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Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

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Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#141
post #113
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less animals stand to die at the blades of the harvester when one chooses to stop eating animals altogether. You can't eliminate suffering, but you can take active measures to reduce it.

One can also choose to consume meat that is not treated with cruelty. It’s more expensive, but does exist. The “less violence” argument doesn’t hold sway with some. That’s a purely subjective assessment that not everyone agrees with. For example, I don’t consider the slaughter of animals for food to be particularly more violent than the wholesale shredding of plant fibers at harvest.

There is no such thing as slaughter without cruelty. The animals do not want to die, and they are killed. That is _always_ cruel.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#142

While it is not my experience at all, I understand that some folks have certain negative opinions of Beyond Burgers, and other fake meat/imitation burgers: - The texture is off - Maybe they cook strangely - Potentially less taste But the most important thing about them, and the reason I urge everyone to at least _try_ Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals. This is not an argument that fairs well…

> is they require no violence against animals.

And you wonder why people can't take absolutists seriously. The marketing power of the moral superiority concept is no new thing. Pivoting the crux of success of your ideology around an incredibly poor burger filling makes no sense either.

In the UK restaurants are being allowed to reopen in 10 days. In London there are an incredible density of steak restaurants which happen to already be booked out completely.

I think your appeal to squeamishness around slaughtering animals will feel entirely cringeworthy to most emotionally intelligent persons.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#143
post #108
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many animals die at the blades of the harvester. Also, the reason the argument fares poorly is likely due to the fact that it’s devoid of reason and couched entirely in emotion. Emotion is powerful and important, as it is part of our humanity. But it’s not a good basis for argument, given its fickle and poorly understood nature.

Maybe you can say more about what you disagree with, then, rather than writing off the comment as a bad argument. I don't think it was that bad or emotional, personally.

What part of “ without the slaughter of living, feeling, individual being is so unbelievably important and incredible” is not emotional? The words “feeling” and “individual” are purely emotional in this context.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This video is pure garbage. Detailed rebuttal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G44CDBdC8CA

I just had a horrible vision of an HN where everyone just posts links to videos.

I’ve been starting to look for alternatives TBH. I’m really starting to get ‘Reddit 2015’ vibes from the type of knee jerk low quality cynical uninformed comments I’ve been seeing float to the top recently somewhat more frequently than usual.

Not jumping ship yet, but I always like to be ahead of the game a bit.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#145
post #32

Genuinely curious; is eating something processed like this better than eating regular unprocessed ground meat?

You should try it just to test it yourself. I get a different burger maybe once or twice a quarter to see how they stack up. Some of them I wouldn't know it was veg if someone else ordered it for me. Legitimately that good. I've also had some terrible ones too, not sure if it was due to the prep work vs the 'meat' itself. For now the price is always 25% higher which keeps me away from being a regular, but I expect th…

My main concern is how the insects are raised. My main thought with this is that if they're using any type of chemicals that it would travel down the food chain to us.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#146
post #73

While it is not my experience at all, I understand that some folks have certain negative opinions of Beyond Burgers, and other fake meat/imitation burgers: - The texture is off - Maybe they cook strangely - Potentially less taste But the most important thing about them, and the reason I urge everyone to at least _try_ Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals. This is not an argument that fairs well…

So many animals die at the blades of the harvester. Also, the reason the argument fares poorly is likely due to the fact that it’s devoid of reason and couched entirely in emotion. Emotion is powerful and important, as it is part of our humanity. But it’s not a good basis for argument, given its fickle and poorly understood nature.

Emotion might not be a good basis for argument, but neither is "X is also non-zero amount bad so why should I stop Y even though it is more bad"

Ex: "Donuts are bad for you because they are sugary" "Well, apples have sugar in them too! Should I stop eating them as well?!"

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#147

It's good to see these sorts of numbers, especially as a $BYND stockholder. :) I've had more impossible burgers (from BK) than beyond, and I think I prefer the impossible taste a bit more, but only slightly. In a burger, with other toppings (tomatoes, mustard, onions, lettuce, etc)... the 'non-beef' taste is pretty minimal, in my experience, although I do notice a slight aftertaste. Haven't tried the new "beyond 3.0"…

Hey, I agree with pretty much everything you just said. One other obstacle that is worth highlighting is that (at least where I am) the cost delta between beyond/impossible and plain-old beef is pretty massive, and the #1 thing keeping me from eating more of it.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#148
post #122
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I assign pretty significant utilitarian value to "stop eating animals", it still falls a few orders of magnitude short of "provide for the health and wellbeing of humans". We are, at the very least, decades away from having a complete enough understanding of nutrition to safely replace the nutritional value of beef with a substitute fake beef product. Once we accomplish that, there are some second-order effects…

>It's also worth keeping in mind that living off plants generally kills more total animals (although smaller animals) than living off medium-large animals. Your net consumption of plants is reduced when you reduce your consumption of animals, friend. How do you figure it would cause the death of more total animals? >While I assign pretty significant utilitarian value to "stop eating animals", it still falls a few ord…

> How do you figure it would cause the death of more total animals

Cattle grazing causes less animal death than industrial plant agriculture (land clearing, pest control, insecticide usage, etc.).

> People get along just fine eating only legumes and grain

No they don't. Healthy vegans are few and far between. Not that the SAD is much (or any) better.

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#149
post #88

Most of the ranch land in my area isn't really suitable for other kinds of agriculture so I don't know if that measure means much. It certainly isn't irrigated and I think the cows give back the water they use.

Does grassland really need to be suited for any kind of agriculture? The prairies used to be one of the greatest carbon sinks in the world, storing as much or more carbon per acre than most forests. They were also a source of incredible diversity. Cattle ranching operations transforms that carbon sink into methane gas to warm our atmosphere. And while the water is returned, the energy spend transporting and cleaning…

How does that calculation work? Prairies were inhabited by huge herds of large grazers: bison. Thats how they stayed as prairies.

There were about 60 million bison on the American prairie before 1800. There are about 90 million cattle in the US across all states - with large numbers outside the bison’s range, in states like New York and Tennessee and California. So - roughly in the same ballpark.

Pasture-raised cattle don’t seem so different to me - but I am not very informed on this topic, maybe I am missing something?

Re: Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger life cycle assessment (2018)

#150
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But why would you want to replicate the outcome of a slaughter if that part of the process upsets you? Why make an apple taste like the death of a cow? For me eating things in their most natural forms seems more appealing. I don't know what is in beyond meat but avoiding processed anything seems like a more healthy strategy.

I like how burgers taste, so I want to eat them. But I don't want an animal to experience horrific treatment and slaughter just for the taste, so I seek it out in plants. That makes sense, no? I can like the salty, fat taste but opt-out of the subjugation and slaughter of another being.

I’m exactly like you, I love the taste of meat and I love animals. Whenever it is an option I choose beyond/impossible meat. That means virtually no one has to die for me that day.
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