Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

641–650 of 813 posts

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

#641

Post by bequanna »

comte7092 wrote: post #596
base698 wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By protein content it's a bit better for beef. 1kg of corn has 32g protein. 1kg of beef has 260g of protein.

The point was that you need 30 kg of corn to make 1 kg of beef. Therefore 32g * 30 = 960g of corn protein to create 260g of beef protein.

You’re missing the point.

There is always some efficiency loss at every stage, but we’re turning something that is not ideal for human consumption (conventional field corn) to something that is very palatable.

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

#642

Post by taco_emoji »

Right now you pay an extra $1 or more for the Impossible version of a burger, so there was a spike of curious people trying it once, and now it's leveled off to the much smaller number of people who are willing to pay the premium regularly. But getting the average consumer to switch requires competitive pricing. This shouldn't be surprising to anyone.

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

#643

Post by unity1001 »

comte7092 wrote: post #632
unity1001 wrote: post #619

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because that’s not how commercial at works in the west You dont seem to be aware of factory farming... https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/blogs/hidden-driver-fac... > It is estimated that livestock consume 70% of the grain grown in the US, and that half of the water consumed in the US is used to grow grain for cattle.

I am aware of factory farming. As I explained in my statement, cows are finished at factory farms. It’s very clear that you have a very surface level understanding of how the American cattle industry works. At no point did I claim anything about how cows don’t consume a massive amount of grain. Unlike chickens and pigs, the American cattle industry is decentralized. Cows are raised on a series of different types of r…

> As I explained in my statement, cows are finished at factory farms

No. They live there from birth to death. A factory farm is not a slaughterhouse. You seem to mistake them for it.

https://thehumaneleague.org/article/factory-farmed-cows

> At no point did I claim anything about how cows don’t consume a massive amount of grain.

You actually did. You said in repeated comments to me and others that in the west the cows consume grass. And showed it as an argument against the food inefficiency criticism.

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

#644

Post by [deleted] »

jknoepfler wrote: post #608
nightski wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's not true. Most cattle is grass fed for the majority of it's life at which point they will have them eat at feed lots to fatten up. Second, feed lots can use things like by-products of sugar production (molasses, beet pulp pellets, etc...) for feed. These are not human consumable and require no extra food to be grown. I've worked with a company that does over half a billion in revenue on this alone. There…

Now account for the energy, land, labor, materials, and environmental externalities required to bring a cow from birth to the table at industrial scale (all the way from birth, through the animal's ~1.5 years of life (?), through slaughter, butchering, packing, distribution to the consumer, etc.), and compare that to a proportionate amount of beans and rice.

[deleted]

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

#645

Post by astura »

23B1 wrote: post #78
Moldoteck wrote: post #29

Maybe unpopular opinion, but for me, best plant based patties are those that do not try to replicate meat taste. I much prefer patties made from actual plants&vegetables/mushrooms/chickpeas/beans like potato, carrot, some spices and so on. They have like actual 'natural' flavor, almost like something homemade. Those that add a ton of additives often taste awful, even beyond/moving mountains...

You can do up a portobello burger in a thousand different ways and they all taste amazing. I do not understand the fascination with replicating meat for environmental good when nature herself provides plenty of delicious alternatives. Ever had a deep-fried cheese-stuffed portobello? Mama mia...

I'm not sure what the need is for the fake confusion. People like these items because they enjoy the taste and/or they are familiar. It's not at all hard to understand.

I've been a vegetarian for well over two decades. Growing up I was always completely grossed out by the concept of meat, so I almost never ate it before I went vegetarian, and didn't AT ALL enjoy it when I did eat it. For many years I didn't want anything "meaty." It was still obvious why people would want meat analogues, even if I wasn't one of them. I don't believe that these "I don't get it" comments are in good faith.

Around 5 years ago I started dabbling in fake meat. Turns out enough time had passed that I got over the icky-ness of a "meaty" product. Now I really enjoy a large variety of fake meats even though there's ALSO a large variety of vegetarian dishes I enjoy.

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

#646

Post by broast »

alphanullmeric wrote: post #215
dubcanada wrote: post #137

I’d feel better if the ingredients list wasn’t as long as my arm. I know it’s a bunch of stuff to make it look like meat, but it’s basically cow meat vs a burger containing 50 random items and chemicals that is worse or equal in nutritional content then cow. Like one impossible vs cow is 14g of fat vs 16g of fat. 370mg of sodium vs 90mg of sodium. They are not even that much better for you. Rather than trying to get…

Vegan food: taste, healthy, filling - pick 2

In my experience it is the opposite, being that I only practice veganism every other day, I'm always looking forward to my vegan days for the variety of whole veggies and beans and grains I "have" to eat on those days. Always satisfying.

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

#647

Post by Attrecomet »

jononomo wrote: post #470
spicymaki wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> natural food we've been eating since the dawn of time. I don't know if you seen the factory farms that produce chicken and beef? There is nothing natural from the dawn of time from that. They are loaded with antibiotics, and they are naturally selected for maximum meat production. Deli meats and hotdogs sure are natural products made of some amalgamation of random animal parts. Some people speak as if everyone proc…

Beef is not factory-farmed. All cows are raised grazing on grass and are taken to feedlots for fattening only just prior to slaughter. Cows don't go through the torture that chickens and pigs go through.

> All cows

Entirely untrue.

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

#648

Post by comte7092 »

bequanna wrote: post #641
comte7092 wrote: post #596

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point was that you need 30 kg of corn to make 1 kg of beef. Therefore 32g * 30 = 960g of corn protein to create 260g of beef protein.

You’re missing the point. There is always some efficiency loss at every stage, but we’re turning something that is not ideal for human consumption (conventional field corn) to something that is very palatable.

No I get the point, your point misses the opportunity cost of the land that was used to raise animal feed, it could be used to grow any number of other crops for human consumption. That is unless you are of the belief that humans have an innate need to consume beef specifically.

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

#649

Post by mbreese »

browningstreet wrote: post #580
kup0 wrote: post #481

This editorialized link title and the article's headline itself doesn't really match the article's content (as is increasingly common it seems). Sure, Beyond Meat has had lower sales- but soon after they mention that retail sales of Impossible meat products increased 50% in 2022- with an odd "but the CEO left so they're in trouble" assessment which seems a bit bonkers. Then the author seems to say that because fake m…

In every taste test I've watched, Beyond never scores as high as Impossible. Impossible just seems to be doing better because it tastes better.

Impossible is also easier to cook with (for me). It can be difficult for either to cook burgers with if you don’t buy pre-formed patties. But Beyond seemed just a little more difficult. And gross. Uncooked Beyond was a little more gooey than Impossible.

Just from that regard, I could see Impossible performing better because it is easier to integrate into existing recipes. Don’t discount the contribution of cooks in this equation.

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

#650

Post by fudgefactorfive »

I feel the issue with the meat alternatives has been the idea that Vegetarians and Vegans are growing in number and most people don't prepare their own food.

Couple that with some indications that in the western world both Vegans and Vegetarianisms seem to have more disposable income [0] and you get people with business backgrounds naturally pricing the products higher.

Also from a social perspective in the west, people will pay a premium to appear to be making "healthier" or "ethical" purchases.

0: A study on self-reported eating habits with some interesting citations https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622783/

Post reply on HN