I wonder if insect protein will ever go mainstream...
Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
271–280 of 443 posts
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
I concur with the sentiment. Isn't GMO to create foods that require less pesticides? So wouldn't that be a good thing if there are less chemicals used on our foods, seeping into our soil and water supply? I never really understood why people are so scared of GMO.... I can see GMO foods being owned by the likes of Monsanto, earning healthy royalties on seeds that cannot bear offspring. I think there should be a GMO op…
Not really, Monsanto GMO roundup ready crops are crops specifically modified to be able to take larger amounts of their roundup pesticide, leading to more chemicals being sprayed on our food.
Roundup is a herbicide. Otherwise agree with you - unfortunately GMO does not necessary means less bad stuff.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#273Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. And just like GMOs, whether it's actually bad for you or not won't matter. This debate will be a proxy war between Big Meat an…
Most of the meat in the market is already something else than what people think meat is. Meatballs may have more than half chicken skin. Burgers contain 25% filler. Pink slime (= lean finely textured beef) is a highly processed meat by-product. In the US its processed with ammonia but that's not allowed in EU.
"Pink slime" is made by centrifuging heated fatty offcuts, which doesn't turn my stomach that much.
I have a sneaking suspicion that what people find disgusting is the industrial production of meat, and that if Gordon Ramsey had a small and inoffensive centrifuge attachment for his KitchenAid the process would seem less gross.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#274Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. And just like GMOs, whether it's actually bad for you or not won't matter. This debate will be a proxy war between Big Meat an…
On a tangential note, I wish it were possible to buy foods specifically because they contain GMOs. I intentionally avoid buying foods labeled "non-GMO" in a feeble attempt to vote with my wallet.
That would be very easy if GMO products were labeled.
The industry seems to object to any such suggestion.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#275Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. And just like GMOs, whether it's actually bad for you or not won't matter. This debate will be a proxy war between Big Meat an…
Great points @jameslk. I will add a few points to your predictions:
* There will be a meat substitute options catered to groups with higher net income.
* Nations dependent on meat products for export will try (in)directly impact society's view on these meat substitutes.
* We will see issues with IP laws associated with meat substitutes
* There will be 'generic' meat substitutes similar to the prescription drugs.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#276I'm looking forward to the cow/pig/sheep/chicken extinction event - no one will keep them around, except maybe in zoos, if the whole world is vegan. Edit: a downvote? this is totally serious - what are they going to be - released back into the wild where they roam free? There won't be any more, except as I said in zoos, if the whole world goes vegan
There are robust feral populations of each of those in different parts of the world. It takes surprisingly few generations to "undo" the domestication too. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_wild_cattle
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#277I doubt meat substitutes are going to share the same section of the supermarket as meat. If anything, they'll be categorized as frozen food, just like french fries and TV dinners.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#278Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. And just like GMOs, whether it's actually bad for you or not won't matter. This debate will be a proxy war between Big Meat an…
Most of the meat in the market is already something else than what people think meat is. Meatballs may have more than half chicken skin. Burgers contain 25% filler. Pink slime (= lean finely textured beef) is a highly processed meat by-product. In the US its processed with ammonia but that's not allowed in EU.
Most of the preprocessed meat maybe. I've never put chicken in my meatballs. And meatballs are easy enough to make that for the life of me I can't figure out why anybody would buy them premade. Make a large batch and freeze them yourself. They'll be a thousand times better than the trash you can buy at the store.
Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#279Re: Paul Graham on the Transition to Meat Substitutes
#280I was brought up vegetarian, and while I gave it up when I got married and had kids, I've never really grown to love the taste of meat. The thing I'm most annoyed by is that nice tasting veggie dishes are often being replaced in restaurants with horrible tasting meat-substitute dishes trying to capture the taste of beef or whatever. This is probably just me against the universe though.
+1 I'm a lifelong vegetarian who has very literal tolerance for the taste of meat. Can we give it up with these meat substitutes already? Even if they absolutely nail the taste of real meat, I don't want my food to taste like that.
> Can we give it up with these meat substitutes already?
Who should give up on them? The people who like them? The manufacturers? There's clearly a market for good-tasting meat substitutes. If they serve enough peoples' wants and are nutritious while being better from an environmental perspective, why not just live and let live?