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> "When I tried a mini burger slathered in vegan mayo, mashed avocado, caramelized onions and Dijon prepared by San Francisco chef Traci Des Jardin at the company's headquarters in Redwood City, I was floored." Honestly a good chef can make cardboard taste good. But as a daily meat eater I'd love a good ground beef alternative.
This https://lightlife.com/products/smart-ground-original is pretty good
Interesting. As somebody who is not at all familiar with the "alternative meat" industry, my first question is, why not use real cow blood? You wouldn't need to kill the animal to use its blood and you could extract more blood from an animal than meat. Presumably the environmental impact of a blood only farm would be substantially lower than that of a meat farm. Or is that not the case?
The product would not be marketable to vegans if real cow blood were used. (Granted, the article says the company is not marketing to vegans.)
Vegans are a relatively night-knit lot. As long as it contains no animal products and tastes good, all they'll need to do is pass out a few free samples at a single vegan meetup and then sit back and wait. Every strict vegetarian on the continent will be talking about it within a week.
Meanwhile, if they do spend much money on marketing it to vegans then they risk locking themselves into niche product status as a result of the public perceiving it as being all covered in vegan cooties.
I know of at least one fairly popular cafe that only serves vegan baked goods, but does not publicly label them as such for that reason.
Interesting. As somebody who is not at all familiar with the "alternative meat" industry, my first question is, why not use real cow blood? You wouldn't need to kill the animal to use its blood and you could extract more blood from an animal than meat. Presumably the environmental impact of a blood only farm would be substantially lower than that of a meat farm. Or is that not the case?
Because the target group for this is product like this is virtually non existent. If you don't eat meat for health reason blood or meat doesn't make the difference, if you don't eat meat for the animals, why would you support a gruesome vampire farm. Also this sounds ridiculously impractical if you can just simulate the stuff by using ketchup for the color and iron for the taste.
Although I agree that selling blood at scale would need clever marketing. It seems like the blood imitation in the article would have similar problems, since it looks and tastes like blood.
I've been a vegetarian for the last decade and change, and I simultaneously think that finding a cheaper, appealing alternative to meat is both a fantastic opportunity for the world and a really difficult thing. I used to love meat when I was a meat-eater, and I'm a fairly picky eater that dislikes many vegetable options. (Green peppers are nasty and food-destroying in my opinion, which immediately removes over half…
Much of Western food is only expected to be an accompaniment to a meat dish, which is why you can't just cut meat out and eat the vegetable dishes you're used to when you're eating meat as well, imnsho.
I would definitely like to try the products (another reason to make a trip back to Colorado). Lots of questions long term though. Is this the "Ethanol of Meat" ? Where the total cost/impact of producing the good overwhelms the benefits? Ground chuck roast is $7/lb and currently this stuff is more expensive than that. Can it be less expensive than that? Way less expensive? The fundamental question is does this move us…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think draining an animal of blood over and over is also pretty cruel.
It could be done in a way that isn't cruel. Just take a little at a time, like we do with humans. It might not even be less efficient if the rate of blood production is fairly constant. (I don't know enough biology to speculate.)
I would definitely like to try the products (another reason to make a trip back to Colorado). Lots of questions long term though. Is this the "Ethanol of Meat" ? Where the total cost/impact of producing the good overwhelms the benefits? Ground chuck roast is $7/lb and currently this stuff is more expensive than that. Can it be less expensive than that? Way less expensive? The fundamental question is does this move us…
Very large herds of cattle on extremely large areas of semi-arid grasslands mimic the buffalo that humans eradicated. They take few to no resources that aren't already there, and they actually support the ecosystem.
In some places cattle suck down resources that could go to other more useful places (grain, water, etc.) but in others they're the only way to gain anything from the land, and they protect it from desertification.
I've been a vegetarian for the last decade and change, and I simultaneously think that finding a cheaper, appealing alternative to meat is both a fantastic opportunity for the world and a really difficult thing. I used to love meat when I was a meat-eater, and I'm a fairly picky eater that dislikes many vegetable options. (Green peppers are nasty and food-destroying in my opinion, which immediately removes over half…