Going vegetarian (or vegan) is a sure way to help the environment. Emissions from livestock and the agricultural inputs to feed the animals are a major contributor to climate change. But humans generally like to eat meat, and as more of the world develops economically, that preference will only exacerbate constraints on our planet’s resources.

Tonight at 7pm on City Visions, we’ll look at the prospects for “clean meat” and plant-based meat alternatives, a burgeoning high-tech industry based largely in the San Francisco Bay Area. Can these products really slow climate change, as well as improve public health and reduce animal cruelty? And how do these products taste?

My guests include:

• Arvind Gupta, managing director and founder of IndieBio
• Paul Shapiro, author of the Washington Post bestselling book “Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World”; and spokesperson and vice president for The Humane Society of the United States
• Mike Selden, founder and CEO of Finless Foods

This show will be the first in our series on sustainable food production. Please call in and share your stories, ask a question, or make a comment.