Very encouraging news for our environment to see a meat producer actively debut a non-meat product that will actively take away from meat sales. Reminds me of Kodak. Where Kodak did not embrace digital early enough, and then many years later was bankrupt.
Kodak was worth 31 billion USD in 1997. When adjusted for inflation, the entire digital camera market in 2017 [0] was worth about 1/3 of that. Even if Kodak was the biggest player in the digital camera market like they were with film, they would be worth less than half of what they were before. Fujifilm managed to survive the end of film, but their stock price still hasn't recovered fully. Their imaging business made…
You're comparing a valuation to the size of a market. Those things don't compare.
They started doing that in Norway with some of the veggie burgers and they are delicious. I don't think I've had a meat burger in two years. I haven't been able to find insect meat here yet but it's probably coming soon if you got it in the US now. We do eat meat though, but only once or twice a week and almost never red meat anymore.
I eat it all. Red meat, white meat, fish, you name it. If it’s not going to kill me I’ll try it and if it tastes good I’ll likely try it again. I have no qualms about eating anything and my comment is based purely on trying something new and actively enjoying in taste alone. I’d be more inclined to try something new if someone says it tastes good on its own accord vs “tastes just like X”.
Oh yeah, I completely agree on the "tastes like X" thing.
The veggie burgers I talk about tastes nothing like meat and the texture is different, but they do not market it as meat replacement just a delicious veggie burger. The different ingredients are displayed on the package so it all looks very good too :)
I often find the "meat replacements" rather disgusting and I prefer to eat real meat over those.
How many extra plants would you have to grow and use as fertilizer on plants if you didn't have animal fertilizer? Or do you want to rely on non organic farming methods for your plant only ethics based utopia?
I think you missed that plant-based fertilization exists. How do you think the nitrogen, sulfur and phosphor got into the animals in the first place? Manure is used because it is readily available due to current livestock production, not because it's the only way to fertilize soil.
I suspect the timing deliberately lines up with the launch of the new Canadian food guide yesterday. https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/
This is interesting. One of the recommendations are to "Limit highly processed foods. If you choose these foods, eat them less often and in small amounts." Would these meatless products be considered "highly processed food" that should be limited?
Off Topic: another example of egregious capitalization! Is "Canadian meat giant Maple Leaf debuts new plant-based burger" easier on the eyes? Or should proper nouns be wrapped in quotes when part of a headline?
On HN we don't have a rule about that, but we do try to make titles internally consistent. I've attempted to reduce your eye strain above.
Awesome! Part of me would want us to adhere to some kind of literary guideline, but mostly we want to communicate effectively. When a bunch of ordinary nouns appear in a row with the same capitalization, instinctually the interpretation is to assume all or none are part of a proper noun.
For many, this would not be an issue, as we may recognize Apple, Giant (grocer chain), or even Maple Leaf. I am not familiar with Maple Leaf so I had to do some parsing and a process of elimination to decide which words were more significant.
I'd also disagree with - People who want meatless products aren't buying meat so they're an expansion opportunity. I think that's a fair assessment. I think that the desire to eat meat-like products is much lower than a lot of people assume in vegetarian/vegan people. Products like Seitan and other "meat texture" items have always done poorly when compared to vegetarian/vegan offerings that simply omit any meat-like…
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…
A case in point to what you're saying, I think: Greggs - a UK chain - recently started selling vegan sausage rolls, and I think the reaction demonstrated that their sausage rolls are really pastry with something with meat-like texture in it. It got a massively positive reception. Though certainly in part due to a fantastic social media effort. But the social media effort got people to try it - the positive response afterwards was in large part due to the product, and the product only works because nobody is buying a Greggs sausage roll expecting a strong taste of meat; just a texture that says "filling" and flavorings associated with meat rather than something something sweet. And so the quorn based filling was close enough (I've tried quorn, I didn't really like it, because I bought it as a meat substitute, and properly prepared, it's close, but not close enough when you want meat taste).
All the black-bean and beet burgers in town have been replaced by these things. Sometimes I feel like the only vegetarian who hates fake meat and wants recognizeable veggie products. Fake meat creeps me out.
It might be a far stretch to say that they've been "replaced". At least in my area the traditional vegetarian options are still there alongside these newer items.
It's not to your taste, which is fine. There are meat-eaters that don't like seafood. Let's just be happy that there is now an ever-growing choice in the plant-based section of the supermarket.
Very encouraging news for our environment to see a meat producer actively debut a non-meat product that will actively take away from meat sales. Reminds me of Kodak. Where Kodak did not embrace digital early enough, and then many years later was bankrupt. I think that’s a fanciful comparison. More likely they worked the numbers and realize two things. First, the people most likely to buy meatless products weren’t par…
As a meat eater, I would absolutely replace some of the meats I buy with meatless products if I liked them.
There are already quite a lot of decidedly decent meat substitutes on the market. They often don't taste much like the meat they are imitating, but are flavorful in their own right. Morningstar Farms in particular has a pretty large selection of burger patties.
Very encouraging news for our environment to see a meat producer actively debut a non-meat product that will actively take away from meat sales. Reminds me of Kodak. Where Kodak did not embrace digital early enough, and then many years later was bankrupt. I think that’s a fanciful comparison. More likely they worked the numbers and realize two things. First, the people most likely to buy meatless products weren’t par…
First, the people most likely to buy meatless products weren’t part of their existing customer base, so there is no cannibalization. I'd like to suggest that the term "cannibalization" should be used gently when applied to a meat company. [ I would also like to take a look at your comment in terms of assertions because I'm having a hard time parsing it. - People who want meatless products aren't buying meat so they'r…
> I'd like to suggest that the term "cannibalization" should be used gently when applied to a meat company.
When lab grown meat becomes a thing, it will be possible to have ethical cannibalism. I expect it'll be really taboo at first, but over time I imagine that will change and before long people will be eating their favorite celebrities at restaurants and in TV dinners. Shit's about to get real weird in food culture.
I'd also disagree with - People who want meatless products aren't buying meat so they're an expansion opportunity. I think that's a fair assessment. I think that the desire to eat meat-like products is much lower than a lot of people assume in vegetarian/vegan people. Products like Seitan and other "meat texture" items have always done poorly when compared to vegetarian/vegan offerings that simply omit any meat-like…
Disagree about GF bread. I have celiac disease and enjoy many varieties of GF bread and other products. In fact I take people to a completely gluten free restaurant and they almost never know anything is different. A lot has changed since the gluten free fad started that has benefitted celiacs.
GF products have come a long way. I recall the state of things 15 or so years ago when my mother was first diagnosed with celiac's and it was really awful.