3 ms·

US Army goes green-ish, wants soldiers munching on plant proteins

13 points by Bender 6mo ago

jethronethro 6mo ago
Wonder how long before Hegseth goes berserk over this, branding it woke (or whatever the insult of the week is)?
- tocs3 6mo ago
  I am sure there are great arguments for the plant based food but I suspect there will be some contracts handed out to friends. It is not likely to be complained about at high levels.
xvxvx 6mo ago
This is a pretty good example of the difference between plant-based and vegan.
- aziaziazi 6mo ago
  That's right. Related quote: > The four or so vegetarian options in the overall MRE lineup were always the first to go when I was in. > Most weren’t choosing the veggie MREs for alignment with their personal ethics so much as that they wanted a meal that didn’t suck.
zshiro 6mo ago
If animal protein tastes bad anyway, maybe it's actually better to go with plant-based protein that's (probably) easier to eat.
- ChicknNuggt 6mo ago
  I would think that the animal protein sucked cause of the number of processes that it went through to be able to last years without spoiling. And seems like they aren't focus on taste on the new protein either.
metalman 6mo ago
"plant protiens" = ultra mega maximaly proccessed " food* " there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc * stuff/goo/extract/product/substance
- aziaziazi 6mo ago
  Non-meat MRE are already tastier that meat ones (see also [0]): > Not only did they replace military mystery MRE meat with something more appealing to eat out of an envelope, but they were actually tasty They seems to take the processing route indeed, which is usually more appreciated if you only account for taste: most people prefer cakes than wholemeal wheat. > Gel/semi-solid formats, dry powder mixes, [and] sauce-style components [...] gel packs stuffed with fermented mushroom protein and other nutrients However that's a preparation choice and not a (high-prot plant-based) necessity: - tempeh is already delicious and nutritive with two steps: cook + ferment - patties can be made with whole seeds like hemp or pumpkin - brewer yeast is cheap, tasty and it's just the leftover of the beer creation process. Moreover I doubt meat-based MRE contains only meat: lack of fibers would lead to constipation which is not great on the battelfield. 0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119293
- jerlam 6mo ago
  > there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc Hand wringing? Giving your army palatable and tasty food is important, when soldiers don't eat it, they perform worse at fighting. That's why the US spends so much effort on changing their menus and trying to make their heavily processed food into something that looks appetizing, like the MRE pizza that somehow lasts three years: https://www.tastingtable.com/2058307/how-military-mre-pizza-lasts-for-years/ https://www.tastingtable.com/2058307/how-military-mre-pizza-...

13 points by Bender 6mo ago

jethronethro 6mo ago

Wonder how long before Hegseth goes berserk over this, branding it woke (or whatever the insult of the week is)?

tocs3 6mo ago
I am sure there are great arguments for the plant based food but I suspect there will be some contracts handed out to friends. It is not likely to be complained about at high levels.

xvxvx 6mo ago

This is a pretty good example of the difference between plant-based and vegan.

aziaziazi 6mo ago
That's right. Related quote: > The four or so vegetarian options in the overall MRE lineup were always the first to go when I was in. > Most weren’t choosing the veggie MREs for alignment with their personal ethics so much as that they wanted a meal that didn’t suck.

zshiro 6mo ago

If animal protein tastes bad anyway, maybe it's actually better to go with plant-based protein that's (probably) easier to eat.

ChicknNuggt 6mo ago
I would think that the animal protein sucked cause of the number of processes that it went through to be able to last years without spoiling. And seems like they aren't focus on taste on the new protein either.

metalman 6mo ago

"plant protiens" = ultra mega maximaly proccessed " food* " there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc * stuff/goo/extract/product/substance

aziaziazi 6mo ago
Non-meat MRE are already tastier that meat ones (see also [0]): > Not only did they replace military mystery MRE meat with something more appealing to eat out of an envelope, but they were actually tasty They seems to take the processing route indeed, which is usually more appreciated if you only account for taste: most people prefer cakes than wholemeal wheat. > Gel/semi-solid formats, dry powder mixes, [and] sauce-style components [...] gel packs stuffed with fermented mushroom protein and other nutrients However that's a preparation choice and not a (high-prot plant-based) necessity: - tempeh is already delicious and nutritive with two steps: cook + ferment - patties can be made with whole seeds like hemp or pumpkin - brewer yeast is cheap, tasty and it's just the leftover of the beer creation process. Moreover I doubt meat-based MRE contains only meat: lack of fibers would lead to constipation which is not great on the battelfield. 0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119293 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48119293
jerlam 6mo ago
> there will be a great deal of compasionate hand wringing about palitability, texture, etc Hand wringing? Giving your army palatable and tasty food is important, when soldiers don't eat it, they perform worse at fighting. That's why the US spends so much effort on changing their menus and trying to make their heavily processed food into something that looks appetizing, like the MRE pizza that somehow lasts three years: https://www.tastingtable.com/2058307/how-military-mre-pizza-lasts-for-years/ https://www.tastingtable.com/2058307/how-military-mre-pizza-...