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> Plant-based meat, on the other hand, can be both cheaper and less gross at the same time, and it might help them cut down on calories and improve their health
by koolba 7y ago
> Plant-based meat, on the other hand, can be both cheaper and less gross at the same time, and it might help them cut down on calories and improve their health image.
Which is “less gross” is highly objective.
> I wonder what impact it'll have on climate change when McDonalds stops buying real beef.
Would be a nice longbet, “McDonald’s will stop selling beef burgers by 20XY”. I’d be on the “no” side of that bet.
- VectorLock 7y agoFor what values of XY?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 7y agoThose aren't variables, it's a common-era year in Base 36, so in base 10, that's A.D. 94,534. At least, I think that's about when it's likely to happen.
- adrianN 7y agoThey will eventually stop selling beef burgers made from real cows. Lab grown meat will replace them. I don't know enough about the current state of lab grown meat to give an estimate for XY, but it seems inevitable to me.
- ghaff 7y agoGround meat is almost certainly the lowest bar for substituting. I'd argue the artificial meat is already pretty close (although probably at a higher cost, at least at the low end). There are probably gourmet burgers that are still better--though high-end meat cuts are at least somewhat of a waste in a burger. Somewhat amusingly, I first had an Impossible Burger not knowing that it was not real "meat." I didn't find out until a few months later. It tasted like a perfectly good burger to me. [ADDED: Lab-grown is apparently more accurately used to specifically refer to food made from animal cells. I guess "plant-based" meat is the more common term with "meat" distinguishing from traditional vegi-burgers in the grocery freezer.]
- zodiac 7y agoImpossible Burger isn't lab-grown meat
- gizmo385 7y agoWhat would you consider Impossible Burger, if not lab-grown meat?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- colobas 7y agoA plant-based burger. Lab-grown meat is made from animal cells
- ghaff 7y agoThe "lab-grown" term is [EDIT: sometimes and apparently incorrectly] used for plant-based meat substitutes like Impossible Burger. It probably shouldn't be, but it is.
- matthewmacleod 7y agoI honestly don’t think there can be any argument there. Plant-based meat substitutes have been around for a long time, are emphatically not “lab grown meat”, and I have never heard anybody refer to them as such. That’s a distinct category which has also been receiving a lot of attention in the past few years.
- ghaff 7y agoFor example: https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-impossible-foods-lab-grown-veggie-burger-it-bleeds/ https://www.cnet.com/news/meet-impossible-foods-lab-grown-ve... http://www.makery.info/en/2018/05/07/jai-teste-limpossible-burger-a-la-viande-de-synthese/ http://www.makery.info/en/2018/05/07/jai-teste-limpossible-b... I expect with actual lab-grown meat substitutes starting to get attention, people are more precise to distinguish between the substitutes today.
- tomjen3 7y agoWhen they do that it will take most american farmers down with them, along with all the people working in the meat plants. The environment is not good, but of course the alternative is unemployment, especially when most of the farms also go under.
- i_cant_speel 7y agoI would prefer we help transition those people to new careers than continue to destroy the environment with beef production.
- tomjen3 7y agoThat would be nice. How many else are going to be focusing on that transition?
- i_cant_speel 7y agoI'm not sure what you're getting at with this question.
- maximente 7y agoit's a matter of volume. i don't expect beef to go away but the volume sold will massively decrease. there will always be the "real deal" crowd who will pay higher prices for it.
- markonen 7y agoAlways? What if the other stuff is just better? It’s not like cow is some platonic ideal for a burger patty, and other ingredients can only approach but never surpass it. Of course, some people will want to taste dead cows similarly to how exotic meats have an audience today. But McDonald’s would not be the venue for something like that.
- adrianN 7y agoShark fin soup is actually not that tasty (or so I've heard), yet people eat it and pay a lot for it.
- esyir 7y agoThe texture is nifty, the taste is whatever soup it's in. Its the kind of food with no taste of its own, but it speaks up whatever it touches.
- dragonwriter 7y ago> It’s not like cow is some platonic ideal for a burger patty Well, no, that's lamb.
- _bxg1 7y ago"Gross" being defined as amount of chemicals, likelihood to be spoiled and/or make you sick, etc. Beef won't go away completely in 20XY; maybe not ever, which is fine. But at the scale and quality standards of fast-food, and with the recent progress in the meatless space, I would bet McDonald's will stop selling it in my lifetime.
- Pfhreak 7y ago"Gross" should also include treatment of the animals. Animals raised in CAFOs, for example, are treated in a way that's pretty gross.
- skyyler 7y agoI don't like this definition of gross. If it were true, then cooking something would serve to make it far more gross. Hundreds, if not thousands of new chemical compounds are created via the Maillard reaction. Food that can make you sick isn't necessarily gross tasting. Spoiled food is definitely gross, though.
- _bxg1 7y agoPedantry isn't helpful. You knew what I meant by "chemicals": flavor additives, preservatives, antibiotics, etc.
- cr0sh 7y ago> Spoiled food is definitely gross, though. There are probably more than a few foods you eat that are technically "spoiled" - it's just termed differently, like "fermented" or "aged".
- ArtDev 7y agoFast-food beef is retired dairy cows and flavorings made in a lab. Gross. Many people don't know or don't care. There are enough people that do care to significantly impact their bottom line though. For better or worse.
- phil248 7y agoI think the conditions most animals are raised in would be considered gross by virtually any observer who took a close look. Subjective, sure, but the same way that emergency room surgery is only subjectively gross.
- xenospn 7y agoIf you’ve ever made the trip to Auschwitz, you’ll be able to find many parallels to modern dairy farms and factory farms.
- tripzilch 7y ago> Which is “less gross” is highly objective. As soon as they proudly put pictures of the animals and their living conditions on the packaging. You can put a field of corn or beans on packaging. You can even put an image of the big machine with giant blades in the field. Try that with meat and tell me again which is less gross.