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Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

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Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#71

Post by nightski »

hannob wrote: post #53
drewg123 wrote: post #2

This is the best news I've heard all week. The more widely vegan "meat" is available, the more likely it is to be adopted by average people and not just dedicated vegans. Reducing the demand for real beef is probably one of the best things we can do in the short term for the environment, due to the amount of land required for cattle farming, and due to the surprising amount of methane emitted by cattle. (see the docu…

Unfortunately the documentary Cowspiracy is operating with massively exaggerated numbers (it claims meat is responsible for more than 50% of ghg emissions, it's explained on the wikipedia article of the film). Real numbers from credible sources are that greenhouse gas emissions from the meat and dairy industry are around 15%. Which is large enough to take this problem seriously, but it's still far away from those cla…

The 15% is globally also. In the US it's as low as 7% (all of agriculture is 10% - directly from the EPA website).

We buy a 1/4 a cow from a local farmer once every six months. It's a pretty low impact way eat meat.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#72

Post by spacejam88 »

I look at this as good but cautious news. People really need to be eating more vegetables in their diet, but I just don't think we need to go to such measures simply to mimic meat, when there are so many vegetarian options already exist. Remember that there is a large population of the world that doesn't even eat meat and that Beyond Meat is not serving those people, even though they are in the "vegetarian" market.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#73

Post by Spivak »

mjamesaustin wrote: post #41
JoshTriplett wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer Impossible Burger as a substitute for grounds, but Beyond Meat also makes things like hot dogs and breakfast sausage, which Impossible doesn't.

YES, Beyond has some incredible sausage products! I go with them for sausage and Impossible for burgers.

Trader Joe's tofu based chorizo is also in this space and is amazing as well. If you want something that makes for good "grounds" but don't need it to literally be hamburger then a marinated block of tofu will probably get you there.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#75

Post by vortegne »

elktea wrote: post #59
drewg123 wrote: post #2

This is the best news I've heard all week. The more widely vegan "meat" is available, the more likely it is to be adopted by average people and not just dedicated vegans. Reducing the demand for real beef is probably one of the best things we can do in the short term for the environment, due to the amount of land required for cattle farming, and due to the surprising amount of methane emitted by cattle. (see the docu…

The popular crusade against meat is one of the more misguided. Meat provides far more nutritional value than any plant and the environmental impacts have been greatly exaggerated. See below: Regarding carbon: "removal of livestock in the US would only lead to a net GHG reduction of 2.6% in national emissions. Similarly, removing all dairy would lead to a reduction of just 0.7%. At the same time, both transitions woul…

> Meat provides far more nutritional value than any plant

Completely wrong

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#76

Post by m4tthumphrey »

I stopped eating meat in January 2018 and I can honestly say the only thing I miss is a Big Mac! This is VERY good news for me and a long overdue!

That being said, whilst I do love a Beyond burger, here in the UK, I was surprised to hear it was Beyond that McDonalds selected for this. While in Orlando 2 years ago, I tried an Impossible burger for the first time and it was incredible. The size, texture and taste would be perfect for McDonalds (Big Mac). Still, I will be all over this once it hits UK branches!

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#77

Post by kleton »

drewg123 wrote: post #2

This is the best news I've heard all week. The more widely vegan "meat" is available, the more likely it is to be adopted by average people and not just dedicated vegans. Reducing the demand for real beef is probably one of the best things we can do in the short term for the environment, due to the amount of land required for cattle farming, and due to the surprising amount of methane emitted by cattle. (see the docu…

If you fly over the country, you will see a bunch of green circles from center pivot irrigation systems mining "fossil" groundwater. All the brown spots outside of those circles are vegetated, but the only way to get human food out of them is grazing. By necessity there will always be a large amount of cattle grazing area. Feedlots should be ended as a practice- wasteful of feedstock and poor quality and nutrition of the output.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#78

Post by throwaway0a5e »

jdavis703 wrote: post #63
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Conversions" and other voluntary consumption where people specifically pick the beef they want doesn't really matter to the bigger picture. Plant based meat is a rounding error until it gets good enough (at an equivalent or better price to ground beef) that McDonalds and Walmart can cut their low end products without anyone noticing or caring. People don't understand just much low end beef sells compared to the mid…

It’s ambiguous what you mean by “cut,” but Taco Bell has cut their ground beef with soy based product for years. The biggest question is how far can meat preparations be diluted with fillers... I don’t think we have to eliminate meat to have a meaningful impact (e.g. a 50% reduction in meat consumption would cut about 3% of US greenhouse gas emissions.)

That's exactly what I mean by cut. As the filler gets better (which is certainly the long game for synthetic meats) you can keep upping the amount as long as the end user can't tell. You're very right about diminishing returns and not needing to eliminate meat fully though.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#79

Post by jfengel »

ukyrgf wrote: post #55

Impossible is definitely better tasting, but I'm happy to see Taco Bell is included in this deal (though not in the headline here on HN). I haven't been there since they got rid of potatoes, so having a vegan option would make my taco consumption during lunch break skyrocket.

Taco meat [EDIT: in Taco Bell's usage] is a perfect application, since its texture is already squishy and the flavor is dominated by spice. Plus, it's wrapped in a shell and mixed with lettuce and other things. Even a mediocre fake meat is enough to pass. Beyond Meat should have no trouble producing a virtually-indistinguishable taco meat.

Re: Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut

#80

Post by unchocked »

All of the sudden - I get it. These co's are dealing with a really shitty, commodified form of beef that they'd love to develop an alternative to. So the immediate benefit is they get to serve vegetarians, but the long term is they can transition off their price-above-all meat supply chain.
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