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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)

#191

Post by Gustomaximus »

sweetheart wrote: post #36

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…

> Beyond Burgers, is they require no violence against animals.

I find this interesting, in that cropping has plenty of violent against animals but one step removed.

I have a small cattle property, we run on hill country with diversified ecosystem, mixed grass and bushland. We have a heap of native animals living across the property. And at the end of the day the steers do get sent of for slaughter after 18 to 24 months + we kill feral pigs when they get in large numbers.

While cropping properties they tend to be monoculture, very little native animal presence. The spray like buggery wiping out insects with all that flow on effect (and to be fair we spray too, herbicide only and never pesticides and far less frequently). Also the cropping properties tend to shoot 'pests' heavily. We don't mind a few kangaroos and ducks type thing about but cropping properties are very serious about deterring and killing anything that hits their property.

And to be clear, I'm not having a go at you. I admire vegetarians for their genuinely caring moral position, and my family actually try to do more vegetarians meals. While at the same time I'm not sure plant based options are so devoid of killing, only the end product is one step removed.

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

#192

Post by sweetheart »

ipaddr wrote: post #184
sweetheart wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You like the taste of a dead animal but don't want horrific treatment? Why not buy your meat from a smaller farm. It sounds like you don't like factory farming. Not all meat is made that way.

> You like the taste of a dead animal but don't want horrific treatment?

Yes.

> It sounds like you don't like factory farming.

This is true! I think it's awful. I also don't like animals dying at all for my food. Factory farming or otherwise.

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

#193

Post by dguaraglia »

spenczar5 wrote: post #149
SamBam wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cattl…

What you are missing is that Bison lived off whatever plants naturally grew in the land, and that their numbers declined and increased with the available food supply. The loss of natural habitat and biodiversity alone should be a cause for concern.

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

#194

Post by _3u10 »

sweetheart wrote: post #36

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…

Compared to grass fed beef fake meat generally involves the killing of many more animals, due to the way industrial grains and vegetables are produced.

From a cruelty perspective probably the best thing to eat is free range Buffalo, but whale or elephant could potentially be better.

Considering how many animals whales kill, especially blue whales, we could be doing the planet a massive service by hunting them to extinction.

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

#195

Post by andrew_ »

This is a phenomenon that all too often suffers from the distaste of ruinous empathy [1] and moral superiority. I personally don't care why/how [you] _feel_ about this product. Stories about morality and feelings in the alt food market are insufferable and immediately invoke an epic eye roll. I care about what I eat in this order:

1. Is it healthy?

2. Does it taste good?

3. Is it sustainable?

Fake meat, at this point, barely meets #1, absolutely gets nowhere close to fulfilling #2 for my taste, and seems to fulfill #3. But it tastes like hot garbage compared to actual meat. I'll wait for lab-grown muscle to reach maturity. My taste buds and macros matter more in the meantime.

[1] https://www.radicalcandor.com/faq/what-is-ruinous-empathy/#:....

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

#196

Post by wyager »

rickspencer3 wrote: post #185
sweetheart wrote: post #36

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…

For my part, I enjoy fast food burgers (think Wendy's, Burger King, etc...). These burger patties are not exactly rare Kobe beef. Once you put that thing on a bun, add cheese, slather it in sauce, etc... I don't find the difference in the patties very noticeable. I notice how fresh the lettuce is more than the patty. I eat plenty of meat, so I don't have an anti-meat agenda. But, for me, for fast food burgers, I may…

The nutritional profile of a fast food beef patty is actually quite excellent, especially once you factor in the cost. The same cannot be said of the fake meat alternatives.

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

#197

Post by name_nick_sex_m »

paranoidrobot wrote: post #153
sweetheart wrote: post #36

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…

> they require no violence against animals. While I sympathise with the argument, I think that it's a mistake to push this aspect front and centre. There's a whole lot of people out there who simply like eating meat, and that it means killing an animal is not particularly a problem. The people I've spoken to about Beyond/Impossible and similar fake-meats all tend to think of it as something for vegans/vegetarians, be…

I disagree. While there will no doubt be friction, people should be confronted with the reality of their choices; long term we can't preserve their bubble of ignorance, might as well address it now

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

#198

Post by DistressedDrone »

MPSimmons wrote: post #66
sweetheart wrote: post #36

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 really enjoy both BeyondBeef and Impossible Burger. My thoughts are that BeyondBeef has a kind of plastic-y smell, but is almost exactly right in terms of color and texture. The smell is not concerning to me, but it is distinct for my palette. I still eat it, and don't mind. Aside from the burgers, I also really enjoy the spicy Italian sausages. There is a slightly different taste than pork-based sausages, but I wo…

As a vegetarian, I really don't get why people are so focused on realistic meat replacement. Like, there are other things to eat.

I especially don't get why people want the texture of red meat like beef patties. So you like... soft food?

There's no arguing tastes, it's just weird to me that that's what other vegetarians would care about.

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

#199

Post by lamontcg »

calvinmorrison wrote: post #21
tashoecraft wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So is that comparing against plain red meat with no salt added? Because if so that’s not really a fair comparison because you generally add a decent amount of salt to burger whereas you don’t really need to for beyond

This is a great time to plug MSG... the delicious umami flavor wrapped up in one delish ingredient. I never used salt much growing up at home - we always used Aromat! I was shocked to learn that most of the world doesn't use Aromat! Everyone go buy Aromat! It's delicious but unfortunately seems to be mostly popular for Swiss and South Africans! It's perfect on tomatos

The 'S' in MSG is 'Sodium'. If you're limiting salt due to high blood pressure, you also have to avoid MSG (according to NIH and AHA)

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

#200

Post by Spooky23 »

wyager wrote: post #186
Spooky23 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, and that’s why the fake meat companies are very careful from not mentioning anything about health benefits, and instead stress carbon nonsense and naturalness of ingredients. Impossible is legume flour and coconut oil. Legume flour is rough on the gut, and coconut oil is 90% saturated fat, way more than butter. Beyond is soy and coconut. If you have a moral or other objection to meat, go vegetarian or start eatin…

> Fake meat has all of the health downsides of lousy meat Even cheap meat still has a great nutritional profile compared to vegetables. In fact, meat consumption is quite (economically) progressive because expensive cuts subsidize nutritionally similar cheap cuts.

Absolutely.

Venture capital isn’t investing in fake meat because of some love of the earth. It’s a vertical integration play for fast food. Any shift of the demand curve hurts beef producers a lot, and they don’t have the economies of scale that a factory has.

If successful, they’ll be making 50 points of margin on a tray of mush.

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