores today are viewed by consumers as being inferior to and costing more than the real thing, according to Brown. The soy- and pea-protein-based products he’s developing are his answer to a question he started asking himself about three years ago: What if meat substitutes that were healthier for the consumer — and for the environment — were available at a lower cost than animal protein?

Brown, who majored in government and history, came up with his business concept while working in business development for the fuel-cell company Ballard Power Systems. He regularly attended conferences where “people would literally be wringing their hands” trying to figure out how to use renewable energy to address climate change. Yet, often, they would be eating steak, known for its energy-intensive production process. “How difficult is it to change what you eat for dinner?” Brown asks. “Logistically, it’s easy.”

He left his staff position at Ballard in 2009 (while staying on as a consultant until last year) and began investigating meat substitutes. His research led him to Fu-hung Hsieh, a professor of biological engineering and food science at the University of Missouri who had been working for a decade on using plant-based proteins to mimic animal tissue.