5 ms·

Why are people so obsessed with creating fake meat? I've always found that meat > vegetarian food >>>> "vegan" "meat"

legostormtroopr 4y ago
Because people like burgers and hot dogs? Because changing peoples diets is easier if they have a similar foods they can cook? Because people want to make a positive change, without limiting their options? Because people want to introduce others using safe familiar foods? There are a myriad of reasons why, and many of them have to do with transitioning people from a meat focused diet to a meat free diet. Usually by changing 1 ingredient in a dish rather than upending their whole process. Also, there are plenty of vegan meat substitutes that are excellent. Eg. if you are looking for a vegan substitute for meat in stew or pulled pork look for Fable (its just shredded shitake with food binders) https://fablefood.co/ https://fablefood.co/ (Not affiliated, but its delicious).
drooby 4y ago
Same.. As a vegetarian, I think I would actually buy from them if they had some very minimally processed (think tofu), preferably unprocessed (think lentils) food and if they just added their heme ingredient and did no other processing. I just like the umami flavor, and I want to get that from minimally processed/weird products. Soy heme is significantly similar to the real thing that I don’t really mind how it was created. I just want to add that umami to something healthy.
nh23423fefe 4y ago
It's because your preferences aren't universal. There is interest in the space for a variety of reasons. Animal welfare, land usage, agricultural pollution, climate change, etc.
- callmetom 4y ago
  So not because it tastes good, but for asspats. Maybe they should take a page from the EV market and stop trying to ape the normal offering? Their customers want to be seen "helping" - so the product has to draw attention to itself by being a weird color or shape.
  - nh23423fefe 4y ago
    Food is assumed to taste good, what point are you making?
    - callmetom 4y ago
      lol, no it isn't - there are a lot of existing foods that certainly don't taste good but they are supposedly "good for you". It seems odd to even have to point out that such a tradeoff exists. The point is that up to now that calculation was a personal one, and food processors had to calibrate between those two things (and price, to a smaller degree). Now there is this collective dimension being promoted, which could dramatically alter the calculus - to the point where celebrities are now being recruited to get people to eat bugs... Most are less likely to choose the objectively inferior "I'm doing my part!" option when the effort goes unrecognized, that is why early EV offerings looked so ridiculous. Manufactures found that normal looking electric cars didn't sell as well as designs that informed onlookers that you were "doing the right thing".
      - nh23423fefe 4y ago
        it is odd, having to describe the obvious, to those who pretend to understand nothing, while condescending the entire time. keep fighting the Illuminati
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    I suspect most people buying these products don't care much about how they're seen when buying these products. I personally can't stomach the idea of eating an animal that my conscience considers "someone" rather than "something", but I like the general flavour of meat-like foods. If they come from plants, I can enjoy it without feeling like I'm eating someone. It never crosses my mind what people think of me buying Beyond this or Impossible that.
    - callmetom 4y ago
      > I suspect most people buying these products don't care much about how they're seen when buying these products. You suspect wrong, and you demonstrated why. How do you know that someone is a vegetarian? They'll tell you almost immediately, either explicitly or by bring up vegetarian adjacent issues. These products facilitate that. > I personally can't stomach the idea of eating an animal... So you know better than basically everyone who lived and died since forever? Before you launch into the talking point wherein humans evolve beyond needing to eat other animals, can you think of another fundamental part of the human experience that we evolved out of in the last several thousand years? Probably not, which makes this kind of wishful thinking unlikely to work out well. This reminds me of that Australian kid who was so deranged by environmentalist fearmongering, specifically that we were going to run out of drinking water, that he died from dehydration.
MomoXenosaga 4y ago
Because Western food culture is based on meat. Japan has always been a densely populated mountainous island incapable of large scale livestock production untill very recently. Meat was a luxury. So they turned to fish and rice.
twayt 4y ago
It’s a better way to ingest protein and calories. Vegetarian food has less protein by volume than meat and some of the protein substitutes taste bad and / or have a disgusting texture.
rongenre 4y ago
I like the taste of meat. I choose not to eat it. So if I want a burger, I'll use a meat alternative.
Hermitian909 4y ago
Food choice is partly cultural. The dishes of my childhood all had meat at their center, if I go for long periods of time without eating meat I begin to really miss those dishes (I went vegetarian for a year at one point, didn't stop the cravings). Fake meat is great because you can recrate the culinary experiences without actual meat e.g. I can make a great Bolognese with impossible beef, I've yet to meet someone who could actually tell there wasn't any meat in it. For me this scratches an important "itch" I get .
sokoloff 4y ago
Because a lot of people think meat tastes good but for whatever reason(s) don't want to participate in the industrial farming of animals. In my view (as someone generally on the carnivorous spectrum of dietary preferences), Impossible's beef substitute product is quite tasty for any dish where beef is "an ingredient, but not the central focal point". Hamburger, sloppy Joe, tacos, meatballs, lasagna, etc are the perfect spot for it. Their biggest problem is the price is utterly uncompetitive with utility-grade, 80% lean ground beef. If volume production, cutting overhead costs, or other actions can get them competitive (and eventually under) that price reference, they'll have a runaway hit on their hands.
babypuncher 4y ago
There are lots of reasons to avoid eating meat that go beyond the usual animal welfare arguments. Good meat substitutes can help people cut down on their meat intake without giving up the kinds of dishes they have grown accustomed to over a lifetime of eating meat.

