https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/plant-based-meat-needs-government-support-to-scale-up-but-a-culture-war-stands-in-the-way/
Public funding helped electric vehicles go mainstream. Are alternative proteins next — or are they too polarizing?
They don't even need government support. They just need AnAg based products to not be subsidized by our taxes, and they'd by ahead by a mile, price wise.
alternative proteins
alternative second-hand proteins.
https://awellfedworld.org/wp-content/uploads/Bean-Recipes-Ellen-Kanner.pdf
I'm Latino and went vegetarian. I just eat a shit load of beans now... Even more so.
two avocado tacos with black beans and some cilantro lime slaw have 30 grams of fiber, too. You can get almost half a day's worth of fiber from just a cup of black beans and they are no work to make if you have an instant pot!
I recently introduced Impossible burger for my family's taco night and it's become my kids preference. Price-wise, because my grocer refuses to sell exactly 1 lb. of beef they sell 1.15-1.3lbs for money grabbing), it's only about a dollar more.
Well worth it! It's gaining popularity for a reason. If it was priced evenly with beef, the meat industry would be sweating like they had the meat sweats.
I honestly don't get the point of this. Plant foods taste great, I don't need them to be further processed to taste like meat.
Food is so deep, culturally speaking. Many people have deep memories and positive associations with making meat dishes, and "forcing" plant based meats looks like the government intruding on that. It feels overbearing for a government to try and reduce eating of meat through any monetary means, even if it just means reducing / removing subsidies already in place.
It's doubly worse because splitting meat eating through money means the rich can still afford and eat meat in plentiful ways, where the poor won't be able to. This makes meat a wealth signifier (more than it already is), which can backfire pretty spectacularly.
In a policy sense, I actually have no idea how to limit meat eating. Even Carbon Taxes tend to have exceptions for beef.
I stand in the way by just sticking to my local farmers and butchers. But to be fair, it's not just because of fake meat. It's because of animal treatment by the food industry.
I applaude your resolution, but keep in mind that local and small scale does not mean cruelty free (even ignoring the part where they have to die). It's certainly better than factory farms, but it's not immediately good.
Not sure why you’re downvoted…
I enjoy a fake burger from time to time, but if we are honest, then criticizing ultra processed foods should always be fair game. These fake meats should be eaten in moderation next to a nutritionally balanced diet of mostly whole ingredients.
More from the produce section and less plastic wrapped goods.
The downvotes are because the comment lacks a little context. Impossible meat isn't around to replace vegetables, it's around to replace ground beef, which is pretty generally regarded as not healthy to begin with. And adding to that, the other processed fake meat products (chicken nuggets, hot dogs, sausages, ......) Are really just 1:1 swaps for processed meats.
My guess is at least 99.97% of people aren't grinding their own free range antibiotic free chicken into a pulp, then stamping them into Dino shapes and breading them with organic flour, before frying them in hand pressed olive oil from their organic olive orchard.
Fake meats often aren't great for you, but generally speaking, neither are the things they're trying to replace.
They're being downvoted because the UPF moral panic is being used to promote the meat industry, which is what this is in this context. They have entire ad campaigns for it, so this user's comment is essentially repeating a Big Beef ad.
Too late. At least in the US we've been spraying our crops with pfas while denying it, apparently.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/23/pfas-pesticides-epa-research
Your hotdogs and nuggies are full of microplastics. Nothing is free of man made chemicals. Even growing your own veggies in your own backyard will give you pfas and microplastics.
It tastes disgusting. If plant based meat is going to get ANY traction, food companies need to find a way to make it palatable.
I had some Boca burgers a couple of days ago and they were great. I like the Boca meatballs and Morning Star bacon a lot too. So, you might not like it, or maybe you haven't found the right one for you yet.
Used to eat Boca Burgers after school around 15 years ago and those things slapped. Like a minute in the microwave, throw some Monterey jack cheese on that bad boy, tasted like a slightly dry chicken sandwich.
Not sure if the recipie has changed since the plant based meat revolution, but I would have no problem with it replacing general consumption meat.
I still think there should be natural livestock meat available to consumers. Unless the dish your eating is meat focused( i.e. steak, bone-in chicken, ribs) I think there are very few who really would care/notice if the meat in their food was plants, because it's essentially a fat saturated spice delivery tool.
