Bill Gates told the world rich countries should ditch beef and switch to fake meat.
Now his money is bankrolling campaigns to convince 16-year-old boys that real men skip the steak.
The same operation already has plans for school cafeterias and the military mess hall.
Bill Gates Has Been Pushing Fake Meat for Years
Gates has been at war with the American dinner plate for over a decade.
He poured money into Impossible Foods, Beyond Meat, and UPSIDE Foods – a lab-grown meat company – not out of conviction alone, but because he stood to profit from every shift away from beef.
His 2021 book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster made the agenda explicit – meat production is destroying the planet, and Americans need to give it up.
Lectures from a tech billionaire weren't changing what Americans put on their plates.
So the strategy got smarter – and a lot more targeted.
Gates' foundation cut a $75,000 grant in February 2025 to The School for Moral Ambition, a Dutch nonprofit co-founded by author Rutger Bregman.
The organization didn't volunteer that information – a journalist discovered the Gates connection by accident, and the school only added the disclosure after the fact.
The school places promising young people inside organizations working to reshape culture.
One of those placements is Alexandra Perry, now installed at People for Better Food – a nonprofit with a single mission.
Its website is blunt: "Americans have a love affair with meat, but it's no longer serving us well."
Why They Targeted Teen Boys to Push Plant-Based Protein
Perry's fundraising pitch names the target specifically: males aged 16 to 24.
The fundraising materials call out fitness influencers and podcasters who promote meat as the "ultimate badge of masculinity" – and mark them as the primary targets.
The campaign was designed to reach well past the young men it starts with.
Perry predicted that flipping their views would affect "their diets, their children's diets, and the generations to follow."
That is a 50-year plan disguised as a fitness campaign.
People for Better Food's strategy documents spell out the method.
The organization says it must "fundamentally reshape cultural beliefs about meat and plant-based eating."
It describes "identity-driven campaigns" built around "in-group messengers" – trusted voices inside a young man's world, recruited to normalize plant eating without disclosing who is backing the push.
Founder Emilie Fitch dropped any pretense of health science in a 2025 campaign announcement: "We're not leaning into ethics, environment or pure health facts. Instead, we connect on culture, identity and THEIR values."
That is psychological targeting of American teenagers, funded by one of the wealthiest foundations on earth.
The existing campaign vehicle, Plants for the Win, was already running before Perry arrived.
The campaign site opens with "BUILDING STRENGTH? TRY A PED." – where PED stands for performance-enhancing diet, not steroids.
Fitness influencer Jesse James West appears on the site interviewing gymgoers about protein, then directs them to the campaign's Instagram account.
One campaign image features a muscular man clutching a block of tofu, captioned: "DOES TOFU TRIGGER YOU?"
The strategy is designed to make meat-eating look defensive and plant-eating look strong.
Soy Milk for School Cafeterias and Plant Protein for the Troops
The school's fellowships go well beyond the gym.
Another fellow, Laura Picot, published a March 2026 European Policy Centre paper – acknowledged as school-supported – calling for governments to use purchasing power to lock in demand for plant proteins.
The paper recommends the EU School Scheme be expanded to include "plant-based protein products, such as soy milk."
Picot then aimed at the military.
"Protein crop integration could also be considered in defence-sector catering under Readiness 2030," Picot wrote.
Readiness 2030 is Europe's military preparedness initiative – the program meant to keep armies combat-ready against rising global threats.
Gates-backed activists are now aiming at it, and Biden's Pentagon already showed it could be done.
The Pentagon's BioMADE program – a public-private operation that received more than $500 million in Defense Department funding – formally solicited proposals to develop lab-grown meat for military dining, explicitly to shrink the military's carbon footprint.
A livestock industry spokesperson said soldiers "should never be used as guinea pigs."
While Trump's administration pushed back in 2026 – RFK Jr. released a new food pyramid centered on animal proteins – Gates' network kept embedding fellows inside the institutions that feed the next generation.
This is not charity.
Those same investments profit when plant proteins replace beef in school cafeterias and military mess halls.
Every institutional cafeteria that swaps out beef, every mess hall that adopts protein crops, locks in market share for products Gates already holds a stake in.
Gates is building a customer base – and it starts with teenagers who think it was their idea.
Sources:
- Natalie Winters, "Gates-Backed School Promotes Plan to Turn Teen Boys Against Meat," Substack, September 22, 2026.
- People for Better Food, website and strategy materials, peopleforbetterfood.org, 2025–2026.
- The School for Moral Ambition, FAQ and About pages, moralambition.org, 2026.
- Gates Foundation, grant database, February 2025 grant record.
- Washington Free Beacon, "Pentagon Wants to Feed Troops 'Experimental' Lab-Grown Meat to 'Reduce CO2 Footprint,'" Washington Free Beacon, 2023.
