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Beyond Meat S-1

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Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#301

Post by [deleted] »

radiorental wrote: post #136
telesilla wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. I haven't eaten red meat or birds for going on 25 years now and though I do enjoy a good salmon burger, I honestly prefer a beyond burger when I can find one (trying to cut down on the fish, for health and over-fishing reasons).

I wouldn't worry about over fishing Salmon, the vast majority are farmed now. You will know when you pay for wild Salmon. Same is true for a number of other staples: Tilapia, Shrimp, Catfish, etc. That said, similar to land based CAFO's you don't really want to know what they're fed (o;

[deleted]

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#302

Post by dfischer »

JohnFen wrote: post #296
Pfhreak wrote: post #3

I've gone vegetarian, except for a single grass fed animal I bought from a local farmer. (I live in a city, it was easier than I thought it would be to connect with a farmer out in the rural part of my state.) The transition was way, way easier than I thought it was going to be. I didn't guilt myself when I made mistakes, just stopped eating meat unless I was sure the provenance of it was sustainable and free from cr…

> (I live in a city, it was easier than I thought it would be to connect with a farmer out in the rural part of my state.) I wish that more people would realize how easy this is! Plus, the quality of the meat you'll get (even if you aren't overtly buying the best possible) simply blows anything you find in the supermarket away. Here's what I've been doing with 4 friends for years now: every year, we go in on buying a…

I've been using www.crowdcow.com and have been very happy with the quality and cost. It lasts a while.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#303

Post by Pfhreak »

giobox wrote: post #265
Pfhreak wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I did: stop purchasing meat from the supermarket. Stop eating meat at restaurants. Find a local farmer and source a whole animal to split with your friends. Visit the farm, meet the farmer. A whole beef is a few thousand dollars, and splits nicely into 8ths. We spent, I believe, ~$6.50/lb for organic, grass fed beef. It's more time and cost up front, but now we have a freezer full of meat to draw from when we ne…

I really admire your efforts, but "Find a local farmer and source a whole animal to split with your friends" is a really tall ask for many people I would argue. I personally would likely struggle to convince anyone I know to enter some kind of cooperative livestock purchase/kill/process/store arrangement. As a matter of curiosity, how willing is the average livestock farmer to enter into such an agreement with privat…

It was trivial? Many of the farmers list their rates on their websites.

With my friends, it was "Hey, anyone want to buy 50lbs of meat? It's $XYZ dollars per 50lbs. 50lbs is about one medium freezer full."

I put out the call to about 20 people, and got 5 very interested people, and about 5 maybe next times.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#304

Post by basetop »

sammycdubs wrote: post #158

I've seen this said before (I forget from who), but I honestly think that over the next few decades meat is going to go through a similar transition to tobacco. I don't think it's ever going to disappear completely, but I think it's going to become something most people only enjoy once in a while if at all. I also think that meat consumption is going to be viewed in a significantly more negative light over time.

Meat consumption is expected to increase as less developed nations like china, india, ASEAN countries, africa get wealthier.

https://ourworldindata.org/meat-and-seafood-production-consu...

People forget that for much of the 3rd world, meat was an unaffordable luxury. It won't be for much longer as they develop.

Also, meat is a natural part of a healthy human diet. It's unrealistic to think that meat consumption is going to be viewed as tobacco. It's even more unrealistic to think a natural food source like meat is going to be replaced by lab produced processed food.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#305

Post by munk-a »

elhudy wrote: post #91
bluntfang wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>free from cruelty. Do you mind if I ask what your requirements for this are? At the end of the day, isn't ending life cruel, no matter the means?

Not sure what OPs requirements are, but mine are along these lines: "If animals like free-range cows have lives that are not worth living, almost all wild animals could plausibly be thought to also have lives that are worse than non-existence. Nature is often romanticised as a well-balanced idyll, so this may seem counter-intuitive. But extreme forms of suffering like starvation, dehydration, or being eaten alive by…

As you're on hacker news I assume you're familiar with the trolley problem[1], by factory farming animals we are falling into the same ethical dilemma, we've chosen to pull the lever - but it's not clear in this scenario if we're actually saving lives, this is more of a trolly problem where there are five people tied down on each line, but someone offers you 1000$ to pull the lever and send it down the other line[2]. We are shifting the responsibility for these animal's deaths onto our hands so that we can benefit with yummy meat, so I find the argument above to be immensely weak.