Because people like burgers and hot dogs? Because changing peoples diets is easier if they have a similar foods they can cook? Because people want to make a positive change, without limiting their options? Because people want to introduce others using safe familiar foods? There are a myriad of reasons why, and many of them have to do with transitioning people from a meat focused diet to a meat free diet. Usually by changing 1 ingredient in a dish rather than upending their whole process. Also, there are plenty of vegan meat substitutes that are excellent. Eg. if you are looking for a vegan substitute for meat in stew or pulled pork look for Fable (its just shredded shitake with food binders) https://fablefood.co/ https://fablefood.co/ (Not affiliated, but its delicious).

drooby 4y ago

Same.. As a vegetarian, I think I would actually buy from them if they had some very minimally processed (think tofu), preferably unprocessed (think lentils) food and if they just added their heme ingredient and did no other processing. I just like the umami flavor, and I want to get that from minimally processed/weird products. Soy heme is significantly similar to the real thing that I don’t really mind how it was created. I just want to add that umami to something healthy.

nh23423fefe 4y ago

It's because your preferences aren't universal. There is interest in the space for a variety of reasons. Animal welfare, land usage, agricultural pollution, climate change, etc.

callmetom 4y ago
So not because it tastes good, but for asspats. Maybe they should take a page from the EV market and stop trying to ape the normal offering? Their customers want to be seen "helping" - so the product has to draw attention to itself by being a weird color or shape.
- nh23423fefe 4y ago
  Food is assumed to taste good, what point are you making?
  - callmetom 4y ago
    lol, no it isn't - there are a lot of existing foods that certainly don't taste good but they are supposedly "good for you". It seems odd to even have to point out that such a tradeoff exists. The point is that up to now that calculation was a personal one, and food processors had to calibrate between those two things (and price, to a smaller degree). Now there is this collective dimension being promoted, which could dramatically alter the calculus - to the point where celebrities are now being recruited to get people to eat bugs... Most are less likely to choose the objectively inferior "I'm doing my part!" option when the effort goes unrecognized, that is why early EV offerings looked so ridiculous. Manufactures found that normal looking electric cars didn't sell as well as designs that informed onlookers that you were "doing the right thing".
    - nh23423fefe 4y ago
      it is odd, having to describe the obvious, to those who pretend to understand nothing, while condescending the entire time. keep fighting the Illuminati
- steve_adams_86 4y ago
  I suspect most people buying these products don't care much about how they're seen when buying these products. I personally can't stomach the idea of eating an animal that my conscience considers "someone" rather than "something", but I like the general flavour of meat-like foods. If they come from plants, I can enjoy it without feeling like I'm eating someone. It never crosses my mind what people think of me buying Beyond this or Impossible that.
  - callmetom 4y ago
    > I suspect most people buying these products don't care much about how they're seen when buying these products. You suspect wrong, and you demonstrated why. How do you know that someone is a vegetarian? They'll tell you almost immediately, either explicitly or by bring up vegetarian adjacent issues. These products facilitate that. > I personally can't stomach the idea of eating an animal... So you know better than basically everyone who lived and died since forever? Before you launch into the talking point wherein humans evolve beyond needing to eat other animals, can you think of another fundamental part of the human experience that we evolved out of in the last several thousand years? Probably not, which makes this kind of wishful thinking unlikely to work out well. This reminds me of that Australian kid who was so deranged by environmentalist fearmongering, specifically that we were going to run out of drinking water, that he died from dehydration.

MomoXenosaga 4y ago

Because Western food culture is based on meat. Japan has always been a densely populated mountainous island incapable of large scale livestock production untill very recently. Meat was a luxury. So they turned to fish and rice.

twayt 4y ago

It’s a better way to ingest protein and calories. Vegetarian food has less protein by volume than meat and some of the protein substitutes taste bad and / or have a disgusting texture.

rongenre 4y ago

I like the taste of meat. I choose not to eat it. So if I want a burger, I'll use a meat alternative.

Hermitian909 4y ago

Food choice is partly cultural. The dishes of my childhood all had meat at their center, if I go for long periods of time without eating meat I begin to really miss those dishes (I went vegetarian for a year at one point, didn't stop the cravings). Fake meat is great because you can recrate the culinary experiences without actual meat e.g. I can make a great Bolognese with impossible beef, I've yet to meet someone who could actually tell there wasn't any meat in it. For me this scratches an important "itch" I get .

sokoloff 4y ago

Because a lot of people think meat tastes good but for whatever reason(s) don't want to participate in the industrial farming of animals. In my view (as someone generally on the carnivorous spectrum of dietary preferences), Impossible's beef substitute product is quite tasty for any dish where beef is "an ingredient, but not the central focal point". Hamburger, sloppy Joe, tacos, meatballs, lasagna, etc are the perfect spot for it. Their biggest problem is the price is utterly uncompetitive with utility-grade, 80% lean ground beef. If volume production, cutting overhead costs, or other actions can get them competitive (and eventually under) that price reference, they'll have a runaway hit on their hands.

babypuncher 4y ago

There are lots of reasons to avoid eating meat that go beyond the usual animal welfare arguments. Good meat substitutes can help people cut down on their meat intake without giving up the kinds of dishes they have grown accustomed to over a lifetime of eating meat.