Beyond Meat signs global supply deals with McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by ornornor » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:36 PM UTC

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #163

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…

That methane emission meme is not accurate, as simple logic reveals. The methane produced by cows is not going to be significantly more than the equivalent produced by the same amount of plant material left to rot/decompose. One would even have to reasonably theorize and possibly could even conclude that the energy the cow takes out of the plant material to produce milk and meat and heat, actually captures energy tha…

> ruminants actually enrich the environment (assuming non-industrial practices)

Wink wink. What’s the ratio of non industrially farmed beef vs industrially farmed beef anecdotes non withstanding?

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

#182

Post by dec0dedab0de » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

tssva wrote: post #87

I have never tried Beyond Meat and maybe I should give it a try but I am hesitant because of my experience with Impossible burgers. Obviously they must taste similar to meat and be tasty to the majority of people, but to me they taste nothing like meat and are quite disgusting. I know a few others that have the same reaction while most people at worse seem to think they taste like a low quality burger. I wonder what…

I don't think they taste like meat, but i think they're both pretty good.

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

#183

Post by noneeeed » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

m4tthumphrey wrote: post #76

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…

I keep seeing people say that Impossible tastes better, bit Beyond keeps snagging big deals like this and it makes me wonder if they have either a price or supply-chain advantage.

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

#184

Post by ska » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

bweitzman wrote: post #84

elktea wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

How are you comparing nutritional value between meat and plant products? There are literally hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people that have been eating vegetarian diets for their entire lives, and these types of diets have been popular for millennia.

> How are you comparing nutritional value between meat and plant products?

It's impossible to do this really rigorously, as there are too many unknowns in nutrition still. So this leaves holed you can drive all sorts of sized trucks through, which means a lot of argument but not a lot of resolution.

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

#185

Post by mikepurvis » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:37 PM UTC

frankfrankfrank wrote: post #163

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…

That methane emission meme is not accurate, as simple logic reveals. The methane produced by cows is not going to be significantly more than the equivalent produced by the same amount of plant material left to rot/decompose. One would even have to reasonably theorize and possibly could even conclude that the energy the cow takes out of the plant material to produce milk and meat and heat, actually captures energy tha…

Follow the foodchain, though— the "plant material" that industrially farmed cows are eating is almost entirely grown-for-purpose corn for which there are substantial inputs in terms of petroleum-based fertilizers. And even if there weren't, those same fields left fallow would be capturing the same atmospheric carbon for plant/tree growth and holding it for much longer than a crop which is being harvested every season.

It's not like the cows are eating exclusively grass clippings which were just going to be left to rot otherwise.

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

#186

Post by chickenpotpie » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

Drybones wrote: post #178

chickenpotpie wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You literally just did the exact same thing

Exactly how?

"That's completely wrong"

"You can't just say somethings completely wrong especially since you're completely wrong"

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

#187

Post by arcturus17 » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

ben_w wrote: post #137

arcturus17 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably exaggerated and imponderable, as it really depends on how you would rank such a thing. But it is really nutritious in that it packs a great density of protein and micronutrients.

Lentils, tofu, peanuts, and seitan are 25%, 20%, 28%, and 80% protein by weight. Meat is about 26%, according to WolframAlpha. Not that you actually need very many grams of protein each day to be healthy.

I find seitan and tofu completely unpalatable, and I can’t rely on eating hundreds of grams of peanuts to fill my protein needs. Lentils are fine...

I lift heavy, which I believe is integral to my good health (the evidence on the health benefits of strength training is overwhelming). You do need significant amounts of protein if you lift - this is backed by both research and empirical evidence. Designing 3000-4000kcal diets high in protein without meat is entirely possible, but highly impractical.

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

#188

Post by dec0dedab0de » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

arduinomancer wrote: post #136

spacejam88 wrote: post #72

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.

Ehh I think it’s fair to say that encouraging people to eat more vegetables didn’t work.

maybe if there were more salty greasy vegetable meals that were cheap and readily available.

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

#189

Post by novok » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

tmotwu wrote: post #110

bweitzman wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you comparing nutritional value between meat and plant products? There are literally hundreds of millions (if not billions) of people that have been eating vegetarian diets for their entire lives, and these types of diets have been popular for millennia.

Those arguments always drive me nuts because they're all so bro sciencey, and I'm not even vegan or vegetarian. Sure, meat offers a different set of nutritional value than vegetables - you can most definitely replace it entirely with other sources and remain very healthy. Billions of people have done it for centuries and continue to do so, as you've said.

It's not brosciency, it's called bioavailablity. Ex: Carrots have a lot of a vitamin A precursor in the form of beta carotene, but the rate it's absorbed compared to the form commonly in the liver (retinol), is significantly lower and is reduced even further if you have certain health problems, including common ones like diabetes or insulin resistance.

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

#190

Post by olyjohn » Tue, Mar 02, 2021, 9:38 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #23

marrone12 wrote: post #3

I prefer the taste of impossible but this is great news for the category.

I agree, Beyond overdoes the fake smoke flavor. But they seem to be better equipped to scale up than Impossible, they've beaten them to mass market in almost every location I've seen.

I bought a package of Beyond Meat. It was right next to the ground beef, and looked like ground beef. I assumed I could substitute it for ground beef in my spaghetti. Big fat nope! I opened the package, and it smelled exactly like dog food. The smell when cooking it was horrible. It completely ruined my batch of spaghetti. I don't know how people are cooking this stuff and enjoying it. Maybe there's some other way to cook it or season it? As someone who isn't much of a chef, I don't know what to do with it. Go to your favorite search engine, search for "Beyond Meat Smells..." and check out the autofill. I know I'm not the only one.