Tyson Foods CEO: The Future of Food Might Be Meatless • Hacker News Board

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

#61

Post by morcutt » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:22 AM UTC

nunez wrote: post #7

if they can make affordable plant based chicken that's as tasty and protein-packed as real chicken and veg beef that's as good as real beef, then I'm 100% in. the biggest problem with non-meat foods (for me) has always been with their macros. I can get 32g of protein with nearly zero fat or carbs from 4oz of chicken for less than $2 a serving. Last I checked, this was not possible with alternative food.

I had the same outlook as far as taste goes. I really think it is just our palette being trained to love this type of food. After switching to a vegan diet, I do not crave meat whatsoever. I really enjoy all of the dishes I would have never eaten otherwise.

The company Tyson invested in stacks up quite well to conventional meat. http://beyondmeat.com/

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

#62

Post by hinkley » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:23 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #29

mynameishere wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I would argue the difference here is we could just, you know, eat the plants but we don't want to. 36% of US corn goes to feed animals for meat and dairy (3%-40% efficient). [1] There would be significantly more food to go around if the plants were just eaten directly. It would be more like if there were plows at the time that operated on solar but nobody wanted to use them, and instead, decided to tie horses to the…

Those endless fields of corn in the midwest are feed corn, not corn on the cob. They're destined for processed food or to feed animals. Soy isn't all that much different. What would have to happen is that we start planting something else, that's more immediately edible.

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

#63

Post by xexers » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

nilved wrote: post #26

viraptor wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Replicating the taste is the wrong way to go about it. Vegan food can taste just as good as meat and cheese, but it will never taste like meat and cheese because it's not meat and cheese.

Agreed. People should stop going for a veggie burger that tastes like a beef burger. Instead, compare a beef burger to completely different, high quality, vegan meal like a veggie green curry, tikka masala, or burrito.

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

#64

Post by agitator » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

wollstonecraft wrote: post #20

sethbannon wrote: post #9

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.

Or you could take the Impossible Foods approach and use plant based methods to replicate the components of meat.

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

#65

Post by jimmywanger » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #34

intrasight wrote: post #2

Seems a certainty to me, assuming that eventually the cost of the carbon footprint gets passed down to consumers.

Carbon footprint for meat is significantly higher because you have to grow the plans and feed it to the animals, and moving up a trophic level is usually ~10% efficient. It's much more efficient to consume the plants directly.

> It's much more efficient to consume the plants directly.

We can't consume most plants directly, and the ones that we do, we consume only a tiny minority of the plant (most of the time).

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

#66

Post by kefka » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:24 AM UTC

pzone wrote: post #38

derefr wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not grow pseudo-animals that consist of tiled blocks of muscle + liver + dermis?

Mmmm that phrasing. So appetizing.

Not any more appetizing if you knew what most slaughterhouses do.

Admittedly, it would be tremendously hard for me to be a vegetarian. Im a T2 diabetic. Grains, starches, and sugars are all bad for me.

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

#67

Post by mbrameld » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:25 AM UTC

jimmywanger wrote: post #53

SeanBoocock wrote: post #22

What heartens me is that the shift towards plant-base protein can be gradual while still having a large impact. Ingredients like ground beef make up the majority(?) [1] of beef sold and there are already good plant based simulacra on the market [2] with more coming soon. I have my doubts we'll see anything marketable and cost competitive that could compete with larger cuts of meat in the next decade, but I could see…

> there are already good plant based simulacra I'd have to disagree on that. I've had most fake meats on the market. The closest that comes to real meat is Quorn, and that's only for poultry and such. There's just something off about most meat substitutes.

I agree that there's nothing out there that can simulate a grilled steak, but I don't think you're going to notice the difference between real ground beef and the fake stuff in a Taco Bell taco.

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

#68

Post by sanswork » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

crowbahr wrote: post #57

xsmasher wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's already a more efficient way to turn energy and matter into food - plants. Running it through animals before we eat it is the inefficiency.

Problem is getting plants to taste as good as meat.

People who don't have meat based diets tend to not agree that meats taste good(after some time if they were heavy meat eaters before). So the solution is to start kids on meat free diets and keep them on them then within a generation most people won't think meat tastes as good as plants. Problem solved.

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

#69

Post by xexers » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

ra1n85 wrote: post #5

brohoolio wrote: post #3

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'd worry about phytoestrogens as well. There are compounds in plant based foods that must be consumed in moderation (as all things). A vegetarian diet is superior in many ways to the modern western diet, but not without its own risks/disadvantages.

The evidence for soy phytoestrogens affecting us is weak.

Dairy has a substantial amount of estrogen as well: http://www.livestrong.com/article/554285-does-milk-raise-est...

Although, the evidence that it affects men is also weak.

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

#70

Post by bobcostas55 » Wed, Mar 08, 2017, 2:29 AM UTC

arcticbull wrote: post #44

cmdrfred wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we all lived in 3 foot by 7 foot cubes it would cost a great deal less to heat our homes as well. Just because a more optimal way to do things exist doesn't mean anyone actually wants to do it. I enjoy eating meat, thus I will continue to do so.

The difference is one's uncomfortable, the other you're just used to. Plants are no less tasty, they're just different. I eat meat too, I'm just saying.

>Plants are no less tasty

Sketch out a model of the evolution of dietary preferences in the ancestral environment (esp post-fire) and you will quickly see this is an insane thing to believe.