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Beyond Meat fights for survival

foodinstitute.com

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Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#461

Post by asdff »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #234
bluescrn wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything comes down to world population, which has quadrupled in a century, making the previously-sustainable now unsustainable. But even many of the climate catastrophists can't get away from the mentality of 'we still need growth at any cost'. And 'growth' is most easily obtained by creating more consumers and more workers.

> Everything comes down to world population This is nonsense. The consumptive, energy and material intensity of GDP, as well as GDP/capita, have varied greatly across time and countries. > even many of the climate catastrophists can't get away from the mentality of 'we still need growth at any cost' Degrowth is an extremist dead end. If an environmental movement falls for it, it should be ignored.

When we look at the places that have experienced degrowth in this country such as the midwestern cities, it is hard to argue today that the effects were truly all that bad. They still have all the services, institutions, and plenty of the entertainment options you'd expect. Major hospitals and universities. They aren't full of derelict homes either, those have been all more or less razed by now.

The biggest benefit is far more people can actually afford a life of property ownership in these cities. Look at what 250k buys you in these places vs the places that didn't experience a degrowth period. We are talking a complete 4 bedroom home outright vs a 10% down payment on a comparable home.

This might seem perverse why it could be beneficial to experience degrowth. But the answer to that is simple: no where actually accommodates growth sufficiently to keep costs from going out of control. So a degrowth period really means prices are no longer being significantly influenced by an ever incoming class of high income earners, but are more in line with the actual median incomes found in the area.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#462

Post by SoftTalker »

e40 wrote: post #29
gonzalohm wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What have you substituted cheese with? It's one of my favorite foods but no substitute has come close to it

Vegan cheese is made from cashews. If you’re in the Bay Area try Arizmendi’s vegan pizza. Surprisingly good.

What is the ecological impact of cashew farming? If it's anything like almonds you're not doing the planet any favors.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#463

Post by trallnag »

mind-blight wrote: post #418
robertoandred wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> getting some dried minced soy protein, mix with some eggs, breadcrumbs and seasoning before wrapping in some cling film and pressing it into a patty Sounds like processing to me

Cool, we have a semantics issue. Processing can mean "any change to a food item" such as chopping, cooking, etc. In these kinds of conversations, it's often used as "significant alterations that are not possible or common outside of a food lab". E.g. I can do cured meats, or add corn starch to a soup at home. I'm not going to make partially hydrogenated oils or pink slime for chicken nuggets. If you're being genuine…

Enjoy your home-made herbs and spices instead of dangerous lab-made drugs, I guess

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#464

Post by asdff »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #59
randycupertino wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember when veggie burgers first came out and they actually featured veggies and tried to taste like veggies instead of psuedo-meat patties. They were so good! Then everything tried to just clone meat, poorly, in taste and texture and they were so much worse. But those first ones that really tasted like veggies were delish.

Are you a vegetarian? I'm not, and really enjoy a good black bean patty. But when I crave a juicy beef hamburger, I have one. Vegetarians might prefer to satisfy cravings with something closer to their childhood memories than a black bean patty.

The thing with vegetarians is they tend to lose their sense of taste and smell for meat. Many vegetarians actually find the smell of cooked meat pretty revolting/nauseating since they are no longer primed for it. Anecdotally I know a vegetarian who hates one of these patties, I can't remember if it was the beyond product or the impossible burger, specifically because they tried and make it a little bit more "bloody" like a meat patty which made it disgusting to them.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#465

Post by asdff »

platelminto wrote: post #429
itsoktocry wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless they have some rare condition that doesn't allow them to eat meat, they can satisfy the cravings by having the odd burger. It won't kill them. I honestly don't understand the vegetarian who constantly craves meat.

It will kill another living thing though. It's not that hard to understand - you know it tastes good but don't want to cause direct suffering.

The burger is already in the store. The way the food industry works they'd probably kill the same number of cows every year to preserve the size of their asset (the farm/heads of cattle) and get a subsidy from government for the crop loss that didn't sell.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#466

Post by mixmastamyk »

mgraczyk wrote: post #161
fakedang wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not hysteria. Beyond Meat uses way too much processing in their food. They literally have patented processes to alter protein structures.

What I mean is that clearly processed foods aren't harmful because they are processed. All the correlations go away when you control for basic things like sugar and vegetable consumption. The whole idea that processed foods are bad for health is a hysteria.

The term is too vague. That’s different from “hysteria.”

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#467

Post by asdff »

TimorousBestie wrote: post #52
bluefirebrand wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought sodium was really bad for you though

The beef patty numbers are solely raw beef, they do not include the seasoning required to make it taste like a hamburger. The McDonald’s quarter pounder patty (just the cooked patty, no bun and no toppings), which I believe is comparable, comes with 210mg of salt. Since the DRV is 2000mg, the differences aren’t as significant as they appear.

>they do not include the seasoning required to make it taste like a hamburger.

True for many midwestern homes.

This also doesn't include what you need to do to cook a beyond/impossible burger. At least when I've made one, they absorb oil like a sponge. A burger will actually render out fat and doesn't need any oil in the pan. And no I'm not converting to teflon in this lifetime. You will find you want to season them heavily as well as the taste is pretty plain and heavy on the cooking oil used.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#468

Post by [deleted] »

const_cast wrote: post #442
mandmandam wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Particularly pointless pedantry. We all know what they mean, and are to assume the best reading of what they're saying. Bread, the example they used, is a particularly stark example where Americans are subjected to stuff that is rightly banned in most of the rest of the world.

It's not pointless pedantry at all, because whole foods are ALSO treated with chemicals. When you grow a tomato, you use pesticides and herbicides. When you grow meat, you use drugs on the animals and then you also wash the meat in bleach to kill bacteria. Why are these chemicals less harmful than, say, citric acid used in "processed" minced garlic to preserve it?

[deleted]

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#469

Post by jmkr »

Klonoar wrote: post #172
bluescrn wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Food is not just food : it's culture. These replacements have value because sometimes you want the thing that gives you that nostalgia kick or whatever specific feeling you associate with food. Old school plant based replacements don't always feel right for this.

This is a really important point that I think a lot of people who aren't vegan don't get. There might be an understanding that food is culture (lets order chinese, or italian), but realizing that's not a culture you experience but a culture you live.

The first thing many new vegans ask is "what do I eat now?" The replacement food comes first, and beyond hits the mark a lot more than seitan does because we don't culturally eat seitan.

And even more so, I think beyond has made it so an entire generation realized they could go vegan. A black bean burger just never hit the same way.

Re: Beyond Meat fights for survival

#470

Post by rconti »

null0ranje wrote: post #384
kaladin-jasnah wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The company's products in my and other people's views have caused a significant wane in vegetarian and vegan burger diversity. Gone are the chickpea and black bean burgers on menus—your only choice is Beyond Meat-esque burgers. As someone who doesn't actually really like how Beyond Meat tastes, it's unfortunate that it's the only option sometimes. As someone who likes food variety and practically needs it, eliminatin…

Ive never understood the drive to make meat substitutes instead of celebrating vegetarian cuisine. I’m not a vegetarian, but if I eat some dish that is vegetarian, why wouldn’t I want to celebrate the vegetable itself made from instead of trying to make some fake meat that never quite hits the mark?

I think there are billions of people around the world, in every country on this planet celebrating vegetarian cuisine, and this is a company participating in a drive to provide an alternative. It's not a sinister drive to wipe out traditional vegetarian cuisine.
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