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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)

#171
post #100
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cows are fed by plants that grow on the same kind of fields, except cows need to eat many pounds of food to generate one pound of cow.

And we need to eat many pounds of cow. Or many more pounds of plants to generate a pound.

Plants to animal to you is 10% efficiency. That cow needs to eat 10 lbs of plant to get the nutrients you’d get from 1 lb.

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

#172

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…

What is your view on lions, tigers, bears and other meat eating species?

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

#173

Whilst the environmental and animal welfare benefits of many of the ‘fake’ meats (Beyond, Impossible, Vegetarian Butcher, etc) are noble and important, in the spirit of ‘full’ lifecycle analysis, it is important to also consider just how processed (ultra processed) these products are and the potential impacts this has in the human health domain. And the research on ultra processed foods is rather clear, they are ‘bad…

Let's not overlook the fact that most cows raised in massive farms are fed a horrible diet and most beef based products - even raw beef - are also processed and have additives.

I'm not saying that Beyond Burger is better or worse, but that pretending all beef is healthy is kind of silly.

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

#174
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one needed to die for you to eat it. Except all those animals + insects that once inhabited the fields

More crops are grown to feed the livestock than people, so if you want to save the field animals and insects, going plant based will save even more.

> More crops are grown to feed the livestock than people

This is entirely misleading. More plant biomass goes to animals than people, but very little of it is human-edible and much of it consists of byproducts of human plant consumption (e.g. corn husks).

You hear this BS all the time e.g. with soy. Yes, the "majority of soy" goes to cattle but that's because humans won't eat soybean meal. The economic impetus to grow the soy in the first place still comes from humans. If they were only feeding it to cattle it wouldn't be profitable.

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

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure this is true if you're looking at free-range though. There are many places which are not very amenable to growing crops fit for human consumption, but are more than adequate for growing the grasses (and more) that ruminant digestive systems (e.g. cows) can easily digest. So if you're growing soy on deforested land as a base for your "cruelty free" burger, it is very possible that this has damaged the origina…

> Not sure this is true if you're looking at free-range though. There are many places which are not very amenable to growing crops fit for human consumption, but are more than adequate for growing the grasses that ruminant digestive systems (e.g. cows) can easily digest. Exactly. It's not like animal husbandry and meat-eating developed as some kind of ostentatious wasteful consumption. It's a way of converting inedib…

Sure, totally, but how many of us live in places where we have access to the cows but not non-animals foods that can sustain us? Virtually none. So while its true that human beings ate meat for good reasons for a LONG time, its not really something that most folks need anymore.

Is it true that everywhere we have cows we can also grow soy or wheat or whatever? No, definitely not. Does that matter? No, definitely not.

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

#176

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…

I guess the difference would be though, that without the demand for meat, those cows would likely never have lived at all. 99%+ of all cows alive are used for human agriculture. From the perspective of any living creature, I generally think of existence as a positive good versus non-existence. I know I certainly would rather come to a violent death at a young age than have never been born at all. I think there's a pl…

There is a very good argument to be made that the life of cows on factory farms is worse than never existing.

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

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have indeed tried them, and they aren't as nice as a real beef burger in my opinion. And as a predatory animal, the fact that something "needs to die" for me to feed doesn't factor into the equation. (Of course, you can certainly reduce cruelty if you move away from a US-style factory farming model). Looking forward to seeing how the technology develops, but yeah. It hasn't changed my habits yet.

>And as a predatory animal, the fact that something "needs to die" for me to feed doesn't factor into the equation. I'm having a hard time following this... are you saying that you don't think about the reality of killing animals for food because of some biological mechanism outside of your control?

> I'm having a hard time following this... are you saying that you don't think about the reality of killing animals for food because of some biological mechanism outside of your control?

Pretty much everyone needs to kill things to live, even vegetarians (thousands of baby plants were killed to make every loaf of bread). Theoretically there are fruitarians who don't, but my understanding is that is not a sustainable diet and many famous frutarians regularly cheated.

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

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have indeed tried them, and they aren't as nice as a real beef burger in my opinion. And as a predatory animal, the fact that something "needs to die" for me to feed doesn't factor into the equation. (Of course, you can certainly reduce cruelty if you move away from a US-style factory farming model). Looking forward to seeing how the technology develops, but yeah. It hasn't changed my habits yet.

>And as a predatory animal, the fact that something "needs to die" for me to feed doesn't factor into the equation. I'm having a hard time following this... are you saying that you don't think about the reality of killing animals for food because of some biological mechanism outside of your control?

Yes. It’s the cycle of life. Biologically, I am a carnivorous animal, so are you. We simply possess the faculties to choose not to be in a reasonable way, but it doesn’t stop the fact that nature/universe/god/whatever made you to eat the life out of other animals.

Doesn’t bother me either.

Side note: This is beyond the convo of the merit in how we do this today. Whole different convo.

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

#179

Whilst the environmental and animal welfare benefits of many of the ‘fake’ meats (Beyond, Impossible, Vegetarian Butcher, etc) are noble and important, in the spirit of ‘full’ lifecycle analysis, it is important to also consider just how processed (ultra processed) these products are and the potential impacts this has in the human health domain. And the research on ultra processed foods is rather clear, they are ‘bad…

I'd be curious to know which ingredients are the most worrisome. I don't eat much Beyond or Impossible at this point, but I could see myself eating a lot in the future if they made lower-fat options (more like ground turkey than ground beef).

But I don't want to eat something that is made out of unhealthy ingredients. What should I look out for?

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

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 ha…

It is not squeamishness. I have killed animals for food with my own hands and being part of people killed in war. I would like to not do it when I have the opportunity.

The parent comment explicitly and clearly attempts to use an emotionally designed device leveraging people's presumed distaste for distressing animals. An errant assumption.
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