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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Losing Fight Against Fake Meat
Reprinted with permission from Creators.
When you visit a grocery, literal-mindedness is a handicap. Apple butter is actually not a dairy product. Grape-Nuts cereal omits grapes as well as nuts. Corn dogs dont need leashes.
The U.S. Cattlemens Association, however, is appalled that new forms of protein are being sold under names such as Beyond Beef and Impossible Burger. Vegetarian and vegan substitutes for meat have gained a significant share of the market, partly because of health considerations and partly because of aversion to killing harmless animals for food. But the livestock group fears that consumers are being cruelly misled.
It wants the Department of Agriculture to stop not only the use of these brand names but any term suggesting that there is such a thing as synthetic beef or vegan meat.
It complains that Beyond Meat offers what it calls a plant-based burger that smells, tastes, looks and even feels like ground beef and, if you can imagine, strategically merchandises its products adjacent to traditional meat in grocery stores. Yet, it notes, these foods are composed entirely of non-meat ingredients such as Pea Protein Isolate, Rice Flour and Yeast Extract.'
http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-losing-fight-against-fake-meat/
Kirk Lover
(3,608 posts)Johnny2X2X
(19,145 posts)They are close to getting it right and they're going to be able to grow "real" meat from cows in a lab that aren't really cows (No central nervous system of organs).
Factory farming is one of the great horrors of modern times. Science can eliminate it if we have the will, but it's going to take getting the taste exactly right.
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)Next up big tobacco's war on candy cigarettes.
Archae
(46,356 posts)I keep seeing in the grocery store food labeled as "gluten free" and "GMO free" that almost always is far more expensive than the food I usually buy.
"But...but...you're eating healthy!"
Bullshit.
It's nothing but a scam, by people like Jeffrey Smith, Mike "Health Ranger" Adams and "The Food Babe."
Lots of wild claims, and anecdotes.
Science? "Dem science people are all in on da conspiracy!"
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,972 posts)There shouldn't be any alternatives for us that aren't basically cardboard?
Wounded Bear
(58,728 posts)that people who purportedly don't like meat would seek out alternatives that taste like meat.
Bonx
(2,075 posts)It's fantastic.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,972 posts)I am one because of animal rights and environmental reasons. I loved meat. It is delicious. It was just that morally I couldn't do it anymore. And I'm not a preachy vegetarian, but I do what sits well with me.
So we have some alternatives now. A lot of vegetarians don't like it because it does taste like meat. But plenty don't. Beyond Meat burgers are one of the best things to happen in that market for a long time.
Archae
(46,356 posts)My gripe is with those pushing their agenda on everyone, and those who are simply cashing in.
Science be damned.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,972 posts)Don't eat it if you don't want to. There are a lot of vegetarians out there and it's kind of nice that burger places are trying to offer something for them. It's nice to be able to go out and eat with non-vegetarian friends and have some actual options.
Archae
(46,356 posts)I tried some vegetarian beef, a sample at the grocery store.
It was good.
It's when someone makes outlandish claims or innuendos, that it bugs me.
Mike "Natural News" Adams claims eating meat causes autism.
(He says that about vaccines too.)
The woman serving the "meat" at the store said the product was better nutrition than actual meat, and did not cause cancer.
crazycatlady
(4,492 posts)The most difficult thing about being vegetarian is eating out. I'm happy for places that offer a veggie burger in place of a meat one because it means I can eat more than the fries.
So far, none of the veggie burgers I've tried taste anything like a meat one, but they'll do. I'd like to try these new ones.
zipplewrath
(16,646 posts)Pigs in a factory farm are treated quite badly, but let's not kid anyone about how harmless they are. Neither are steers. Chickens and turkeys on the other hand....
Is kinda strange they seemed to be focused on beef, when the chickens and pigs are some of the worst treated.
awesomerwb1
(4,268 posts)DBoon
(22,401 posts)MoonRiver
(36,926 posts)MicaelS
(8,747 posts)melm00se
(4,996 posts)meat substitutes as long as they are labelled as such.
We require labels that identify what something is. All foods should equally adhere to those regulations.
procon
(15,805 posts)not so distant future. Veggie foods already take up a larger place in many menu plans today, not just for the ethical considerations, but health and cost factors make people more interested in trying out meatless meals.
The syfy authors who write about world building details often describe stuff that is generically labeled as "vat meat", sort of like designer grown meat products, as a common food. Scientists already have to expertise to clone and grow various body parts for research and medical needs. Can they produce something that can pass for the real deal, maybe big tubes of chicken breast meat or beefsteaks?
With the rising costs of raising food animals and getting the meat to market, how much longer will it be before some new start up company starts growing "beef", "chicken" or "fish" as a commercial enterprise? When the cost factor of producing a pound of "fake meat", whether its from veggie stuffs or genuine meat cells grown in a vat, becomes competitive with meat from livestock, only the extremely wealthy will be able to afford those luxury foods.
byronius
(7,401 posts)I don't miss real meat, not ever, period. So glad to be free of it.
For more than just health reasons, which my physician will attest to.