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Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation w
by jameslk 8y ago
Since we're making predictions here, I predict that shortly after we adopt meat substitutes, we'll start to question what's inside them. Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. And just like GMOs, whether it's actually bad for you or not won't matter. This debate will be a proxy war between Big Meat and some faceless VC-backed corporations trying to make meat proprietary. Some meat substitutes will actually be pretty terrible but #notallmeatsubstitutes. Unfortunately, it will only take a few bad substitutes to ruin the name of all.
I also predict that meat substitutes, if made cheaper than meat, will be deemed inferior in quality (cheap = inferior, because psychology) and reserved for those who cannot afford real meat (the "meatless masses").
- jniedrauer 8y agoOn a tangential note, I wish it were possible to buy foods specifically because they contain GMOs. I intentionally avoid buying foods labeled "non-GMO" in a feeble attempt to vote with my wallet.
- sushid 8y agoJust buy anything that's not labeled non-GMO. Non-GMO is a value add so companies will always voluntarily disclose this information.
- krustyburger 8y agoI only eat DNA-free.
- guelo 8y agommmm glyphosate.
- _jahh 8y agoThis is what progmo don’t understand most engineering isn’t for qualities the end consumer wants! Easier to produce doesn’t mean better. And yeah 90% of the time when it is gmo it’s as you imply using roundup ready (tm) seeds to spray more now legally cited as carcinogenic glyphosate
- darkpuma 8y agoThe forbidden spice.
- schoen 8y agoSo far, I know of exactly one brand that offers this: https://soylent.com/blogs/news/proudly-made-with-gmos https://soylent.com/blogs/news/proudly-made-with-gmos
- anonu 8y agoI concur with the sentiment. Isn't GMO to create foods that require less pesticides? So wouldn't that be a good thing if there are less chemicals used on our foods, seeping into our soil and water supply? I never really understood why people are so scared of GMO.... I can see GMO foods being owned by the likes of Monsanto, earning healthy royalties on seeds that cannot bear offspring. I think there should be a GMO open source initiative...
- wonderwonder 8y agoNot really, Monsanto GMO roundup ready crops are crops specifically modified to be able to take larger amounts of their roundup pesticide, leading to more chemicals being sprayed on our food.
- skolos 8y agoRoundup is a herbicide. Otherwise agree with you - unfortunately GMO does not necessary means less bad stuff.
- wgjordan 8y ago> Roundup is a herbicide. Otherwise agree with you Herbicides are actually a _kind_ of pesticide (weeds are a kind of 'pest'), so Roundup is actually both. TIL!
- colechristensen 8y agoThis isn't true. Roundup-ready GMOs led to replacement of many more toxic herbicides with glyphosphate. BT GMOs led to much less usage of insecticides on crops.
- viraptor 8y agoWhich has its own problems unfortunately, given that it's basically everywhere now (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969717327973 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...) and it damages DNA (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22331240/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/22331240/). So basically everything's terrible and we're all going to die...
- oldgradstudent 8y agoThat would be very easy if GMO products were labeled. The industry seems to object to any such suggestion.
- orcdork 8y agoI won't be surprised if meat substitutes end up being much more expensive than meat is today (and "normal" meat even pricier). My prediction is for meat prices to rise as more and more people reduce consumption, maybe a couple of generations from now meat consumption will be a luxury item.
- sintaxi 8y agoI predict you can decide for yourself what you want to purchase and the free market will address this problem without the need of any concern.
- dd36 8y agoHopefully the cheaper meat substitutes end up in all the processed and consumer food that is most unconsciously eaten and already of the lowest quality. Thinking Taco Bell.
- rglover 8y agoI love how your mind spiraled with this and even came to a headline of "meatless masses."
- meowface 8y ago>I also predict that meat substitutes, if made cheaper than meat, will be deemed inferior in quality (cheap = inferior, because psychology) and reserved for those who cannot afford real meat (the "meatless masses"). I think there will be such a period, but eventually it'll swap. Both because more affluent people will tend to be more pro-animal welfare and so synthetic meat will be more associated with the successful, and because eventually (probably distant future, but who knows) all the meat substitutes will just taste better than real meat and anyone who's ever had a meal won't be able to deny the reality.
- nabla9 8y agoMost of the meat in the market is already something else than what people think meat is. Meatballs may have more than half chicken skin. Burgers contain 25% filler. Pink slime (= lean finely textured beef) is a highly processed meat by-product. In the US its processed with ammonia but that's not allowed in EU.
- sureaboutthis 8y agoWhich is why one needs to be cooking for themselves as I have while eating my--coincidentally enough--made from scratch spaghetti and meatballs for dinner tonight.
- ngngngng 8y agoHonestly though chicken skin is delicious. I don't know why it would bother me to have it in my meatballs.
- kemayo 8y agoFried chicken is almost based on the idea that the skin (and enhancements thereof) is the best bit, after all...
- Mirioron 8y agoBut chicken skin is the best bit of chicken.
- mcv 8y agoI seem to be the only one in my family who thinks so. I've always loved it, but my parents avoided it, and my wife and kids refuse to eat it. And I'm the one who used to be a vegetarian for nearly 20 years. (The best bit of the chicken is the thigh, though.)
