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This is something i am really (REALLY!) excited about. I am a Vegetarian because of the environmental impact, but the desire for the taste is still there (been

This is something i am really (REALLY!) excited about. I am a Vegetarian because of the environmental impact, but the desire for the taste is still there (been a few years). All the substitutes i have tried (until now) were bad and left me disappointed and i still have to fight the urge to order a good old schnitzel at a restaurant. EDIT: if somebody asks why i am being so strict...i will stop being strict when we start living sustainable on a global scale. I don't see that happen in my lifetime. Until then being a strict vegetarian has a good impact on the people around me. I don't try to persuade anybody, i will even grill your meat, i am just a vegetarian for myself and the planet.

itake 10y ago
What makes you think that this is more environmentally friendly than beef?
- LeanderK 10y ago
  well, intuition. Beef is extremely unfriendly for the environment. Also on their website it says: >Because we use 0% cows, the Impossible Burger uses a fraction of the Earth’s natural resources. Compared to cows, the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s 100% free of hormones, antibiotics, and artificial ingredients.
- Mikeb85 10y ago
  Raising cattle on a mass scale uses more inputs. Mainly because they're fed grain, and caloric value of the inputs is higher than the output (ie. wasted resources), plus the environmental impacts of the cattle themselves. It's not exactly controversial.
subpixel 10y ago
I've scaled back my meat consumption radically in the last six years or so and in my experience, taste is just a factor of habit. Change your habits and you can change what you perceive to be delicious. Anecdotally, eating meat infrequently has resulted in me finding chicken and turkey generally flavorless and gross when I'm in a position where I must eat them. And while the smell of a burger cooking somewhere is still nice, the smell of bacon being cooked in our building has gone from sublime to rank. When I do eat meat that I find tasty (burger, steak, kebabs) I've slowly come to appreciate that less is best, and more can turn my stomach. A thin patty ala Shake Shack is vastly preferable to an $18, 3-inch tall burger at a hip restaurant. I haven't yet come around to vegan cheese. But based on other changes I can't rule that out.
- LeanderK 10y ago
  i think if you want to change your eating behaviour, you also have to change your habits. It just doesn't work otherwise. But you can't change all habits. There is a pub with cheap burgers and cheap bear near my university and not going there isn't really an option. Of course that means the smell is there and my friends are eating unhealthy, juicy burgers, but on the other side i enjoy drinking beer and talking to friends.
- rboyd 10y ago
  I'm with you on the cheese. I've only found one vegan cheese that I like, it's Follow Your Heart Provolone. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot! Great replacement on pizza, burgers.
snarf21 10y ago
Not judging your choice to be vegetarian, but do you think we could actually grow/extract enough coconut oil to manufacture this at anything approaching a global scale? There has already been a run on coconuts due to crazy demand for coconut water. [http://time.com/4488043/a-major-coconut-shortage-with-global-consequences-may-have-hit-the-caribbean/ http://time.com/4488043/a-major-coconut-shortage-with-global...]
- LeanderK 10y ago
  i don't see this as a solution, but rather as a step. Coconut oil might not be the perfect ingredient to supply a global scale (there might not be one), but it's, or better will be, the first mass-produced alternative that's available to the common man.

itake 10y ago

What makes you think that this is more environmentally friendly than beef?

LeanderK 10y ago
well, intuition. Beef is extremely unfriendly for the environment. Also on their website it says: >Because we use 0% cows, the Impossible Burger uses a fraction of the Earth’s natural resources. Compared to cows, the Impossible Burger uses 95% less land, 74% less water, and creates 87% less greenhouse gas emissions. And it’s 100% free of hormones, antibiotics, and artificial ingredients.
Mikeb85 10y ago
Raising cattle on a mass scale uses more inputs. Mainly because they're fed grain, and caloric value of the inputs is higher than the output (ie. wasted resources), plus the environmental impacts of the cattle themselves. It's not exactly controversial.

subpixel 10y ago

I've scaled back my meat consumption radically in the last six years or so and in my experience, taste is just a factor of habit. Change your habits and you can change what you perceive to be delicious. Anecdotally, eating meat infrequently has resulted in me finding chicken and turkey generally flavorless and gross when I'm in a position where I must eat them. And while the smell of a burger cooking somewhere is still nice, the smell of bacon being cooked in our building has gone from sublime to rank. When I do eat meat that I find tasty (burger, steak, kebabs) I've slowly come to appreciate that less is best, and more can turn my stomach. A thin patty ala Shake Shack is vastly preferable to an $18, 3-inch tall burger at a hip restaurant. I haven't yet come around to vegan cheese. But based on other changes I can't rule that out.

LeanderK 10y ago
i think if you want to change your eating behaviour, you also have to change your habits. It just doesn't work otherwise. But you can't change all habits. There is a pub with cheap burgers and cheap bear near my university and not going there isn't really an option. Of course that means the smell is there and my friends are eating unhealthy, juicy burgers, but on the other side i enjoy drinking beer and talking to friends.
rboyd 10y ago
I'm with you on the cheese. I've only found one vegan cheese that I like, it's Follow Your Heart Provolone. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a shot! Great replacement on pizza, burgers.

snarf21 10y ago

Not judging your choice to be vegetarian, but do you think we could actually grow/extract enough coconut oil to manufacture this at anything approaching a global scale? There has already been a run on coconuts due to crazy demand for coconut water. [http://time.com/4488043/a-major-coconut-shortage-with-global-consequences-may-have-hit-the-caribbean/ http://time.com/4488043/a-major-coconut-shortage-with-global...]

LeanderK 10y ago
i don't see this as a solution, but rather as a step. Coconut oil might not be the perfect ingredient to supply a global scale (there might not be one), but it's, or better will be, the first mass-produced alternative that's available to the common man.