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A vegan cheese beat dairy in a big competition. Then the plot curdled
- camel-cdr 2y agohttps://archive.is/kUOy3 https://archive.is/kUOy3
- CoastalCoder 2y agoIt's worth noting that this particular competition considers additional factors that (I assume) aren't relevant in traditional cheese contests. Based on the headline, I assumed the news was that a vegan cheese won in purely traditional criteria
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- karmakaze 2y agoTLDR - the cheese wasn't merely a finalist but the selected, yet unannounced winner, then wording of the rules were clarified as to disqualify it. [Never underestimate the dairy industry.] This story should be spread as widely as possible so the hijinks shines a Streisand Effect spotlight on the actual rather than official winner.
- xenospn 2y agoI want to try it now!
- casper14 2y ago[flagged]
- xenospn 2y ago“Offering” means it’s an option.
- gweinberg 2y agoIf you are "offered" diversity training, you might not want to refuse.
- codezero 2y agoHave you ever sat through any diversity training in your career? I have quite a few times and it's... it's really not that controversial or disruptive. If you have, I'm curious what subjects where raised that you found unhelpful or distracting to your professional work.
- serf 2y agohaving concepts you're already aware of parroted at you in order to check off a box on a spreadsheet somewhere isn't a productive workday -- so mandated diversity training is a waste of time for some people.
- codezero 2y agoI’ve learned something new almost every time I’ve sat through any kind of management or leadership training. Including DEI. Like any kind of training, you only become better with more reps.
- rendaw 2y agoThe foundation offered excuses but this feels like it's all on them, especially with documented evidence of post-hoc rule tweaking. To me this is one more confirmation that awards are basically all industry self-congratulation and politics... Hugo and Nebula, Grammys, etc. etc.
- derbOac 2y agoYes, the disqualification says more about the awarding body than the entry.
- kelipso 2y agoI really don't get the problem here, if you use orange juice in a wine competition and talk about how novel the wine is...what is the point here. Isn't the whole idea of cheese competition what kind of unique tastes can you get from a milk product.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- theschmed 2y agoIf that were the case the rules should have reflected it from the beginning of the competition. However, as noted in the article, imitation cheeses using vegan ingredients were and are specifically permitted by the rules: > Subcategories Additionally, cheese entries must fit within one of the following subcategories (vegetarian and/or vegan substitutes are permitted): https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/categories/cheese/ https://goodfoodfdn.org/awards/categories/cheese/
- neuralRiot 2y agoIt’s more like “Plant based cheeses are allowed as long as they are useful to show them inferior, if they win they’re disqualified”
- tomcam 2y agoThey are not just self-congratulatory and political. They are also robust moneymakers for the awards shows themselves. Local Emmys are pretty much all pay to play IMHO.
- derbOac 2y agoRelated: https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091118/climax-foods-vegan-blue-cheese-ai-dairy-free-machine-learning/ https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/04/24/1091118/climax-f...
- klinch 2y agoLooking forward to try that. Let’s hope they can bring it to market.
- ars 2y agoIt's going to fail in the market, and the reason is that they are trying the same failed marketing strategy that didn't work for Beyond Burger/Impossible Burger: They are trying to market their product as "environmentally conscious/better/etc". Vegetarians buy those burgers, other people don't. People simply don't care about other reasons, they care if the product tastes good and is cheaper, they'll also consider health (i.e. lower fat/chemicals/processing/etc). That's it. And this cheese has an even harder sell: There are even fewer vegans than there are vegetarians. Their only hope is for this cheese to be cheaper than cow cheese, and based on their website and lack of retail sales I doubt that it is.
- igor47 2y agoThere's already many vegan cheese varieties on the market, some have been around a while and seem to do quite well. Miyokos is my favorite, made of cashews. Lots of people don't eat dairy for many reasons (ethical, allergies, intolerance)
- CobaltFire 2y agoI can’t eat tree nuts but Miyoko’s oat milk butter is amazing!
- boesboes 2y agoInteresting, I guess it depends on where you are, because that's not how it seems to 'work' over here (Netherlands/Germany). Plenty of people buy vegan and vegetarian substitutes just to eat less meat. Both for health and environmental reasons. Over the past few years there has been a big increase in plant-based products I can buy from the supermarkets. A decade back they had two types of soy-milk, now there is 30-40 types/brands/flavours of plant-based 'milks'. Even the big dairy companies are now actively marketing plant-based dairy.
- ZeroGravitas 2y agoPossibly some of these contenders are tiny batch artisanal cheeses, justifying some of their talk of tradition and nature, but the reality of mass-scale cheese production is fairly industrial/scientific. Here's a "how it's made" episode taking you from milk delivery to mozzeralla: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHmXAb3G0ek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHmXAb3G0ek And obviously that's entirely skipping over the bit that's actually considered bad by vegans.
- Pigalowda 2y agoThey used a cheese substitute or in the US a “cheese product”. Although I think cheese product still has to have at least some actual cheese in it but I’m not sure. It’s not really cheese. Maybe if it had a football team that could beat Alabama it would be. Climax Blue — which is served in restaurants including Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York — wasn’t made from the milk of cows or goats, but rather a blend of ingredients including pumpkin seeds, lima beans, hemp seeds, coconut fat and cocoa butter.
- nacho-daddy 2y agono paywall: https://agfundernews.com/plant-based-cheesemaker-climax-foods-abruptly-disqualified-from-good-food-awards-on-eve-of-awards-ceremony https://agfundernews.com/plant-based-cheesemaker-climax-food...
- kingspact 2y agoFound the daily WEF-sponsored "eat the bugs and live in a pod" placement.
- timthelion 2y agoVegans don'teat bugs
- kbelder 2y agoWell, they eat lots of them, just not deliberately.
- timthelion 2y agoTrue, but that's not what op was talking about.
- ThePowerOfFuet 2y agohttps://archive.ph/8IQjp https://archive.ph/8IQjp
- foxyv 2y agoI've always been disappointed by these vegan and vegetarian animal food replacement companies. All the science fiction I've been reading promised that this stuff would be cheaper than the real thing. Instead, everything is at least twice as expensive for no good reason. I could honestly see them outselling animal based products if they were an inexpensive alternative. The lack of ethics by the dairy industry is hardly surprising though.