- Pristina 8y agodid you farm the wheat or raise the cow? how do you know it's not GMO supersoy hybrid soaked in bee-killing Roundup?
- biztos 8y agoI concur but I see a potential third tier: we might have the Meated, the Entomeated, and the Meatless. With strata within each caste of course. The grass-fed yak-meated vs the factory-pig-meated; the wild-grasshopper entomeated vs the squishy-larva entomeated; and the fresh-veg meatless vs the Wal-Soylent meatless.
- jaspergilley 8y agoSomebody has been watching too much Soylent Green and reading too much Marx
- Gpetrium 8y agoGreat points @jameslk. I will add a few points to your predictions: * There will be a meat substitute options catered to groups with higher net income. * Nations dependent on meat products for export will try (in)directly impact society's view on these meat substitutes. * We will see issues with IP laws associated with meat substitutes * There will be 'generic' meat substitutes similar to the prescription drugs.
- Pristina 8y agoRealMeat will never be replaced with some mystery goop made of soybean and seaweed powder. You will never have the nutrient diversity of a real living tissue in a mystery goop. And cow body is way more alike to us than seaweed.
- asdfasdjfasdfj 8y agoI like how you use the term 'goop' to subtly slander something you disagree with.
- amanaplanacanal 8y agoSubstitute value-neutral "substance" for goop, and the meaning is still the same.
- greglindahl 8y agoPeople have already been questioning what's inside meat substitutes. The most recent scandal I can recall involved vegan fake meat which tested positive for eggs, probably used as a binder.
- siruncledrew 8y ago> make meat proprietary We'll have to download filet mignon from thepiratebay to get around the 'French cuts of meat' DLC.
- JackPoach 8y agoThere might be a big regulatory war to ban using the word 'meat' in marking substitutes.
- mcv 8y agoThere already is to some extent. In Netherland, there's the "Vegetarische Slager" (vegetarian butcher) which produces fairly convincing substitutes of specific types of meat. But they can't call their fake chicken "chicken", or their fake beef "beef", because there's no actual chicken or beef in it. But they do want to make clear to the consumer that they're meant to be substitutes specifically for chicken and beef. Now they can sell it as long as they spell it differently. So we get lots of fake meat with spelling errors now.
- intended 8y agoAlso, 10 years later, there will be fads and forwards which talk about eating "Natural" protein, not this fake stuff. 15 years later, there will be science talking about how micro nutrients are missing from meat substitutes and how a natural, healthy and balanced diet is necessary for human beings.
- _nalply 8y agoAnd there will be a movement "Grow your own meat" which proposes to keep bunnies and slaughter them yourself. Members will be proud to be not grossed out of the gore. Groups will discuss the best ways to feed and slaugther bunnies. They will have Thanksgiving bunnies.
- Mtinie 8y agoI presume you were pointing this out in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, rather than predicting a future state, but just in case anyone else is curious here’s a 20 year-old reference: “Backyard Production of Meat Rabbits in Texas”[0] [0] http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/87730/pdf_645.pdf http://oaktrust.library.tamu.edu/bitstream/handle/1969.1/877...
- lustysocietyorg 8y agoThe nutrition science in 2019 is clear and has been clear for decades. A high carb low fat low protein whole food plant based diet with (cheap) vitamin supplements and maybe linseed oil: - is the healthiest diet. - is the cheapest diet. - is the most efficient and environment friendly diet. - is the most ethical diet with regard to immoral animal suffering caused by humans.
- turtlecloud 8y agoWell that’s the complete opposite of the keto diet which is high fat low carb and is the top diet in America in 2019
- lustysocietyorg 8y ago
- Vinnl 8y ago> I also predict that meat substitutes, if made cheaper than meat, will be deemed inferior in quality I'm not sure if they'll be universally cheaper than meat. There's a lot of diversity in meat substitutes in the Netherlands, and you already see quite a price difference between the "high-end" meat substitutes, and the basic store brand soy burgers. We seem to be going in the direction where there are "inferior" meat substitutes, and high quality ones that are considered better than at least cheap meats.
- wodenokoto 8y ago> Then the conversation will change from meat substitutes being good and healthy to something akin to the GMO debate about meat substitutes not being natural. While I actually haven't seen this debate online,I hear it in real life when the subject lands on those meat substitutes available where I live. People who look at the ingredients list see a lot of E-numbers and things that sounds even scarier.
- bfrog 8y agoWell one of the wonderful things about the current meat alternatives is they are relatively easy to make at home from a few basic plant ingredients that are really quite easy to say, yeah, thats fine, and the end product tastes good. Its when you get into the territory of that "natural flavor" ingredient listing that things get really weird in food. Think la croix soda. Freakish, really unnatural flavor, almost salty even, but somehow they have two things listed. Water, Natural Flavor. People don't seem to bat an eye at that, but having seen firsthand beverage formulation work (not la croix) its a pretty odd thing. Dozens of small glass vials with oil extracts with intense fragrances of orange, lemon, lime, cherry, etc. Even among one of those, there might be dozens of variants, each a different oil from the plant that produces that orange smell. How carcinogenic are these things? Do they have any poor side effects? Why aren't they listed individually? Have there been studies on each one? Its like the FDA caters to large companies not wishing to share beverage and food formulations, despite a cancer epidemic.