The consideration that animals may become extinct if they aren't useful seems a more worthy one, but less valid in the modern world.

Also, I'm not vegan or vegetarian - I am internally content with my moral and ethical choices regarding meat and have carefully considered them.

[1] If not, see this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

[2] Assuming that person's motivations are opaque, if we know they want to save or specifically kill someone then the problem gets miles more complex - if it makes it easier, maybe imagine a piece of china on the track that the train will go down - so your choice is five people or five people and some nice china.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#306

Post by theNJR »

JohnFen wrote: post #296
Pfhreak wrote: post #3

I've gone vegetarian, except for a single grass fed animal I bought from a local farmer. (I live in a city, it was easier than I thought it would be to connect with a farmer out in the rural part of my state.) The transition was way, way easier than I thought it was going to be. I didn't guilt myself when I made mistakes, just stopped eating meat unless I was sure the provenance of it was sustainable and free from cr…

> (I live in a city, it was easier than I thought it would be to connect with a farmer out in the rural part of my state.) I wish that more people would realize how easy this is! Plus, the quality of the meat you'll get (even if you aren't overtly buying the best possible) simply blows anything you find in the supermarket away. Here's what I've been doing with 4 friends for years now: every year, we go in on buying a…

How much is the full cow? Does the rancher vacuum seal the individual pieces for you, or do you pick up 600lbs of meat and have a meat packing party? Any other details?

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#307

Post by cageface »

wickoff wrote: post #175
bluntfang wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>free from cruelty. Do you mind if I ask what your requirements for this are? At the end of the day, isn't ending life cruel, no matter the means?

It's not like the animal is going to live forever if you don't kill it. In nature animals are often eaten alive by predators, die from disease, starvation and get horribly injured in competition for mates. A free range animal that's being humanely put down by a farmer has a much more pleasant life. If you go down this rabbit hole deep enough you can begin to question whether life itself should exist.

A cow’s natural lifespan is about 20 years. We usually slaughter them between 1-4 years. I don’t think we can claim we’re doing them any favors.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#308

Post by tptacek »

kasey_junk wrote: post #233
rayiner wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're not going to "save the world from environmental destruction" by telling people to give up meat, because as India and China (not to mention Africa) develop, meat will become a minor component of their CO2 footprint just as it is in the United States. The anti-meat messaging will be seen as both stupid (because it won't help) and hypocritical ("how about we continue to eat meat, and Americans take their turn liv…

Your final point is the big deal. If western countries largely move to vegetable based meat, not only do we win in real terms we get a huge moral argument. Which is worth a lot.

I feel like you and Rayiner might be talking past each other. I read him to be saying that the moral argument you'd get from cutting meat wouldn't be worth much, either, because the US would still be emitting multiples more GHG than developing countries, even if they drove overhead from meat farming to zero.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#309

Post by cageface »

telesilla wrote: post #191
bluntfang wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>free from cruelty. Do you mind if I ask what your requirements for this are? At the end of the day, isn't ending life cruel, no matter the means?

There is a distinct difference between being born naturally, or living a kind life free range, and suffering for a short period, than being bred for industrial purposes. Industrial breeding usually means male and females of the species are separated and artificially inseminated, the mothers are separated from their offspring, male animals are routinely killed or used for young meat, female animals are forced into oft…

Not to mention that the breeds we raise for mass production are now Frankenstein creations that could never survive in the wild. A lot of broiler chickens can’t even walk because they’re so top heavy.

Re: Beyond Meat S-1

#310

Post by mitfahrener »

Pfhreak wrote: post #108
telesilla wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. I haven't eaten red meat or birds for going on 25 years now and though I do enjoy a good salmon burger, I honestly prefer a beyond burger when I can find one (trying to cut down on the fish, for health and over-fishing reasons).

I still periodically eat meat, as I mentioned I did work with a local farmer to buy a whole beef. But it's something special and deliberate -- should we make one of our roasts? We don't have very many, so each one is precious. We use all the bones we could get to make stock, etc. Try to really appreciate the one animal we've had harvested for our family, but still eat vegetarian or vegan on the vast majority of days…

Very nice way to go about eating less meat without being preachy. We are also trying to cut down meat consumption but not completely removing it.
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