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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

#481

Post by edumucelli »

Nbox9 wrote: 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…

The price ratio is an interesting aspect of your comment, but personally the taste comparability already exists: search for "Beyond Meat".

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

#482

Post by moab »

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #392
moab wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if you take the time to learn about dairy farming (even in free range dairy farms), you would quickly find out that cows have a natural lifespan of ~20 years, but cows used in dairy farms have an average lifespan of ~6 years. From the perspective of giving entities that we believe are probably conscious and probably feel suffering and pain a fair chance at life, minimizing the amount of dairy and cheese we cons…

> a fair chance at life If you eliminate meat and dairy, those animals won’t have any life at all. The only reason they are there is because humans eat them.

I am sure we would still have some number of dairy cows like the lovely highland cows that this person takes care of: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBYs53quP8

Their population would be greatly reduced, but is having a billion consciousnesses in a mediocre state and potentially suffering somehow better than having a few orders of magnitude fewer consciousnesses that are properly cared for and living more "natural" lives? It is hard to say without getting into the details, but from a high-level utilitarian perspective, one feels that the latter is somehow more preferable, although doing any kind of arithmetic with souls is a risky business.

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

#483

Post by eqtn »

bransonf wrote: post #414

I always wonder what the vegetable vs meat market would look like without subsidies. Imagine a free market where the veggie burger at McD is $1 and the beef one is $5. How many people would opt for the vegetarian option? Instead, in the market which we have intervened, it’s the beef that cost $1 and the veggie burger $5. Obesity is driven in part by lack of affordability of vegetables and in terms of resources and po…

Here in India, we do get veg burgers. Those who prefer chicken burgers always goes for that even though it is priced higher(like 10-20% diff) than veg based burgers.

Also, we don't have pork or beef on the menu. Only chicken

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

#484

Post by JamesBarney »

roland00 wrote: post #421
JamesBarney wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are way overestimating the effect of subsidies.

How so? The cost of soybeans is a lot cheaper to make an artificial burger (once they get the R&D down) than feeding the same soybeans to a cow and getting roughly 1:10 the calorie weight due to energy pyramids. You can get roughly 200 kg of protein per acre per year, while cows it is roughly 19 kg of protein per acre per year. Of course this is talking future costs, for we are still perfecting artificial plants / pr…

A lb of soybeans is cheaper than a lb of meat. But that that is a small percentage of the cost of delivering a mcdonalds burger to a customer.

There is the cost of the bun, the condiments, the transportation, employees, real estate, advertising, paying people to ensure consistent quality, etc...

Even if the soybean burger was free you wouldn't see a 25x relative price movement in the cost of a soybean burger relative to a meat burger.

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

#485

Post by JamesBarney »

ixwt wrote: post #422
JamesBarney wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are way overestimating the effect of subsidies.

I'll dig up the source later, but some studies show that each hamburger has an $8 subsidy behind it. I don't think the parent comment is way over stating the effects of subsidies.

The pricing of a big Mac in different countries is too consistent for the u.s. to be subsidizing the burger to the toon of a 25x price difference relative to a soybean burger.

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

#486

Post by momokoko »

spacephysics wrote: post #172
Nbox9 wrote: 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…

Not so fast with the health talk. Vegetable oils are most likely carcinogenic, amid other health issues (GI, heart) [0]. Red meat is not [1] Further, these fake meats, Impossible Burger namely, have been linked to kidney failure in mice studies [2] (one commissioned by the Impossible Foods manufacturer). In particular: " * A rat feeding study commissioned by the manufacturer Impossible Foods found that rats fed SLH […

Imagine feeling this guilty about eating meat and not having the willpower to stop that you have to find borderline conspiracy theory articles about how vegetable oil is as bad for you as smoking cigarettes and how an impossible burger will give you kidney failure just to make yourself feel better about eating meat.

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

#487

Post by bzb6 »

momokoko wrote: post #486
spacephysics wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so fast with the health talk. Vegetable oils are most likely carcinogenic, amid other health issues (GI, heart) [0]. Red meat is not [1] Further, these fake meats, Impossible Burger namely, have been linked to kidney failure in mice studies [2] (one commissioned by the Impossible Foods manufacturer). In particular: " * A rat feeding study commissioned by the manufacturer Impossible Foods found that rats fed SLH […

Imagine feeling this guilty about eating meat and not having the willpower to stop that you have to find borderline conspiracy theory articles about how vegetable oil is as bad for you as smoking cigarettes and how an impossible burger will give you kidney failure just to make yourself feel better about eating meat.

It doesn’t sound to me like he feels guilty about eating meat.

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

#488

Post by notRobot »

thehappypm wrote: post #380
notRobot wrote: post #104

I traveled to India last year for a business trip. Indian McD has apparently had vegetarian burger options for decades, including the McVeggie (vegetable patty), McSpicy Paneer (cottage cheese patty) and McAloo Tikki (potato-based patty). The Indian population is about 40% vegetarian, so this makes sense. Personally, I think the vegetarian burgers tasted incredible, and I wish we had them here.

I went to India last year and found the vegetarian burgers awful. I think the American palate requires a little bit of a different taste than the Indian.

That's definitely possible, yeah. I already didn't eat much meat (where I live people aren't as crazy about meat as they often are in the US) and was used to salads and veggie sandwiches and stuff for meals.

But I agree, if they choose to bring these offerings to other countries, they're going to have to adjust the recipes, as I'm sure they will.

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

#489

Post by rndgermandude »

ainiriand wrote: post #462
buryat wrote: post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Obesity is driven in part by lack of affordability of vegetables The main issue with obesity is cheap sugar, and it comes from plants.

Lack of affordable vegetables is a problem in many depressed areas, the ones with more obesity per capita. This has been studied thoroughly: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2789291/

Sure, but that doesn't mean meat is the main culprit to obesity either That is not to say it doesn't play a role, nor the meat subsidies have other adverse effects either.

It's processed foods with added sugars/sweeteners that fuel obesity, and the lack of affordable unprocessed vegetables sure directly worsens the situation. In the US corn subsidies in particular are an issue, as they not only fuel obesity via high fructose syrup but also a third of the corn is used as animal feed, serving as an indirect subsidy to the meat industry.

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

#490

Post by tluyben2 »

apexalpha wrote: post #475
tluyben2 wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'soggy' is a part of the experience; not really disgusting soggy but definitely something you cannot pick up as a slice; the toppings would fall off. Italians eat them generally with fork & knife, but if you want, you can fold the slices 2x (sides to eachother like you would do and then fold the point into there as well and then you can pick it up by the crust). The basic thing which I have seen as big difference…

HAha what, Pizza is meant to be soggy? I guess I'm a great chef then!

Soggy between ''
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