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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

#501

Post by jessewmc »

gonehome wrote: post #268
nickelcitymario wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The popular crusade against meat is one of the more misguided. This seems to presume two things: 1) That vegans and vegetarians are primarily doing it for the environment. 2) That vegans and vegetarians can't do basic math. To the first point, I'd be fully supportive of plant-based diets even if the only reason was concern over the treatment of the animals themselves. The focus on the environmental benefits is real…

> "On a side note: I'm not vegetarian. I simply agree with those who are." This was my position for a long time until finally making the jump at the beginning of the pandemic (vegetarian, will rarely eat fish sometimes). For me, it was mostly about reducing suffering of other animals. I thought this way before but it's hard to change behavior and I liked hamburgers. I think this is the strongest argument and the envi…

If you want to reduce animal suffering, there's a pretty good argument that cows are the last animals/animal products you should stop eating.

You should definitely stop eating eggs, as egg-laying chickens live short, miserable lives where their bodies are destroyed rapidly. Chickens, fish and other small animals in captivity live short, miserable lives, and one family can eat a whole chicken in a day -- thats alot of chicken deaths to eat chicken regularly.

Cows by comparison generally live pretty good lives, better than any wild cattle. They can roam and eat well and socialize, and slaughter is pretty humane compared to being hunted down by predators or dying slowly of an infection, broken leg or other natural cause. And one cow death can feed an entire family for a very long time.

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

#502

Post by dashundchen »

smegger001 wrote: post #478
wyre wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cows need to eat thousands of pounds of plants before they are at a size to get slaughtered and prepared as food. Humans evolved to eat meat as a way to survive through winter. Early diets relied heavily on gathered foods.

how much of that was human edible callories? free grazing cattle will eat plant humans won't/can't. there is alot of land thats used for grazing that is not suitable for planting crops for a variety of reasons.

The vast majority of cattle are not grazing - instead they are fed farmed grain and soy in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFO if you want to search it) where the density of animals is far greater than grazing would ever support.

Essentially most of that soy and corn in the American midwest and the clearcut Amazon are being raised to fatten cattle, not feed people - and it takes a lot of energy to do that.

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

#505

Post by h0l0cube »

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…

> I am kind of upset that the entire American culinary experience is being reduced to "burgers, pizza, and fried chicken."

I think the reason why burgers and other processed foods are the first to be tackled by fake meat start-ups, is that processed foods are easier to imitate, and quite likely burgers have the largest consumption of any processed food on the market. From both a profitability and environmental standpoint, any small win here, has an outsized impact.

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

#506

Post by gonehome »

jessewmc wrote: post #501
gonehome wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "On a side note: I'm not vegetarian. I simply agree with those who are." This was my position for a long time until finally making the jump at the beginning of the pandemic (vegetarian, will rarely eat fish sometimes). For me, it was mostly about reducing suffering of other animals. I thought this way before but it's hard to change behavior and I liked hamburgers. I think this is the strongest argument and the envi…

If you want to reduce animal suffering, there's a pretty good argument that cows are the last animals/animal products you should stop eating. You should definitely stop eating eggs, as egg-laying chickens live short, miserable lives where their bodies are destroyed rapidly. Chickens, fish and other small animals in captivity live short, miserable lives, and one family can eat a whole chicken in a day -- thats alot of…

Yeah, I go out of my way to get eggs from pasture grazed hand collected chickens via goodeggs because of how they're tortured otherwise (https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/home).

I learned about the difference between 'pasture grazed', 'free range', 'cagefree', etc.

Pasture is the only one that seemed cruelty free. I was told in 'free range' they raise them inside with a door closed for the first part of their life because they lobbied for this due to 'disease', but then when they eventually open the door the chickens never go out because they've lived their whole lives in the little room.

Being vegetarian is hard for me because I really love eating, it took me a while (and the pandemic) to really change behavior to align with what I think is the right thing.

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

#507

Post by danans »

arcturus17 wrote: post #323
danans wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You do need significant amounts of protein if you lift - this is backed by both research and empirical evidence. Specialized athletic hobbies like powerlifting are sort of irrelevant to discussions involving reducing GHG emissions by scaling up plant based meat substitutes. Niches like that aren't the target market.

I am for plant-based substitutes anyway. It’s a natural vegetarian diet that I would struggle with.

I have no doubt that many would struggle with it for many valid reasons.

For a whole lot of people (even people who eat meat), plant based vegetarian food still forms the foundation of their diet, and it's been that way since the dawn of agriculture.

For example, a dish made of legumes, grains, and vegetables flavored with a little bit of meat, while not vegetarian, is still fundamentally plant based. That describes a whole lot of traditional foods the planet over.

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

#508

Post by ksec »

blackearl wrote: post #329
legitster wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've consumed a lot of Beyond and Impossible, and it's good! But still a far way from unrecognizable. In fact, one thing they have made me appreciate is how good some of the "traditional" meat substitutes are. I actually quite like Boca and Garden Burgers et al! Still, the once or twice a year I go to a steakhouse and get a nice medium rare steak - we're a long, long way off from that.

I'm sure Burger King's meatless burger is recognizable to some, but when I tried it I don't think I'd really be able to tell the difference. It's easier to hide when the meat is already super processed like fast food meats. Agreed that there's still no comparison to a fine steak.

I guess it depends. I dont know anyone who cant tell the difference even without knowing it. They do taste good, but they are not meat. Even processed one.

And generally speaking, McDonald's processed food are pretty damn good in terms of processed food category. As compared to rest of the industry.

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

#509

Post by ip26 »

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…

I also eat few burgers, but Americans average 3 burgers a week- and even more chicken than beef.

So more or less, "burgers, pizza, and fried chicken" is not that far off.

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

#510

Post by h0l0cube »

DamnYuppie wrote: post #27
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 truly don't understand the methane issue. Historically worldwide the # of ungulates is probably well below historical averages. It looks like today we have around 98 million head of cattle in the US. Historically we had bison in excess of conservatively 60 million. This doesn't even begin to count all the animals in Africa. Overall wide life is declining. https://www.statista.com/statistics/194297/total-number-of-c…

> I truly don't understand the methane issue. Historically worldwide the # of ungulates is probably well below historical averages.

It's more that this wasn't so much a problem until we added the 80%+ other emissions on top (and the deforestation/water use/transportation/diversion of food crops/human population).

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