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I feel like the premium pricing for the plant based alternative is a major problem. Personally I think they've achieved "good enough" results, but I rarely eat
by zbrozek 4y ago
I feel like the premium pricing for the plant based alternative is a major problem. Personally I think they've achieved "good enough" results, but I rarely eat them because of the cost difference at restaurants.
The story is flipped for home cooking, e.g., making mapo or meatballs at home. We actually prefer the plant based alternative there, and lately it's also been the economical choice.
- zdragnar 4y agoEh, I think the fact that they are not healthier (by fat or calorie content, I forget which) is a major deterrent. Admittedly, this is a very informal survey, but of the people I know of who have tried one, all of them claimed that not eating meat was not a big enough motivation to change. They'd rather they also be healthier than they actually are. Cheaper might actually harm adoption. when you compare eating ground meat to an engineered product, making the engineered product cheaper just makes it seem more like processed junk food.
- mandarax8 4y agoIs it not more like processed junk food?
- zdragnar 4y agoI was referring more to what the pricing does to consumer perception- of course, it is very much heavily processed, and not particularly healthy.
- RC_ITR 4y agoGenerally, they are lower in saturated fat, but that’s less of a “lose weight this year” improvement and more of a “reduce your chance of a heart attack in 20 years” improvement.
- ericmcer 4y agoWe really don't know that, and there is a huge difference between eating canola or palm oil and eating beef fat (although we throw them all under a blanket "saturated" label). I would guess beyond is using a variety of seed, palm, and coconut oils to fatten the burgers. Everyone can have their own opinion on this but I believe animal fats are healthier than those seed oils.
- AlexandrB 4y agoEveryone can have their own opinion but the best research says that replacing animal fats with plant fats in one's diet leads to longer life: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qInpEKHdjXk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qInpEKHdjXk
- merrywhether 4y agoThese claims have been coming under scrutiny: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32724569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32724569
- RC_ITR 4y agoIf you read that article, the “scrutiny” is that the original research didn’t factor in potential benefits of vitamins in meat, which feels like a stretch.
- anonuser123456 4y agoThe best research does not say this. The best research is completely unclear since nutritional epidemiology is plagued with bad data, bad science and political agendas one way or the other.
- ericmcer 4y agoGood video, I am a little suspicious of the neutrality of a channel called "plant chompers" with other videos about how plant protein is as good as meat protein etc. but it has some good points.
- ericmcer 4y agoIn retrospect it should have been obvious that they would not be healthy. Taking a bunch of plants and heavily processing them to make them look, taste and feel like ground beef is clearly not going to be as healthy as just eating plants or eating beef. We just do not understand nutrition and biology well enough yet to do that. The actual "Beyond" meat will be when someone figures out how to grow it safely in a petri dish, hopefully people stop eating meat from slaughtered animals then, but who knows.
- RajT88 4y agoYeah, I mean soy burgers already were full of so many additives they weren't much better than beef. And those have been around for ages.
- Moto7451 4y agoThis is my problem. Id rather have an “old school” black bean or soy based veggie burger. I’m not a low fat adherent or vegetarian but I’d rather have the nutrient density, fiber content, and fewer calories of the traditional alternatives. Otherwise I’m ordering a quality meat product or a salad.
- rchaud 4y agoI had these all the time in college 15 years ago. I liked them! I've had the Beyond Meat burger patties. The taste is not bad at all, but there is an uncanny valley feeling when you eat it (with the manufactured juiciness) that isn't there with black bean burgers. It's also very expensive. In Canada, a pack of 4 patties is $8.49.
- mmastrac 4y agoCostco has a 10-pack for much cheaper (~1/burger IIRC).
- ericbarrett 4y agoThe Costco in my area seems to have dropped plant-based meats altogether. Was looking for black bean burgers today and nada.
- gw99 4y agoThey beyond meat McPlant is a hell of a lot healthier than a Big Mac or a quarter pounder with cheese here in the UK. I’m not a vegetarian as such but the McPlant burgers are rather better tasting as well.
- reaperducer 4y agoI think the fact that they are not healthier (by fat or calorie content, I forget which) is a major deterrent. I think another minor item that's overlooked is that there are a number of people trying to avoid "processed" foods, and there's few foods on the planet more processed than artificial meat. People interested in their health and this line of thinking will take beef from a local butcher over shrink-wrapped frozen frankenfood that is pretending to be beef. I'm not much of a meat-eater. I probably eat meat maybe three or four times a month. But when I do, I get something from the farmer down the street who is happy to show me her cows, pigs, and chickens, and not something from a cardboard box that came from an industrial factory.
- drvdevd 4y agoThis is the exact reason I didn’t order a plant based burger yesterday.
- DangitBobby 4y agoIt's certainly a hard pill to swallow. I spend much more on food now than I did before being veg.
- paulcole 4y agoIs it premium pricing on plant-based products or that animal-based products are subsidized?
- hn2017 4y agoBingo
- Insanity 4y agoGood enough? As a vegetarian who moved from EU to Canada, I honestly dislike the meat-free replacements here. They try to make them represent actual meat and it doesn’t work. More variety in EU and overall better quality. (That actually goes for many food products though)
- jghn 4y agoI can never remember if it is Impossible or Beyond but one of the two has reached "close facsimile" for my tastes when I have them at local spots. Burgers, meatball subs, that sort of thing. Personally I don't care about the health aspect, and as long as they're somewhat close in cost that's fine by me. I like that it is cutting down on the ecological impact, or at least that's the claim. At the same time I don't care about that impact so much that I'm going to cut meat out of my diet. This provides a nice middle ground for me.
- DangitBobby 4y agoProbably Impossible. Beyond is good but it has a unique flavor that I think anyone would recognize as "not beef." They might think it's some other real meat, though.
- jghn 4y agoYep, I just looked and you're right. Beyond tastes to me like a better version of those frozen patties at the grocery store. It still has that "fake meat" flavor I always hated, but not as strong. I don't mind them but don't like them as much as Impossible.
- cyanydeez 4y agoLike electric cars, America could choose to subsidize the more ecological friendly choice until it scales.
- ghiculescu 4y agoThis would reduce the motivation to actually make it cheaper. It’s equivalent to “we lose money on each user but we’ll make money at scale”. Fine for investors to fund this, but why should taxpayers?
- cultofmetatron 4y agofair reason but if we'e going to do that, then lets remove the gas subsidies for ice vehicles too then?
- antifa 4y agoWon't subsidies invite competition and competition lead to innovation? Or does capitalism not work?
- cyanydeez 4y agoThe electric car industry would likely not exist without
- Tepix 4y agoIndeed. It's probably both subsidies for meat production and high margins for the fancy new meat replacements. Looks like there's a need for more competition.
- kfarr 4y agoTotally agree and another anecdote to add to the pile is that our kids love the fake meat chicken nuggets and don't know the difference. Nor do I. I could see this being a bigger long-term impact on low-end meats than high-end meats where you are paying for the rarity.
- monkpit 4y agoDo you use a substitute for ground beef/pork in the mapo?
- zbrozek 4y agoWe directly substitute with either Beyond or Impossible ground-meat-substitute based on whatever is cheaper when we go grocery shopping.
- mitchbob 4y agoA hefty carbon tax on meat would be a start. If the environmental costs of burning Amazon rainforests for beef production [1] were included in the cost of burgers, there would be a lot more people eating plant-based alternatives. [1] https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n17/benjamin-kunkel/short-cuts https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n17/benjamin-kunkel/shor...