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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

#591

Post by exabrial »

spark3k wrote: post #261
exabrial wrote: post #193

Personally I avoid their stuff. I'd rather have a locally raised steak from one of my neighbors who loves their cattle and their job. Eating highly processed food just isn't good for you.

I don't understand when farmers say they "love their cattle" but then industriously kill them at 12% of their normal lifespan. And repeat. In millions. The meat lobby really has a grip on the culture and identity of the animal consuming public.

Humans long ago changed the evolutionary trajectory of certain species. There are no wild horses for example, only feral.

Your argument starts from the premise that consuming meat or raising animals for slaughter is somehow wrong.

I'll continue enjoying my steak, thank you.

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

#592

Post by exabrial »

buzzy_hacker wrote: post #248
exabrial wrote: post #193

Personally I avoid their stuff. I'd rather have a locally raised steak from one of my neighbors who loves their cattle and their job. Eating highly processed food just isn't good for you.

The vast majority of people don’t have neighbors who lovingly raise cattle for slaughter.

* the vast majority of people that choose to live in unpopulated coastal cities, I think you mean.

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

#593

Post by stephenr »

scottLobster wrote: post #254
legitster wrote: post #129

I enjoy eating meat and have no plans of going off of it completely. But we eat so much of it as a culture. And when you add up every hot pocket, frozen pizza, slider, hot dog, or chicken nugget, it's hard to argue that most of meat actually being consumed can't be easily substituted. For something healthier and cheaper too! And I know people blast tech companies for focusing too much on making things flashy and cool…

Yeah and the health arguments tend to fall apart when you get into fast-food/highly processed crap territory, which probably accounts for a large portion of meat consumption in the developed world. Eating less of that stuff is probably a good thing. That said quality meat is a good source of various nutrients and amino acids that can be difficult to get from plant-based sources, and fish in particular can be farmed v…

> fast-food/highly processed crap territory, which probably accounts for a large portion of meat consumption in the developed world

A large portion of animal by-products, almost certainly. I doubt that a lot of what fast-food joints use, would be considered "meat" before it was processed.

Nobody is asking their local butcher for the Cows eyeballs and asshole.

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

#594

Post by notnestle »

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…

Don’t be fooled, not all plant based foods are good for the planet. Nestle makes them in Israel & sends them with refrigerated air freight around the world. That’s more harmful than a cow...

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

#595

Post by soyftware »

jtdev wrote: post #553
soyftware wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any source of meat is not ethical to the animals. Affordability almost doesn't matter. Staple foods like rice, grains, and beans are staple foods for a reason.

Just because you believe this doesn’t make it true. Do you think a pack of coyotes tearing apart a newborn deer is unethical too? Do you think farming grains and vegetables is without impact on wildlife?

Humans have moral agency, and most importantly, do not need meat to survive in 2020. Which is different than wild coyotes.

Veganism according to the vegan society:

https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/definition-veganism

> "Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; ...

Most importantly to the point, animal agriculture causes more suffering because we still need to farm grains for feed, more than we would have to otherwise. Reducing animal agriculture will have a positive impact on wildlife, reducing deforestation, etc.

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

#596

Post by b3kart »

spark3k wrote: post #261
exabrial wrote: post #193

Personally I avoid their stuff. I'd rather have a locally raised steak from one of my neighbors who loves their cattle and their job. Eating highly processed food just isn't good for you.

I don't understand when farmers say they "love their cattle" but then industriously kill them at 12% of their normal lifespan. And repeat. In millions. The meat lobby really has a grip on the culture and identity of the animal consuming public.

> normal lifespan

How many animals actually grow old in the wild though, not getting eaten by a predator? At least humans have the decency to kill them first... I agree both the scale and the cruelty are important problems, but the ethical aspect isn't so clear-cut.

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

#598

Post by p1necone »

mcintyre1994 wrote: post #450
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.

Are you talking about minced beef? I buy that at 5% fat in the UK, and that’s not anywhere fancy.

That's probably great for bolognese or tartare (to name a couple of random examples), but use that for a burger and it would be horribly dry (unless you cooked it rare/medium rare)

Although I'm sure it's possible to make a plant based burger that doesn't need 20% fat by tweaking other stuff that you can't change with ground beef. (I've had potato/sweet potato patties that were great and basically fat free, but obviously not much like actual meat)

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

#599

Post by rsj_hn »

drewg123 wrote: post #64
ngngngng wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

That study seems to be comparing cropland to pasture. The problem is that the tradeoff is not between cropland and pasture, but pasture and forest. Eg: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/02/revealed... Due to increasing demand for meat, we have people burning the forest and releasing all the carbon sequestered in the trees, and reducing the efficiency of the land as a carbon sink going forward.

The trade off is not pasture to forest. Pastureland for most of the world is on arid land too dry to support forests, such as the American West. Before we raised cattle on it, it was tall grassland where Bison grazed. Similarly most forms of cattle culture arose in arid climates that could not support water intensive agriculture such as rice. Forests don't do well in arid climates, as California is finding out after decades of mismanagement.

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

#600

Post by acchow »

noneeeed wrote: post #183
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.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/01/07/impossible-foods-abandons-pu...

"The company said it cannot produce enough of its imitation meat to partner with the world’s No.1 fast-food chain."

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