> I think when things get to the point where they taste as good/better than the product they're intended to replace, why not embrace them? The simplest answer

> I think when things get to the point where they taste as good/better than the product they're intended to replace, why not embrace them? The simplest answer may be that the precautionary principle suggests that eating tried and true foods, rather than newer synthetics, is probably better for your health. Many nutrients are most bio-available in the dense animal products we have eaten for a very long time. Why not eat pastured meat instead? If you eat pastured cow, you are supporting the ecosystem of cow (for its partial life) but also possums, raccoons, ducks, field mice, butterflies, snakes, birds, bees, and thousands of other insects that populate the fields of pasture. If you eat beef every day, you still eat less than 1 cow for the year. Pasture animals are regenerative and allow for other animals to co-exist without the horrifying bits that go into making row crops (The pesticides causing colony collapse disorder? It's not the cow's fault.) Herbicide and insecticide usage is also way higher. So I don't think it's quite so ethical clear cut, but if you try to do a calculus, I think pastured mammals is some of the best, maybe followed by vegetarian-ish diets, maybe(?) followed by factory meat at the lowest rung.