Beyond Meat and KFC partner to test fried plant-based ‘chicken’

Post by Symmetry » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 6:20 PM UTC

maximente wrote: post #64

_bxg1 wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating how all these fast-food chains are jumping on artificial meat. It makes perfect sense: meat is expensive and difficult to work with, so low-cost chains like these have been serving really disgustingly low-quality meat for quite some time now; in some cases it could barely even be called meat. Plant-based meat, on the other hand, can be both cheaper and less gross at the same time, and it migh…

the economic argument has always been the strongest in my eyes, and it's unstoppable. animals are a huge liability health wise, pollution wise, environment wise, activism wise, logistic wise, etc. most companies don't care about all that stuff at the surface level, but it all translates into dollar signs, which they do care about. as soon as the economic-taste-weirdness function reaches a certain point, i'll expect y…

Post by magashna » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 6:21 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #84

_bxg1 wrote: post #2

I think it's fascinating how all these fast-food chains are jumping on artificial meat. It makes perfect sense: meat is expensive and difficult to work with, so low-cost chains like these have been serving really disgustingly low-quality meat for quite some time now; in some cases it could barely even be called meat. Plant-based meat, on the other hand, can be both cheaper and less gross at the same time, and it migh…

Can you make a clearer, better-cited case for "low cost chains serve meat that could barely even be called meat"? KFC serves (primarily) whole muscle chicken†, and the general US appetite for "dark meat" chicken is so low that we've been accused of "dumping" it on other countries and messing up their markets --- KFC seems to have no trouble sourcing its inputs effectively. KFC's suppliers include all the major chicke…

Post by entropicdrifter » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 6:22 PM UTC

jakob223 wrote: post #148

jghn wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless I missed it in TFA, it doesn't say that the raw materials (the meat) are more expensive but rather that the product is more expensive. If a fast food chain can charge more for cheaper materials, that's a double win for them.

I imagine that that difference is going mostly to recoup R&D costs at e.g. Impossible right now, who is making the patties.

Post by wolco » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 6:24 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #140

acollins1331 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You literally agreed with me two comments ago that Tyson chicken is worse than locally (read not mass) produced chicken. Don't try to turn it around again just so you can win an imaginary argument I'm not trying to have.

Did you read the first half of that comment and not the second? Local chicken is generally "better" than supermarket chicken. That doesn't make supermarket chicken "shitty"; supermarket-grade chicken is necessarily what most people are going to eat, most of the time. It has for more than half a century been our standard, and our standard is better than what preceded it. You can always do better. But I'd like to see a…

Post by yters » Mon, Aug 26, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

sterkekoffie wrote: post #199

yters wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does that even mean? Is it meat made from animals that eat plants? Is it plants that grow muscles? The one thing this does not communicate is that the contents are not meat.

Sweetmeat and coconut meat are both not animal muscle, while fish, which is animal muscle, is not meat. Distinctions like 'meat' and 'milk' (and pretty much any culinary term) take on meaning according to our conventions and dietary norms, and if plant-based meat grows to fit the same dietary niche as animal meat, people will call them the same thing.