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Beyond Meat S-1

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Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#201

Post by jedberg »

I'm not a vegetarian but I do care about the environment. So I always try to find meats that are sustainably farmed etc, but sometimes it's hard and sometimes I just only have time for a quick fast food meal.

But if they have an impossible burger, I'll get that every time, even if it costs more.

My hope is that over time their costs come down so much that the impossible burger is actually cheaper, at which point I think we'll see a sea change in meat farming. If getting the meat free burger at McDonalds costs less than the meat one but tastes the same, that right there would be huge for the environment.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#202

Post by rubicon33 »

Pfhreak wrote: post #187
EliRivers wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apropos of just shootin' the breeze, could you have also met the animal? I wonder if that would make a further difference. I eat meat, but I put my hand up and say that if I ordered a steak in a restaurant and they brought out the cow and gave me a rock, and I had to beat the cow to death with the rock myself, I think I'd change my order. I'm not trying to make any points here; just freewheeling in conversation with…

Totally. Not every farmer will let you, but I definitely had the opportunity. (My farmer gave me the choice between three animals.) I think the 'bashing it with a rock' is sort of the thing I'm trying to avoid. My farmer brings a USDA butcher to his site to kill the animal (the kills are done away from the pasture space). The offal is removed there. If you want the tongue, heart, liver, etc. you show up on slaughter…

I've been following this thread and it's gotten me curious. I can't help but wonder - do you have some kind of personal connection to this farmer? How does one source a farmer, let alone one that is willing to let you meet the cow, be there on slaughter day, etc. These are all things that are foreign to most people.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#203

Post by HuShifang »

For the philosophically rigorous, Christine Korsgaard has a good newer book[1] on animal ethics and their implications that has significant bearing on some of the comments here. (And she's a rather better thinker than Peter Singer.)

[1]: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/fellow-creatures-978...

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#204

Post by yawaramin »

rayiner wrote: post #35
kasey_junk wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a fairly strange reading of the US data. It’s only true because of the USA’s massive use of emissions in other parts of their lives. In non-relative terms it’s still a huge reduction & if we can get in front of developing nations eating of ruminants it would pay large dividends.

I don't know what's "fairly strange" about it. Meat consumption, for Americans, does not make up a big fraction of our CO2 footprint. Globally it's quite significant, but "get[ting] in front of developing nations eating of ruminants" is a much more politically fraught issue than doing the same in the U.S. My brother and I are 3-4 inches taller than my dad, because we grew up on a meat and dairy rich American diet, ve…

I'm Bangladeshi, from Dhaka. Trust me, no one is interested in getting drive-through. Dhaka is the traffic capital of the world, it's always a cost-benefit calculation to go out onto the road because you'll be spending extreme amounts of time stuck in traffic, inching along, burning gas. To get a Starbucks or a sandwich? Forget that.

What is becoming popular in Dhaka is, as you said, food delivery services which are mostly by scooter because of obvious reasons. For delivery, you're not going to order a sandwich, again for obvious reasons.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#205

Post by 0x54D5 »

sammycdubs wrote: post #158

I've seen this said before (I forget from who), but I honestly think that over the next few decades meat is going to go through a similar transition to tobacco. I don't think it's ever going to disappear completely, but I think it's going to become something most people only enjoy once in a while if at all. I also think that meat consumption is going to be viewed in a significantly more negative light over time.

Sorry but no chance. For one it's not actually bad for you. A good meat stew for example is a culinary staple in almost every culture in the entire world and is considered both healthy and hardy. You can't say the same thing about tobacco.

I'll be happy to take another look when they can grow A5 Wagyu beef in a lab and not just trying to make plant matter act like meat.

To be perfectly blunt this entire thread is vegans patting themselves on the back. It's an echo chamber.

Killing an animal on a farm quickly and painlessly is a lot kinder than what that animal would experience in nature left to their own devices. Sadder still is that I suspect that a lot of these farm animals are likely to go extinct when the technology to grow meat in a lab becomes viable and cheaper. Considering how close we are to being able to produce human organs that can actually be transplanted into a live human it's not far fetched to think we'll be able to grow high quality, beautifully marbled muscle tissue of various species in the not too distant future.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#206

Post by elhudy »

the_gastropod wrote: post #195
elhudy wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Wildlife suffering happens with or without humans, but humans active choose to breed and kill animals when we don't necessarily need to. We could just not do that. You don't support humane slaughter or buying meat from free-range cows, because you think not being brought into existence is better than a happy life with an abrupt ending? What if supporting humane slaughter led to less animals being factory farmed, whi…

> You don't support humane slaughter or buying meat from free-range cows, because you think not being brought into existence is better than a happy life with an abrupt ending? I'm always amazed when this argument is raised. I can't fathom anyone actually believes more life, for the sake of life, is "better". It strikes me as a bad faith argument. There is a colossal difference between ending a life and preventing one…