The ones I had tasted surprisingly close to a char grilled burger. I've found that the big trick with the plant based substitutes I've tried is to not eat it too often. Had to back off the meatballs for a bit.
Im glad you found something in this line you enjoy! I do product testing for a food manufacturer, and customers have been ubiquitous in saying they hate the plant based products. So I am speaking from my professional experience.
That said, things are getting better in this world, and hopefully soon we will have good meat alternatives that are not just niche cases.
You are also getting fairly biased feedback on this case, though. Realistically, I think companies like Beyond, Impossible, and Quorn have multiple product lines that give a taste and texture experience pretty damned close to their target, but people expect meat replacements to taste bad and so they do because taste is a wildly wishy-washy concept.
I am speaking from an in-house research perspective. Dont get me wrong, the marketing people wish you were right. And there are definitely products that are getting closer. But overall, consumer feedback is "bleh".
Im not sure what it is, but does anyone else feel terrible after eating these simulated meat brands? Specifically ones like Beyond and Impossible trying to simulate the exact taste
Actually the opposite for me. Real meat has so much grease in it I often feel bloated after a burger. Beyond meat burgers are fine for me.
Yup, I hate "beyond meat", it also makes me feel bad. I much prefer regular veggie burgers at this point.
Interesting, I'm not even vegetarian and I really like beyond meat. It doesn't taste exactly like real meat but it is so good in a different way and I get it like whenever I have a chance
Yeah I too am not vegetarian and like it. I don’t see it as a meat substitute, it’s just something I like eating. It’s more like a different type of meat.
I’ve eaten multiple a day (it has good protein) multiple times a week, coincidentally including the past two days, and it’s never made me feel weird. I just throw them on the stove as a quick protein snack and rawdog that shit two patties at a time. Kind of degenerate behavior but I like the way beyond tastes alone. I swear my food taste isn’t totally fucked, I eat normal things too
I think the beyond meat is mostly for non-vegetarians to see that you can get similar feel using vegetables.
Generally I would rather eat real meat or when I want something vegetarian just give me a bean/pea patty with some good spices in.
Yeah definitely. Weirdly I still like it, the flavor is more interesting to me than beef and it’s a lot easier to rawdog
I don't know, I think it's the mix and intensity of spices that they use, maybe?
And we agree on the idea. I'm not vegetarian but I've long decided that vegetarian-branded food should be judged on its own merits as food, not as "adequate replacement". Like: is this veggie burger yummy, do I enjoy eating it? That's the question, not "is it a good enough approximation to meat". If I want meat, I'll eat meat.
So (good) beef, chicken, veggie burgers: I like them because they taste good. Beyond meat burgers: I don't like them because they make me feel yucky afterwards. That's all.
I can eat several Burger King veggie burgers and feel fine while if I eat the normal whoppers in the same amount I will feel full and bloated afterwards.
Beyond and Gardein, yes. Impossible not so much though. The first version messed with me in the same way, but the second version they put out hasn't yet.
Ive never eaten meat my friend. Just because something is vegan doesnt mean it has to agree with my body
I've never eaten meat in my life but I don't want important conversations like this shut down by vegan zealots, if it's not good or healthy I want to know.
no i love the beyond spicy italian sausages on a corn tortilla with some jalapeño mustard i would eat them every day if they weren't so expensive!
I don't remember why I don't like beyond tbh, but impossible killed 188 rats to make their products if I recall correctly, it's not even vegan. If it makes you feel sick, there's no good reason to buy it - there's lots of other options out there that taste good.
Apparently it’s debated whether the one-time killin’ affects the veganiciousness
Inclined to believe they do feel bad about it:
That's hilarious, I guess its true what they say fanatics always starve.
188 is a crazy low number, you think they only killed those 188 and just let thousands of others infest their factory? Every food prep company is killing way more rats and mice, only caring about those killed for science is silly.
All the foods that we eat are genetically modified, or at least genetically improved. We aren't eating the same vegetables as our ancestors. We have genetically modified the plants and animals that we eat through millennia of selective breeding and agriculture techniques. This was all happening long before modern GMO techniques were even possible.