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McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

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Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#74
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"McPlant" is a fairly horrible sounding burger! Burger King here in NZ have plant-based burgers called the Rebel Whopper which is quite a catchy name. Technically, it can't be classified as vegetarian though, because it's cooked on the same grill as the beef burgers. Not sure if the McPlant will be cooked on different grills or not?

What on earth? Why would that matter? Does somebody lose their vegan powers if a particle of fat gets into their burger?

People can be irrational when it comes to their diets, but that doesn’t make them wrong. Some people care and some don’t.

Restaurants tend to take the strictest interpretation of a diet because that minimizes angry customers.

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#75
post #59
post #58

I think it’ll be a big win when plant-based burgers are cheaper than animal based burgers. From a raw ingredients standpoint plant based food should almost always be cheaper than animal based food because the costs associated with farming plants is lower than the costs associated with farming animals. Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably…

I wonder to what extent farming subsidies and implicit subsidies such as the under pricing of carbon emissions make meat burgers less expensive than they ought to be.

The meat (and dairy) industry receive massive subsidies from the the US federal government, and they have massive externalized costs. Some externalized costs are greenhouse gas emissions, downstream downstream pollution, reduced health outcomes in consumers, heavy fresh water usage. The meat & dairy industry received the majority of the benefit from the $867 billion farm bill passed in 2019.

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#76
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I similarly refuse to use Starbucks' cute-isms for cup sizes (Venti, etc.) but I won't have any trouble ordering a McPlant - it might even provide me another reason to visit a McD beyond the wireless-for-the-price-of-a-coffee reason.

Starbucks' cute-isms for cup sizes (Venti, etc.) Most people misunderstand Starbucks size names. They think they're all smart assuming that Starbucks calls a small drink "tall" because of marketing or whatever. But it's actually the too-cool-for-school crowd that is wrong. "Short" is in the shortest cup. It's the small size. "Tall" is the taller cup. It's the regular size. "Grande" is the large size. "Grande" means "…

Re. "short", I am the opposite - I am ordering the "largest". I appreciate the thought they appear to have put into the sizes and your associated explanation but I think using numbers (1-4?) would have been more intuitive but I guess then it would be less distinctly Starbucks?

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#77
post #58

I think it’ll be a big win when plant-based burgers are cheaper than animal based burgers. From a raw ingredients standpoint plant based food should almost always be cheaper than animal based food because the costs associated with farming plants is lower than the costs associated with farming animals. Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably…

> and comparably healthy

Every plant-based meat I'm aware of has been processed to hell and back, so I'm dubious of the claims that they are healthier.

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#78
post #58

I think it’ll be a big win when plant-based burgers are cheaper than animal based burgers. From a raw ingredients standpoint plant based food should almost always be cheaper than animal based food because the costs associated with farming plants is lower than the costs associated with farming animals. Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably…

It's long overdue that all the social costs of meat consumption are priced into those goods and/or that we subsidise plant based alternatives so that the ecological benefits are reflected at the counter. I'm pessimistic it's going to happen though.

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#79
post #58

I think it’ll be a big win when plant-based burgers are cheaper than animal based burgers. From a raw ingredients standpoint plant based food should almost always be cheaper than animal based food because the costs associated with farming plants is lower than the costs associated with farming animals. Hopefully, with McDonald’s scale and with their vertical integration they can make affordable, tasty, and comparably…

They arguably could do this by making the meat come from ecologically better solutions (silvopasture, savory method, etc.). Imagine if both the meat and plant choices were both better.

The counter-argument is it that all burgers would monetarily expensive, but factory meat is also expensive just in forms of unaccounted externalities.

Re: McDonald's is adding plant-based burgers to the menu

#80
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder to what extent farming subsidies and implicit subsidies such as the under pricing of carbon emissions make meat burgers less expensive than they ought to be.

If you priced the externalities, plant-based food is an order of magnitude cheaper, at the very least.

My grocery bill decreased when I started eating exclusively plant based foods. In most meals the most expensive item on the plate is the meat.
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