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Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

bighospitality.co.uk

131–140 of 319 posts

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If farmers switch to other exploitative crops, it should drive up the supply and down the price of those crops, reducing the drive to clear more rain forest. I'd rather not gamble away the rainforest to optimism about humans acting rational. It's already irrational: humans will optimize towards short term gains.

It's not just about short term vs long term gains for the farmers: it's about gain for them vs gain for the whole human population (the second involves just a small marginal gain for the farmers).

You'd be surprised about the shortsighted things people do for small marginal gain.

More of a light hearted example. I worked at a grocery store years ago, one summer the 4L ice cream buckets stopped having handles. A lot of people complained, they liked to use them for berry picking and other things. One day I asked the people we ordered the dairy stuff from why. Turns out, some accountant figured out they'd have a marginal gain of 1¢ per ice cream bucket if they removed the handles. In the end though, that year we ended up throwing a lot of them away, whereas the summer before we'd had trouble keeping them in stock. People really liked those bucket handles. I still wonder if the penny savings were worth the loss in sales from people that wanted buckets with handles more than ice cream.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it's less about new products and more about people's tastes. People are eating very different things now because of new popularity in some cuisines (Indian, Thai, and Mexican come to mind) and the popularity of "superfoods" (Avocado, Acai berry... ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods?).

> ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods? This must be a marketing gimmick; eating animals is very nutritious—it's just not sufficient. However, this is the same as Avacado/acai berry/whatever. I have heard milk referred to as a superfood quite a bit.

Lean meat like chicken is has an INSANE protein ratio and vitamin B content /per calorie.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#133
post #44
post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

For me that's a mix of ethical and environmental concerns. I agree that there is a point in the belief that it is unethical to kill animals. That's not the most unethical thing that is happening in the world, there are a lot of things to argue about, but in general, I agree that in an ideal world, we should not do that. The environmental concerns, I only buy half-heartedly. I don't really believe that land-owners wil…

> That's not the most unethical thing that is happening in the world

I'm just going to refer to the factory farming article from 80000hours:

https://80000hours.org/problem-profiles/factory-farming/

Considering that "Each year, 50 billion animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms globally. Over a billion animals live in factory farms at any point of time in the United States. Most experience serious levels of suffering.", I would argue that it's hard to find anything comparable in magnitude to that tragedy if one allows that farmed animals are even a 1/100th fraction as conscious as humans.

I would... probably not enjoy being proven wrong this time :S

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#135
post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

To me, it's less about new products and more about people's tastes. People are eating very different things now because of new popularity in some cuisines (Indian, Thai, and Mexican come to mind) and the popularity of "superfoods" (Avocado, Acai berry... ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods?).

Liver is _the_ superfood.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#136

Vegan and vegetarian are absolute terms. The only meaning of "semi-vegetarian" or "semi-vegan" is that you're not either. "Semi-vegan" is a particularly nonsensical term.

There is a downside to insisting on the purity of that definition. In the wild, vegetarian fundamentalism puts people off choosing vegetarian options, because going all the way is too hard for many. Net result is more meat consumption. Ironically, this attitude is harmful to the environment and to animals.

This makes no sense.

There are a wide variety of dishes and people may be suggested that they can perfectly eat good, tasty food without eating meat at every meal.

There is no need to even mention the terms "vegetarian" or "vegan", or to invent random new terms.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#137
post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

To me, it's less about new products and more about people's tastes. People are eating very different things now because of new popularity in some cuisines (Indian, Thai, and Mexican come to mind) and the popularity of "superfoods" (Avocado, Acai berry... ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods?).

Sure, if you're looking only for foods labelled "superfoods". But there's also the popularity of low-carb diets like paleo and keto that treat animal fat as healthy.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#138
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me that's a mix of ethical and environmental concerns. I agree that there is a point in the belief that it is unethical to kill animals. That's not the most unethical thing that is happening in the world, there are a lot of things to argue about, but in general, I agree that in an ideal world, we should not do that. The environmental concerns, I only buy half-heartedly. I don't really believe that land-owners wil…

> It is just not practical for me to go full-veg, where I live I would need to cook one hour a day for it, Why does eating meat mean you can cook less?

In some areas, the only option is to cook 100% of meals if one wants to be vegetarian. In others, it is still possible to go out to eat. Further, the prepackaged vegetarian options are only available in some options.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#139
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to be vegan to eat vegan food.

True. I'll guess (can't access the original report) that it's something like "expressly designated vegan version of main course items". For example, this from the Guardian: ... the owner of I Am Doner, a pair of kebab shops in Leeds and Harrogate, said his vegan kebab routinely outsold chicken, halloumi and falafel. Made from seitan, a meat substitute derived from wheat gluten, the “voner” kebab sometimes outsells th…

Falafel is vegan but its widely available from a variety of different vendors whereas seitan is a much rarer find.

I frigging love falafel but I were at a kebab shop that offered seitan, I'd order that (at least the first time) because I also like seitan and I can't get that at any other falafel place.

Re: Vegan takeaway orders quadruple over past two years

#140
post #16

After 15 years of not eating meat, the past 1-2 years have been a golden era of vegetarian options in the grocery store, restaurants, and fast food. Based on anecdotes and my social circles, the number of people completely avoiding meat hasn't changed. But omnivores adopting a semi-veg lifestyle has increased. If I had to pick one thing, I'd say environmental concerns are the main reason my omnivore friends and colle…

To me, it's less about new products and more about people's tastes. People are eating very different things now because of new popularity in some cuisines (Indian, Thai, and Mexican come to mind) and the popularity of "superfoods" (Avocado, Acai berry... ever notice there are never any animal-based superfoods?).

Ahh yes, these super-foods that get transported half way around the world for us to consume. Much better for the environment.
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