I finally broke down and tried the impossible burger. They sell it at my local superduperhyperultramegamart, so I figured I didn't have an excuse not to. I haven't eaten beef for about 45 years, so I really didn't remember what it tastes like and I had some trepidation. Everybody says it's a convincing imitation, and I thought I might be grossed out.
Well, no, I wasn't really grossed out, but on the other hand I didn't feel like I'd been missing anything. I actually think some of the veggie burgers you can get (or make yourself) that aren't pretending to be meat are better. And by the way they are also nutritionally superior. But since the vast majority of the earth's population apparently feels that they just have to be eating something that at least seems to be meat, please do go for it. A plant based diet requires 1/10 of the land surface and fossil fuels and other unsustainable inputs that it takes to grow feed for animals. Our species can't survive if everybody has to eat meat. So if you just have to have it, and this does the requisite floating of your boat, please do go for it.
I was actually hoping to find "meat" balls but they only had burger and sausage. In fact the soy-based meatballs that have been around for 20 years are just fine, they work great in meatball subs or spaghetti and meatballs. So if your problem is that you just didn't know how to make vegetarian meals and it was too hard to learn, that's no longer operative. There is no longer any reason for anybody to eat the flesh of tetrapods.
One more thing: It comes encased in a whole lot of largely non-recyclable plastic. That's a definite count against it. When I worked as a short-order cook in my youth our frozen hamburger patties came in a cardboard box, separated by slips of paper. I presume the manufacturers want to see the product and that it looks like actual ground beef, but it does work against the purpose.
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We went to a CSA farm today and bought eggs, applesauce, some other stuff. There were three little newborn lambs, huddled together in the sunshine. Sometimes first-time ewes reject the second of a pair of twins, or other lambs. These three are being bottle-fed. Wish I could attach a photo. Beyond precious. One was walking around (because the lambs are precocial) "maah"-ing for some milk. I don't want to eat lamb again.
I'm an unrepentant carnivore and preferential predator. I'll eat those lambs, their mom, their dad, and the goat next door that's probably been jumping the fence. My gut bacteria surrendered two decades ago and now gets confused by too much grain. My typical meal is 40% meat, 40% veg, and 20% animal fodder.
That said, I have never understood the (strictly western) urge to faux meats. Veggies, from broccoli to beets, lettuce to legumes, are f***ing delicious. Many cuisines (e.g. indian, thai) have amazing menus of vegetarian and vegan dishes without any of that nonsense. Vegetarian friends sing the praises of my black bean burgers and braised vegetables provençal. Some days, when feeling a bit heavy, I'll order pad thai with tofu.
Fakes are disgusting in every venue and marketing exists to make you want something you don't actually want.
Well, I hope you'll try to reduce the amount of meat in your diet -- as I say, the planet needs us all to do that. I don't plan to buy impossible fake meat again, as I say I don't have any need for it. However, it seems that a lot of people do, so it seems to me it's not just a question of making people want something the don't actually want. If this is what it's going to take to get people to move to a move plant based diet, it's all to the good as far as I'm concerned. But you're right Mo, it certainly shouldn't be necessary.
That's the thing, though, estemado Cervantes, they didn't want it until they were told they wanted it. I'm a dietary reactionary precisely because I was "raised" half the time by hippy vegetarians freebasing on "Diet for A Small Planet" and the like. What I learned is that it's all a matter of expectations: They went into it for veg and tofu and never seemed to miss the taste or texture of meat. Modern vegans have been told that they should expect and want those things and so they demand them. That said, things like "impossible burger" may be helpful in recruiting vegans but still, they're going to have a hell of a withdrawal when climate change disrupts industrial food production.
Meanwhile, I'm moving to hunted only meats. A young bison bull yields up to 300kg of meat, a year's supply even for me.
Speaking of packaging, I've never seen the reason why reusable bottles such was back in the day for milk, cokes, etc. made from glass and returnable with a deposit isn't the answer. It's a proven system
Wash, rinse...repeat!
Screw all this plastic.
Exactly so, Woody, especially since the plastics recycling system is irreparably broken.
Agreed. Plastic has, has, has to go. It's terrible when researchers forecast that the plastic in the oceans will weigh as much as the fish in the oceans by 2050. That's insane and catastrophic beyond imagining. I shudder when I think about the plastic waste that is being produced daily as a result of Covid-19. I used to work in food service at the University of Michigan cafeteria and the amount of plastic thrown away (including completely recyclable plastic) in one day was mind-boggling. And that's just one cafeteria and catering service in one city in one state ... and doesn't even take into account the plastic waste of the medical center. The earth is now our plastics trash pit or, more precisely, our plastics Mariana Trench.
At this point, my dear Don, it doesn't matter into which bin it gets tossed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXRtNwUju5g
Yes, thanks for that. Depressing and reprehensible. But important to know about. I'd heard that a lot of "recyclable" material never gets recycled.
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