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Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

nytimes.com

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Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#511

Post by dang »

spraak wrote: post #418
dang wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith. " " Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

How could I better ask the question? I'm genuinely confused since they poster talks about not eating "meat" but eats fish, which culturally for me (Buddhist and Hindu) are non-veg

Just adding the information contained in your second sentence here would have been enough to ask the question better. This kind of point is one that people typically get very hostile about, very quickly, in internet discussions, so if you're going to go there, you need to differentiate your comment from flamebait.

Also, scott_s's original comment didn't say that fish isn't meat, or even imply that. In English the word "meat" didn't traditionally include fish, and that usage is more than enough to cover what he probably meant. Taking the strongest plausible interpretation, as the guidelines request, makes the question unnecessary.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#513

Post by ahmedalsudani »

kjdndisneinj wrote: post #465
ahmedalsudani wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you can tax the negative externalities to account for environmental damage and still allow people to be free.

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#514

Post by Thorrez »

darkpuma wrote: post #488
danans wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't really "both ways" in the sense that the subsidy is equivalent between meat and other uses. 97% of soy meal (itself 80% of the soybean mass) produced in the US is used to feed animals for meat, not for making soy-based meat substitutes: https://ncsoy.org/media-resources/uses-of-soybeans/

Cheap soybeans makes meat cheaper, but the production of meat is inherently inefficient. If the production of meat substitutes from soy could be made more efficient than the production of meat from soy, then de facto soy subsidies would disincentivize the consumption of meat.

I wouldn't say subsidies would disincentivize meat. I would say they would incentivize both meat substitutes and meat, in an equally proportional amount.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#516

Post by danans »

darkpuma wrote: post #488
danans wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There aren't really "both ways" in the sense that the subsidy is equivalent between meat and other uses. 97% of soy meal (itself 80% of the soybean mass) produced in the US is used to feed animals for meat, not for making soy-based meat substitutes: https://ncsoy.org/media-resources/uses-of-soybeans/

Cheap soybeans makes meat cheaper, but the production of meat is inherently inefficient. If the production of meat substitutes from soy could be made more efficient than the production of meat from soy, then de facto soy subsidies would disincentivize the consumption of meat.

> Cheap soybeans makes meat cheaper, but the production of meat is inherently inefficient.

I think we agree on this.

> If the production of meat substitutes from soy could be made more efficient than the production of meat from soy

It already is far cheaper from an energy-input (hence cost) and carbon-footprint perspective. https://impossiblefoods.app.box.com/s/edwcfyvojzsvzn5d633dxt...

That's why big chains like Burger King are moving to offer something in the space, not out of some ethical obligation about climate change or animal welfare.

The difference is that Impossible and its competitors are making a product competitive with real meat, with nearly the same flavor and texture properties. That's the game changer as it opens a huge market that eschew traditional veggie burgers.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#517

Post by astatine »

I have tried a lot of fake meat in China where you get entire restaurants serving mock meat of every variety - beef, chicken, many types of seafood. Though the rest of the characteristics of the meal were the prime reason to consume them for me - the flavor, the style, the ambience. As a life-long vegetarian, the Impossible burger worked differently for me. I have been seeing ads for the beef burgers forever and used to wonder about them, without really feeling like trying them. This gave me a chance to see what the "real" texture of meat was. Distinctly different toi the plenty of vegetarian burgers I have had, it came across as lot more dense, more toothy (for lack of a better word) and lot more filling than a regular one. I had only encountered them in more trendy restaurants and an glad to see them in the mainstream now.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#518

Post by [deleted] »

scott_s wrote: post #174

The Impossible Burger is the best veggie burger I've ever had. I was a vegetarian for 10 years, and have now been a pescatarian for 8 years. It has been 18 years since I have had a proper cheeseburger, and since then I have had many thousands of veggie burgers. Cheeseburgers are probably my favorite food, and I haven't had one in 18 years. If someone told me that the world would end tomorrow, I would go out and eat a…

[deleted]

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#519

Post by dmritard96 »

darkpuma wrote: post #469
delfinom wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forget that in America, we'll just bail the farmers out and start shoveling subsidized overproduced meat everywhere we can.

That cuts both ways. Corn farmers get massive subsidies which amount to subsidies for soy as well due to the popularity of corn/soy rotation (soy, being a legume, has nitrogen fixation properties that improves soil quality.)

From what I remember reading a while back, 70% of corn in the US goes to animal feed thus making meat a very subsidized industry transitively. Entire US states' agricultural product won't be needed and can be shifted over to other crops, returned to a more natural state, or used for plant based carbon capture. The best industry has some serious competition which will have massive effects up and down the supply chain.

Re: Burger King is introducing a vegetarian patty from the start-up Impossible Foods

#520

Post by briandear »

delfinom wrote: post #413
henrikschroder wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, the implications are even bigger than that, because the normalization and adoption will drive costs down. And when meat-substitute burgers are cheaper than meat burgers, and taste as good, they will become the default, and that is going to make a huge dent in the animal industry, which is all sorts of awesome, because the animal industry is all sorts of terrible. Right now, I'm seeing Beyond and Impossible substi…

You forget that in America, we'll just bail the farmers out and start shoveling subsidized overproduced meat everywhere we can.

Farmers in Europe and Canada are also heavily subsidized.
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