Canadian meat giant Maple Leaf debuts new plant-based burger

We switched over to off-the-shelf sourdough a bit ago, I'll pass this on to her and after this round of trials is over I may try baking a loaf of windowsill sourdough myself with more control over the inputs. The coarse rye bread we've been able to find is supposed to be "leavened with natural starters and little to no yeast" but there is wiggle room in their language.

Thanks!

> We have to reduce meat consumption as we understand the impact on climate change, and as ever more of the world gains a developed life. Meat consumption needs to trend like smoking.

For the US I disagree. According to the math, if the entire country went 100% vegan it would cut emissions by 2-3%. If we're only going to look at individual habits there are other areas that are more impactful. Flying in airplane less would have a far larger impact than not eating meat. Or not having children, or owning an automobile etc.

Meat consumption has also declined in the US by ~25% since the 1960s. So you may get your wish :)

Growing more crops doesn't necessarily == better for the environment versus livestock either. Especially ruminants. They can actually be an important component of regenerative agriculture. I think that's what we need to encourage. They also utilize land that's not suitable for growing crops, and can eat things we can't and turn it into something nutritious for us.

I realize this argument goes against the narrative that's being put out. But according to the research I've seen this is the case. If you disagree I can't promise I'll have a detailed response but I'm always interested to hear others' thoughts.

I'm amazed someone can be so hilariously wrong.

~90% of the calories a species takes in get lost going up the food chain. You need to grow ~1000 calories of plants to make 100 calories of beef.

>Not to mention plants are nutrient deficient and as a result people have to eat far more of it

Source? Also, what specific nutrients are you referring to? Where do you think the energy and minerals an animal has come from?

>The most environmentally friendly method for humans would be the "hunter gatherer" diet ( wild vegetation and wild animals ). But we might be too populous for that to work.

Modern agriculture is hands down more efficient. You know this, because you know that it can support more people. By extension, modern agriculture with a small population is more environmentally friendly than "hunter gatherer" with a small population.

>You essentially have to farm one plant to feed livestock for your burger. How many different types of plants have to be planted to produce a single burger?

More variety but far far far less total quantity. And monoculture farming is much more destructive than farming a variety of plants. There's a reason that farmers rotate corn and soy, even when growing animal feed.

My vegetarian (since her early teens) girlfriend rolls her eyes at portobello burgers and positively praises the gods that there are now brands like Field Roast and Impossible Burger.

Tastes differ, of course, and everyone is entitled to theirs. My sense from two other vegetarian friends, though, is that they feel they're finally coming out of a food ghetto -- vegetarianism is no longer considered an annoying quirk that goes with hippie political beliefs and wearing socks in sandals, and the food has been lifted up into a new level of quality. It used to be that every restaurant's idea of a veggie burger was a portobello mushroom between two buns, and this is fortunately no longer true.

I myself went vegetarian a year ago, and aside from occasionally thinking about bacon or pepperoni, I really don't miss meat. Like my girlfriend, I'm now actually slightly grossed out by the burgers that bring too much of the meat experience; I tried the Beyond Burger recently and while it tasted okay, it was a bit creepy. We're a big fan of Field Roast's Field Burger, which doesn't bleed and indeed doesn't look like meat.

That's an interesting point. I was vegetarian/vegan for a long time (decades). Err, I say it that way because it is easier for people to get a vague understanding of how I ate, but in reality I just really like vegetables and like cooking with them. There was a comedy sketch on the radio in Canada one time about someone who would order a veggie burger with bacon and I was kind of like that (bacon is delicious).

A lot of people who are not vegetarian get the idea that the ideal vegetarian diet is basically the same as a normal North American diet, but without meat. The first questions people ask are, "What do you do about protein?", or "You must eat a lot of tofu, don't you?" or "How much salad do you eat?". They can't really comprehend a diet without something in the "meat category". In reality, my experience was that most long term vegetarians just eat a completely different diet. You aren't looking for "meat substitutes" because it doesn't occur to you that you are missing something. I rarely ate salad (don't really like it), or tofu (unless I made it myself -- in North America tofu sits in the store for weeks and becomes bitter and horrible), or "meat substitutes". Just legumes and rice or other combinations in curries and stews, etc, etc.

My wife eats meat/fish and so I am no longer a "bacon-eating vegetarian" but there is still a place where I would use a "meat substitute" -- basically where you want a filler and you don't want a meat flavour to dominate. "Hamburgers" can fall into that category. Consider most fast food burgers -- the flavour you get is dominated by the condiments and other ingredients. I really enjoy a veggie burger with a really nice slice of pickle and a great bun, good mustard, etc. If I'm going to eat beef, I vastly prefer to have really good beef and virtually no condiments. I want beef to dominate. But there are many times (most if I'm honest) where I want the flavours of the vegetables and bread to dominate. In that case a veggie burger is actually better than beef (hence the veggie burger with bacon).

Probably not that many people consciously agree with my idea that a vegetable dominant burger is desirable, but in fact there are tons of people (the majority, I think) who really like burgers very little meat flavour (i.e. the people eating big macs, etc) And if you give them a really good beef burger, they will drown it in sauce so you can no longer taste the beef. For those people, especially if you can give a price point under that of beef, they will very happily use it. And I think that category will definitely eat into the meat sales if there is a product they can accept.