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Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

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Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#11
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm willing to bet that this is for two reasons: 1. It's expensive because people with more money are more likely to be vegetarian. 2. We don't pay for the true cost of meat, i.e. green house gas emissions, water usage, transportation costs, etc....

How is water and transportation not paid for?

Massive government subsidies and tax breaks.

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with it, but it does make the playing field unfair.

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#13

Interesting to see if the company actually shifts it's culture. My wife is vegetarian so I'm exposed to quite a bit of different sources of veggie protein. My concern is that the fake meat stuff is actually kind of expensive compared to meat. If it was cheaper I can see more folks move in that direction.

It also doesn't taste like meat. I will happily eat a vegan meal that tastes good. I'll eat meat that tastes good. But I just don't see a point in buying a "soy chicken schnitzel" which does not taste like chicken at all. Why should I be interested in that product in the first place?

Hopefully one day we'll get to actually replicating the taste properly. Or growing meat synthetically. I'm happy to move to either.

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#14
post #4

Interesting to see if the company actually shifts it's culture. My wife is vegetarian so I'm exposed to quite a bit of different sources of veggie protein. My concern is that the fake meat stuff is actually kind of expensive compared to meat. If it was cheaper I can see more folks move in that direction.

I'm willing to bet that this is for two reasons: 1. It's expensive because people with more money are more likely to be vegetarian. 2. We don't pay for the true cost of meat, i.e. green house gas emissions, water usage, transportation costs, etc....

I'm a vegetarian and I buy fake meats ('cause I miss meat). My theory about why they are relatively expensive is that vegetarianism is seen as "healthy" and people think that healthy things need to cost more than non-healthy things. Kind of "If it's cheap, it can't be healthy".

And that's a win-win for the companies producing it, and why I think there has recently been a surge in startups making fake meat!

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#15

Animal agriculture seems to me like one of those things that in 50 to 100 years people will look back on with bewilderment. "You mean you birthed whole animals, let them grow for two years, fed them all the while, just to kill them, chop up their remains, and ship that to people?" Plant based protein and maybe even more so cultured/clean meat (e.g. http://www.memphismeats.com/ ) seem likely to totally replace how we…

Yeah, on the same token I'm totally mystified that people used horses to pull plows. What the heck were they thinking?

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#18
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm willing to bet that this is for two reasons: 1. It's expensive because people with more money are more likely to be vegetarian. 2. We don't pay for the true cost of meat, i.e. green house gas emissions, water usage, transportation costs, etc....

How is water and transportation not paid for?

What isn't paid for is the cost of feed. Corn is the major foodstuff of both birds and, sadly, commercial cows. Corn is subsidized to below the cost of production by the US government.

Transportation is not paid for, really, because the highways are maintained without usage fees.

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#19
I'm particularly interested in vat grown meat.

As a consumer, I do care about the footprint of my meat based protein, although I don't want to give up eating meat.

As a chef, if they can get marbling in, I'm excited for the different styles we could create.

Note: a plant based reactor (sorry I couldn't remember the term, the seed for the meat to grow with), has been mentioned a few times as becoming close to ready, which would bring the costs down a lot.

Re: Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless

#20

Animal agriculture seems to me like one of those things that in 50 to 100 years people will look back on with bewilderment. "You mean you birthed whole animals, let them grow for two years, fed them all the while, just to kill them, chop up their remains, and ship that to people?" Plant based protein and maybe even more so cultured/clean meat (e.g. http://www.memphismeats.com/ ) seem likely to totally replace how we…

How are you going to do aseptic technique and metabolic regulation rate for less energy than skin+immune system and a liver? Anyone who's ever cultured mammalian cells knows that you toss the medium with most of the carbon source remaining because it's gotten too acidic with lactate. Turns out that livers are a really energy-efficient way of keeping cells alive.
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