Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cattle are not raised in feed lots. Feed lots do sometimes come into play for finishing beef cattle, but this takes only ~4 months. And it is very possible to buy pasture&grass finished beef that doesn’t use feed lots at all.
I shouldn't have said "raised", that was wrong, but I just wanted to talk about beef cattle that are not pasture grazing at all, or at least only for a tiny percentage of their lifespan. About 80% of beef cattle go from mother's milk, to feed lot once weaned. Of course you can buy the other stuff, I said as much. My point is that this statement is one part deceptive, and one part obviously wrong for the US, the marke…
Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
131–140 of 145 posts
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely they would be using immortal cancer cells? Those are used in human cell cultures because they conveniently have unbounded growth.
That would be a Bad Idea: if anyone ate raw cancer cells they could potentially form a tumor if they got into a cut and survived.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know how the working conditions in so many meatpacking plants are abysmal, like how Tyson Foods is always making headlines for some heinous shit? I wonder if conditions in Impossible plants are better by default. Fewer occupational hazards or whatever.
A single Beyond Meat plant last year was found to have mold, listeria, and rodents. I wouldn’t be so sure that working conditions are much better. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-11-21/beyond-mea...
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not being dismissive, but was instead responding to a completely useless argument based on the ideal. Ideally, people will choose to eat mushroom instead of meat. An ideal situation only exists in a textbook, and dealing with reality is what we should do, was sort of my point.
> I'm not being dismissive, but was instead responding to a completely useless argument.... Listen to yourself.
I'm not being dismissive of the use of mushrooms as a meat argument. But I was being dismissive of the moral superiority based, "you should do this because it's right" argument being made framed by mushrooms.
I hope that's more clear.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hence, "mostly vegan". I was vegan for 6-7 years, now I'm begrudgingly consuming oysters and clams. Both have fewer neurons than a mosquito and no brain or central nervous system. I'm not certain they can't feel pain, but I was having a hard time sustaining my health within my budget on a fully plant-based diet, so until I can get back to a place where I feel like I'm getting complete nutrition on plant-based foods a…
Some vegans including myself consider bivalves to be vegan since bivalves aren’t sentient. Veganism as a taxonomical distinction between animals and plants/fungi doesn’t make sense because it would entail eating sentient plants which doesn’t track the underlying ethics.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#136Why not just grow mushrooms? Their cells are meaty, super high in protein, and they already exist / the “tech” has already been developed! There is an extremely large selection, some with additional health benefits.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not to mention the benefits for us: all the space dedicated to pasture could be dedicated to wildlife or outdoor recreation, and all the high-density facilities fouling air and waterways could be closed. If it works for fish, we could stop scouring the ocean like an Old Testament-style god angry with our creation. Even the food snobs would be happy, since responsible wildlife management practices would yield a certai…
Space that is currently dedicated to pasture is already currently dedicated to wildlife. In fact, grazing cattle on land serves to rejuvenate the land, since the cattle's hoove's serve as little plows, and the cows walk around and poop and pee, which fertilizes the land and allows for insects and bugs to thrive, which helps the bird population, and the little rodents.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
A single Beyond Meat plant last year was found to have mold, listeria, and rodents. I wouldn’t be so sure that working conditions are much better. https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-11-21/beyond-mea...
Beyond and Impossible are very different companies.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
I shouldn't have said "raised", that was wrong, but I just wanted to talk about beef cattle that are not pasture grazing at all, or at least only for a tiny percentage of their lifespan. About 80% of beef cattle go from mother's milk, to feed lot once weaned. Of course you can buy the other stuff, I said as much. My point is that this statement is one part deceptive, and one part obviously wrong for the US, the marke…
“Once weaned” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. The bulk of their life - until month 12-14 is on pasture with the mother. A ~third of those females stay on pasture indefinitely as birthers. The rest go to feed lots (assuming not pasture finished), where they spend the final ~120 days of their life. So at absolute minimum roughly 3/4 of the life is on pasture land.
Let's not ignore how terrible of a life that is. Forcefully impregnated repeatedly and then having your calf taken from you while your body slowly falls apart form abuse. Cows aren't dumb beasts, they have social relationships and care for their calves.
Re: Insiders reveal problems at Upside Foods
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Once weaned” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there. The bulk of their life - until month 12-14 is on pasture with the mother. A ~third of those females stay on pasture indefinitely as birthers. The rest go to feed lots (assuming not pasture finished), where they spend the final ~120 days of their life. So at absolute minimum roughly 3/4 of the life is on pasture land.
> indefinitely as birthers Let's not ignore how terrible of a life that is. Forcefully impregnated repeatedly and then having your calf taken from you while your body slowly falls apart form abuse. Cows aren't dumb beasts, they have social relationships and care for their calves.
But how many human mothers do you know that spend their whole life with 1/3 of their children? To the extent “keeping families together” is something to optimize for, they’re doing better than us.