Live data from Hacker News

Plant-based meat is turning out to be a flop

bloomberg.com

561–570 of 813 posts

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

#562

Durable plant-based meat brands have existed for decades. Beyond/Impossible certainly raised the bar, but when I was a vegetarian teenager in 2003-4, Tofurkey had already been a thing for a long time, and as far as I know still is. Impossible/Beyond had a “tech company” veneer, so a certain kind of business writer maybe expected more from them in terms of growth, but that was probably never a realistic way to judge t…

Yeah Boca and Morningstar Farms have been around for a while. And tbh are almost as good as Beyond while being way cheaper. Beyond is extremely overpriced for the quality younget. Impossible is expensive, but it's also much better quality.

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

#563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> it is the most environmentally friendly option Its not. You need 30 kg of grain or other edible product to make just 1 kg of meat. We are literally turning more food to less food. An unrelated statistic showed that if the world has increased its meat consumption just a little bit more, we would run out of food. The conversion rate is that bad. ... Context: https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/blogs/hidden-driver-fa…

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

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

#566
post #80

[flagged]

I don't see the point of eating meat unless you're willing to work on your bow skills and can hunt and clean an animal yourself. I like the discipline that it takes to be a vegitarian and I think the disconnect that the US public has with their food and where it comes from is weird. Everybody just lives with their heads up their asses while they eat pink-slime that came from chickens that lived their lives strapped down in a cage.

I do find it disturbing that Vegans are doing the same thing though. When I eat a heavily processed bleeding vegan burger I feel like I've been poisoned. Consuming industrial seed oil and Omega6 at the level seen in these vegan foods cannot be good.

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

#567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been slowly cutting meat out of my diet, and stopped eating beef a few years ago. I think Impossible burgers are too close to beef for me- I feel ill after eating them and no longer do. Much prefer the classic veggie/bean patties

I really doubt it was the "similarity to meat" that gave you those symptoms (though obviously there is no way for me to verify that, so you have the last word on what happens in your own body). Anyway - there is a great comment that I saved ( https://www.facebook.com/david.zilber/posts/pfbid02CkCY53qDd... ) "Here’s a pesky little chemical called hexanal. If you’ve ever eaten a beyond burger, or any of these plant bas…

While this very well may be true, on this website I think we should hold our science to a higher standard than random Facebook comments

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

#568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> it is the most environmentally friendly option Its not. You need 30 kg of grain or other edible product to make just 1 kg of meat. We are literally turning more food to less food. An unrelated statistic showed that if the world has increased its meat consumption just a little bit more, we would run out of food. The conversion rate is that bad. ... Context: https://www.worldanimalprotection.us/blogs/hidden-driver-fa…

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 is a lot more to this than your comment is indicating.

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

#569
post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vegetarian/veganism is not a fashion choice, it's a moral one. It's like asking why a Muslim prepares a dish that's traditionally prepared with pork but instead substitutes lamb. I'm not sure what more explanation you require.

To quote a funny meme: If my mother had wheels she would've been a bicycle! You can't just replace ingredients. Make a lamb dish if lamb is what you want!

This seems like such a strange fight to take on. People have been substituting ingredients in recipes since there have been recipes. Any dish becomes a lamb dish if you put lamb in it.

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

#570
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…

The fundamental problem is that everyone has a different reason for wanting plant-based meat/fake meat. So by any particular metric, they have failed. Some people want fake meat to be a 1:1 meat substitute because they love meat but can't eat it (allergies, cardiovascular, etc). Some people want cheaper meat because quality meat you can trust has grown too expensive. Some people want more vegan/vegetarian options bec…

There was also the health marketing angle that flopped when people starting looking at the ingredients.
Post reply on HN