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Not so Impossible! 13,401 burgers in a year is a lot of sustainability

Looking for a meaty burger without the meat? In the year since we launched the 100% plant-based Impossible Burger last spring, we've sold 13,401 of them at three Cornell Dining eateries. It's all part of our commitment to the "Menus of Change" principles of healthy, sustainable eating!

Impossible Burger

We hear from many of our guests that they appreciate our efforts to serve fewer red-meat-based meals, and with 0% cow in the amazing Impossible Burger, we've all got another choice when we want to eat less (or no) meat in our meals on campus. Even better: compared to cows, producing the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions.

Over the course of our first year, when compared to burgers using beef, we've saved the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of 219,048 miles (almost the distance to the moon!) driven in a car, 16 football fields worth of farmland, and 1,545,578 single-serving bottles of water.

To put the quantity in context, a total of 30,711 burgers made of beef were sold in the same three eateries over the same period of time as the 13,401 Impossible Burgers. That means 30% of all burgers sold were Impossible Burgers!Even without the beef, the Impossible Burger manages to be hearty, juicy, satisfying, and yes, downright meaty! We're looking at it as a way to enjoy a good old-fashioned burger that's more sustainable because it's made from plants. The Impossible Burger is offered alongside the Pub Burger at the Ivy Room in Willard Straight Hall, served with lettuce and tomato on a brioche bun with our delicious curly fries and a pickle! It's available in place of beef in any of the specialty burgers at McCormick's at Moakley House at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Course at Cornell. And it's offered à la carte with your choice of toppings at Trillium in Kennedy Hall on the Ag Quad.

About Cornell Dining

Cornell Dining is consistently ranked in the Princeton Review's top ten for best campus food among all colleges and universities in the country. That high rating comes from customer surveys, and reflects Cornell Dining's commitment to serving high-quality foods that are healthy and creatively prepared with genuine care for a diverse community. Cornell Dining operates 29 on-campus eateries -- which include all-you-care-to-eat dining rooms, cafés, coffee houses, food courts, and convenience stores -- and serves more than 26,000 meals a day to members of the Cornell community. For more information, visit dining.cornell.edu.