Live data from Hacker News

Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

bloomberg.com

161–170 of 813 posts

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#161
Can we add an "in the US" at the end?

Since for EU countries this is not true.

I'm living in sweden now and lived in germany and poland.

Plant-based meat products are growing in numbers and the price of meat is going so high that its cheaper to buy the plant-based one.

In Germany one producer of meat sausages want to turn 100% plant based[1].

I will not go into the whats better and not for you. Since this highly depends on not just one food category. You can eat "Vegan" and still eat unhealthy and you can eat meat and be healthy. The body is to complex on just saying is something is healthy or unhealthy on one factor.

[1] https://www.ruegenwalder.de/vegetarische-und-vegane-produkte

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#162
post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fake meat isn't just inferior to real meat. It's inferior to just plain old vegetables. It's a crazy product designed for a society with weird eating habits. They're not trying to cook the best vegetable dishes. They're not trying to cook dishes that use less meat. They're not trying to expand your palettes and reintroducing liver, sweetbreads or other weird cuts. All these "green" products convince you to not do the…

Never thought about it but you’re spot on. A big roasted field mushroom with a dash of balsamic and perhaps some feta cheese is 1000% tastier than a weird processed vegetable patty.

A real good way to do it is to saute some thin-sliced shiitakes and creminis in a pan with salt, pepper, and a shallot; once you get a good fond, put the shrooms in between two slices of bread with a bit of cheese (fresh mozzarella is a good one here, so is gruyere), deglaze the pan with butter, and then throw the sandwich in the pan until it's done the way you like your grilled cheese.

I call it "beyond beyond meat."

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tough choice. Weird goo that was grown in a lab by people that have no idea what they're doing OR natural food we've been eating since the dawn of time.

I’m vegetarian (several years now) and I agree with you. Meat has its problems, but our bodies make very good use of it. Long list of chemicals with unproven value? We have a bad track record with trying to engineer our own ‘healthy’ food. See: margarine for example. Impossible/beyond is great as a vegetarian as a rare treat (different flavors than normal veggies, loaded with umami — I don’t love them or anything but…

> See: margarine for example

What's wrong with it for reducing cholesterol intake? Butter has gotten very expensive, too.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#164
post #7

If any of the planet saving meat substitute promises are true, such a fake meat patty would cost a tenth of the beef equivalent and it would dominate the market. I read somewhere you would need 25 kg of feed to produce 1 kg of beef, ergo one could potentially produce 25 times the amount of substitute. Obviously that isn't true and such a patty is a specialized product of various highly processed plant matter. It is a…

> one could potentially produce 25 times the amount of substitute

25 times of cattle feed, sure. But there's a lot of selection and mixing of various plants for taste. It's not a simple replacement.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#165
post #161

Can we add an "in the US" at the end? Since for EU countries this is not true. I'm living in sweden now and lived in germany and poland. Plant-based meat products are growing in numbers and the price of meat is going so high that its cheaper to buy the plant-based one. In Germany one producer of meat sausages want to turn 100% plant based[1]. I will not go into the whats better and not for you. Since this highly depe…

Your link doesn't support your statement. Where does it say they want to turn 100% plant based?

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#166
post #85
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same in the E.U. we have billions of subsidies for milk and meat. Many countries like germany also have a tiered VAT system, where basic foods are taxed lower, there is a base line tax and some luxury items are taxed higher. Thanks to lobbying meat and cow-milk are taxed as basic foods, while vegan alternatives are taxed as luxury items.

We do not need fake meat. We just need to stop these subsidies and import tax on meat.

Providing people with alternatives is never a bad thing.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#167
post #161

Can we add an "in the US" at the end? Since for EU countries this is not true. I'm living in sweden now and lived in germany and poland. Plant-based meat products are growing in numbers and the price of meat is going so high that its cheaper to buy the plant-based one. In Germany one producer of meat sausages want to turn 100% plant based[1]. I will not go into the whats better and not for you. Since this highly depe…

This is a gross misrepresentation. Ruegenwalder is not turning 100% plant based, in terms of sold products I would be surprised if they turned > 5% plant based, but I don't know the numbers there.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#168
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

86% of feed is grown on land [1], which is not suitable for growing human food crops. [1]: https://www.agfoundation.org/common-questions/view/could-mor...

This is plain false. Please find reputable sources.

> This is plain false. Please find reputable sources.

Do you have reputable sources for that statement being "plain false"?

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#169
post #158

And we don't need fake meat. It's just something that the food industry can make and sell to us instead of us just eating stuff that grows in the earth. If you want something with a texture similar to meat, many mushrooms will do the job. If you want something reminiscent of ground beef, quinoa with seasoning will suffice. However, limiting yourself to vegetarian approaches of recreating meat dishes, then you are mis…

And we don’t need people engaging in vegetarian purity contests and gatekeeping. And we don’t have to eat the same thing all the time. Using a meat substitute is not limiting yourself, you have no idea what people eat on other days, it can simply be an enjoyable part of a varied diet.

Someone always makes a comment like this about meat substitutes.

Wether you pick the vegetarian or meat-based option, there’s a lot of reasons why someone would choose a processed slice, sausage or whatever over cooking from scratch.

Re: Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

#170

And we don't need fake meat. It's just something that the food industry can make and sell to us instead of us just eating stuff that grows in the earth. If you want something with a texture similar to meat, many mushrooms will do the job. If you want something reminiscent of ground beef, quinoa with seasoning will suffice. However, limiting yourself to vegetarian approaches of recreating meat dishes, then you are mis…

These products exist _because_ your claims about mushrooms and quinoa being acceptable (and somewhat available) just aren't true. There seems to be this army of people who say "compressed vegetables in a circle" are acceptable burger alternatives; they're really not.

This market isn't for existing vegans/vegetarians in most cases, it's for people curious about going that way or cutting down their consumption.

Post reply on HN