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

Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

plantbasednews.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 282 posts

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#51

Post by A_D_E_P_T »

postsantum wrote: post #42

Sure, when you are priced out of meat and fish, you are turning to vegan options. I expect a similar headline in a few years (from bugbasednews): "Vegan Food Sales Drop in Europe as Insect Versions Hit Record Hight"

In Europe -- at least in Czechia and Germany, where I've spent some time recently -- Vegan options are often higher-priced than the foods they're substituting for. Vegan cheese is more expensive, often considerably more expensive, than regular cheese from a deli or from Lidl. Vegan cafes, which have noticeably grown in popularity, are no less expensive than regular cafes.

...There are also a lot of "Loving Hut" restaurants in the big cities of Czechia and Germany. These are run by a vegan cult who would doubtless frown upon the eating of insects. The food they offer is inexpensive, but no cheaper than, e.g., Burger King.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#52

Post by bufio »

postsantum wrote: post #42

Sure, when you are priced out of meat and fish, you are turning to vegan options. I expect a similar headline in a few years (from bugbasednews): "Vegan Food Sales Drop in Europe as Insect Versions Hit Record Hight"

But the vegan products tend to be more expensive.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#53

Post by rebuilder »

profeaturo wrote: post #31
deepsun wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relax, no one is really considering meat foods to go away in the next 100 years or so. It's all about the access to the vegetarian and vegan foods to those who want it, and it happens to become more popular, so market adapts. But you present it like someone tries to take your food.

We’re only a few disasters away from the government deciding that the climate crisis requires drastic measures, including a severe rationing of meat and other products considered harmful to the environment. It’s clear from the rhetoric that this is the direction we are moving in, and it’s also clear that a great percentage of the population will comply and even celebrate such restrictions.

Maybe it’s time we take action to reduce the severity of the crisis before we end up in the scenario you describe.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#54

Post by ben_w »

waihtis wrote: post #45
mvdwoord wrote: post #4

Plenty to improve in food production, sure, but the current move towards hyper processed foods is dumb. They can take the animal meat (and eggs, and dairy products) from my cold dead hands..

Same. No-one has yet been able to explain why I should exchange a well-functioning animal-based diet into a vegan one where I need to supplement by default to fulfill human needs. I have respect for those who do it on the basis of animal compassion, but claiming healthiness is obviously a false statement.

Can't speak for you personally, but the average human today has an unhealthy diet since well before the recent popularity surge of vegan-by-choice in the west, so I don't accept "well-functioning animal-based diet" as a general premise even if you personally can make it work.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#55

Post by oifjsidjf »

>> The Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) reports that sales of plant-based foods across 13 European nations amounted to €5.7 billion in 2022.

The good food institude is the lobbying arm of the lab grown protein companies.

>> ...a Y Combinator funded non-profit that promotes plant- and cultivated meat alternatives to conventional animal meat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Friedrich

Also look at stocks at these fake food companies: they are all going down.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#57

Post by aziaziazi »

karmakurtisaani wrote: post #17
kfk wrote: post #12

I am getting a bit deeper into the food industry since I started investing in a startup that plans to produce animal feed with insects. Animal feeds are prepared with specific properties, for instance, fish feed at 60% protein. The impact of different percentages of compounds is measured closely on animal well being, growth, weight… I am quite bothered that we don’t do the same for human foods. We lighlty compare rea…

It's funny you are worried about the impact of vegan alternatives and not, say, sugars, alcohol, overly fatty or salty foods, too much bad quality meat raised with hormones etc. It's almost like you have a bias against the vegan alternative.. Edit: ok so I was not terribly constructive with this comment, so happy to elaborate. I'm pretty tired of this argument against vegan meat. The nutritional values of vegan meat…

> overly fatty or salty food

Hard to understand one can promote cheese versus « vegan cheese » for nutritional reasons ! The vegan cheese may contain very few nutriments while the vast majority of our « real » cheeses are absolute disasters.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#58

Post by ndsipa_pomu »

xk_id wrote: post #41

Probably going to be short lasted, as the nutritional deficiencies caused by those products start to produce symptoms. Then plant based diets will become stigmatised. The trend in plant foods to label them with names for animal products is very misleading when the nutritional profiles have absolutely nothing in common. Oat “milk” is basically flavoured water; soy “milk” has a little bit of nutrients in it, but it’s n…

> Vegan “meat” from wheat/seitan (the most popular version) contains a type of protein that is not digestible

That would be gluten/gliadin. I'm somewhat gluten sensitive (makes psoriasis flare up) and have been pescetarian for over 30 years and I find that vegan "alternatives" are generally quite bad. They tend to use lots of fat (makes it taste better) and rely heavily on pastry/breadcrumbs which makes it unsuitable for me.

I totally agree with the cooking food yourself principle - it's the only way to not end up eating processed rubbish.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#59

Post by secondcoming »

andrepd wrote: post #40
concordDance wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've also been aggressively selecting traits in animals, grains, vegetables and fruits at an accelerating pace. I'm worried that modern carrots are lacking in nutrition due to being heavily selected for size and colour.

Vegetables you can buy at the supermarket are absolutely atrocious. Every time I go home to my parents' and have home-grown tomatoes I cry.

Yup, the tomatoes available to me (UK) in supermarkets have zero flavour. I just buy them out of habit. They look great but they’re crap.

Re: Animal meat and milk sales drop in Europe as vegan versions hit record highs

#60

Post by drakonka »

kfk wrote: post #12

I am getting a bit deeper into the food industry since I started investing in a startup that plans to produce animal feed with insects. Animal feeds are prepared with specific properties, for instance, fish feed at 60% protein. The impact of different percentages of compounds is measured closely on animal well being, growth, weight… I am quite bothered that we don’t do the same for human foods. We lighlty compare rea…

I don't personally know any vegetarian or vegan who thinks of alternatives as some kind of healthy choice by default. Many of them also don't consider cow's milk to be inherently healthy, but that's neither here nor there.

Those who care about eating healthy make sure that non-healthy foods, animal product alternatives or otherwise, are not the only thing they consume. They get their protein (and other macro and micronutrients) from relevant plant-based sources or supplementation. The latter is especially common for gym-goers. I'd hope people who do consume meat and dairy and care about their health also don't assume that animal product consumption is equatable to a healthy holistic diet by default.

Post reply on HN