>About 21.8% of the world's population is vegetarian [1]. Let me flip your question: Do you think if those billions of people began consuming meat, the world would be the same? Of course not. Assuming meat production could rise to fit this 21.8% increase in demand (it likely couldn't), the planet would be much worse off. So, yes. Although an individual's choice to not eat meat doesn't do much, in aggregate, it's massively important. "The inactive must justify their sloth by picking nits with those making an attempt"

My point is NOT "if everyone practiced vegetarianism, climate change would be unaffected." I completely agree with you that the world would be a better place if "everyone were to suddenly switch to being vegan." The point is that in aggregate, not much is ever going to change in the short term, and to believe otherwise is wishful thinking. We have a large sample size of folk who simply don't care about the well being of animals, and a smaller portion of folk who do. That portion hasn't actually changed much over time, even though information about animal farming practices has because much more readily available [1]. It can thus be assumed that changing the way animals are raised and delivered will have a bigger impact on their well-being, than will those who do not eat meat continuing not to eat meat.

> "The inactive must justify their sloth by picking nits with those making an attempt"

A disingenuous attempt at mocking me, considering I have taken large steps in my own life toward vegetarianism. I just hold realistic rather than idealistic hopes for the future of omnivores and the environment they derive their food sources from.

[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/food/wp/2018/08/03/you-m...

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#207

Post by Consultant32452 »

EliRivers wrote: post #181
Pfhreak wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I did: stop purchasing meat from the supermarket. Stop eating meat at restaurants. Find a local farmer and source a whole animal to split with your friends. Visit the farm, meet the farmer. A whole beef is a few thousand dollars, and splits nicely into 8ths. We spent, I believe, ~$6.50/lb for organic, grass fed beef. It's more time and cost up front, but now we have a freezer full of meat to draw from when we ne…

Apropos of just shootin' the breeze, could you have also met the animal? I wonder if that would make a further difference. I eat meat, but I put my hand up and say that if I ordered a steak in a restaurant and they brought out the cow and gave me a rock, and I had to beat the cow to death with the rock myself, I think I'd change my order. I'm not trying to make any points here; just freewheeling in conversation with…

I once took a survival course and during it I had to kill a rabbit with my bare hands, skin it, process the meat, cook it, and eat it. I definitely wanted to make sure the animal suffered as little as possible, but I was in no way deterred. Most people through human history have killed their own food from time to time. It's not really a big deal.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#208

Post by jandrese »

daeken wrote: post #123
jordanpg wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points about ease of cooking and error. So much of short-term adoption of these is tied to marketing and time, but their long-term success strikes me as a foregone conclusion. In marketing, they will need to get past a latent psychological hurdle and in time, waiting for the crotchety older folks who insist, no matter what, on a "real burger." Both things are related to the living generations who have grown up w…

I genuinely can't imagine an outcome where these don't become commonplace. Not going to predict that they're going to replace beef or anything, but it won't be weird to get a meat substitute burger from Wendy's or the like.

You can already get them from places like White Castle, so I'd say you're right. What I'd really like to see is for the price to drop to a bit below that of the beef patty to help entice people to switch.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#209

Post by somberi »

daeken wrote: post #123
jordanpg wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good points about ease of cooking and error. So much of short-term adoption of these is tied to marketing and time, but their long-term success strikes me as a foregone conclusion. In marketing, they will need to get past a latent psychological hurdle and in time, waiting for the crotchety older folks who insist, no matter what, on a "real burger." Both things are related to the living generations who have grown up w…

I genuinely can't imagine an outcome where these don't become commonplace. Not going to predict that they're going to replace beef or anything, but it won't be weird to get a meat substitute burger from Wendy's or the like.

Burger King (limited trials) and White Castle (370 outlets), already carry Impossible Burger patties.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/02/burger-king...

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#210

Post by 0x54D5 »

bluntfang wrote: post #193
wickoff wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not like the animal is going to live forever if you don't kill it. In nature animals are often eaten alive by predators, die from disease, starvation and get horribly injured in competition for mates. A free range animal that's being humanely put down by a farmer has a much more pleasant life. If you go down this rabbit hole deep enough you can begin to question whether life itself should exist.

What we do know for sure is that the animal would not have lived the same life if it weren't captive. >A free range animal that's being humanely put down by a farmer has a much more pleasant life. I don't think we can objectively say this. We have no idea what these animals want. Our humanity for these animals lives is nothing short of projection, purely because we have no idea what they want.

What they want is pretty obvious if you've ever actually been around any of these animals. They want what you want: food, sex, comfort, entertainment - in that order.
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