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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

#191

Post by jredwards »

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…

I watched Cowspiracy. It was not convincing. It used numbers that seemed wildly exaggerated on their face, even before doing follow-on research. It also seemed designed to be emotionally manipulative more than informative. Maybe I don't watch enough documentaries, but it had a youtube conspiracy theorist vibe to it, rather than a measured, investigative approach.

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

#192

Post by pdx6 »

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…

Impossible burger tastes like it is engineered. It isn’t terrible but in San Francisco, it isn’t any less expensive at a typical non-chain burger joint. I also had digestive issues, though I have only had it once so I can’t claim it was the IB.

Veggie burgers just seem like a healthier, more delicious option, and a known quantity if I want to skip the beef.

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

#194

Post by hamax »

nightski wrote: post #71
hannob wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except for the cow.

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

#195

Post by input_sh »

com2kid wrote: post #37
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…

I agree that this is important, and less meat consumption is good, but I am kind of upset that the entire American culinary experience is being reduced to "burgers, pizza, and fried chicken." I say that because most of the articles on meat alternatives are written from the perspective of "if only Americans can stop eating hamburgers!" First off, in terms of global solutions, that isn't going to fly. Try going to Ital…

> "we've replaced all your meat, with a ground beef alternative!"

I'm sorry but who ever says anything about replacing all meat? It's more about having a readily available alternative and starting to think of meat as a luxury instead of it being a part of every meal.

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

#196

Post by mft_ »

endisneigh wrote: post #118

Is beyond meat actually healthier than meat? If you search my question you’ll see the results are hardly conclusive. What’s everyone’s take?

This is a reasonable look at exactly this question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMGV_dBTE-k

(no affiliation, just a subscriber)

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

#197

Post by Black101 »

pwinnski wrote: post #175
mathgorges wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fat percentage criticism strikes me as a bit odd. At least where I am (USA) ground meat is categorized by its fat percentage and 20% fat is the standard I usually see in the supermarket. I guess what I'm saying is: 20% is indeed a high fat percentage, but it's also the typical fat percentage for conventional meat so it feels disingenuous to use it to criticize plant-based meats.

80/20 is very typical for ground beef, although some people shop specifically for 85/15 or even 90/10. I find the 90/10 lacks flavor.

I drain the 80/20 meat after cooking it... so it is probably close to 90% meat when I'm done

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

#198

Post by erichurkman »

throwawayboise wrote: post #119
axlee wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. The only food items that McDs have not vertically integrated are sodas, everything else is bound to end up part of their supply chain.

Not sure what you mean by "vertically integrated" they do not own cattle ranches or potato farms. They buy Heinz or Hunts catsup, etc. They do have a lot of proprietary recipes and process, but the ingredients are mostly sourced from other wholesale producers.

The cattle ranches and potato farms don't have their names or logos on the burgers or fries. McDonalds can swap them out at any time.

Soda, on the other hand, is Coke's product and brand completely.

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

#199

Post by asoneth »

ngngngng wrote: post #29
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…

Raising cattle can easily become a net negative to carbon emissions if cows are given slightly more space to graze and moved around more often. If all cattle were raised in this way there would be slightly less cattle production but a far more positive environmental impact than if we all switched to vegan "meat". https://blog.whiteoakpastures.com/blog/carbon-negative-grass...

The linked research is interesting and may be slightly more nuanced than your summary. From their executive summary:

"The WOP system effectively captures soil carbon, offsetting a majority of the emissions related to beef production. The largest emission sources — from cattle digestion and manure — are highly uncertain. We believe the results shown here are on the conservative side. Accounting for soil carbon capture is not yet standard practice and the results may meet with challenges, such as on ensuring long-term storage. In the best case, the WOP beef production may have a net positive effect on climate. The results show great potential."

It looks like their beef production does produce carbon (and methane) emissions, they just pair that with the carbon sequestration due to their land use. I appreciate that they did this research and published the results. It's an interesting argument.

But I'm unsure how well it scales at a societal level. For one thing there's the opportunity cost of using so much land for a single pound of beef. More significantly it seems like one could use their logic to pair any activity with enough soil-based carbon capture to argue that it's now a carbon neutral activity.

For example, one could argue that dirt biking has "net negative carbon emissions" if you subtract their tailpipe emissions from the carbon capture from thousands of acres of forested trails.

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

#200

Post by chickenpotpie »

nightski wrote: post #159
veonik wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are we also considering the pounds of plants that the animal had to eat to grow to such a size? I should imagine it takes quite a lot of food to raise a one ton cow for slaughter. At least one ton of plant material as food, right? To produce how many pounds of meat? 750lbs seems reasonable. So if you had 2750lbs of plant food for yourself, vs just the 750 lbs of meat -- which has more nutrients? (I do not know the an…

Humans can't digest grass. While we do feed cows corn for at least a portion of their life, it doesn't need to be as prolific as it is. But we also feed them things like beet pulp pellets and molasses - both of which are by products of sugar production. Unless we are going to stop eating sugar what else would you do with this waste?

Humans eat molasses too...
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