Fake meat so good real meat is nervous

https://www.economist.com/news/busi...e-under-attack-its-labelling-plant-based-meat

Plant-based “meat” is so tasty that Europe’s meat industry has to bite back

The firm sells a variety of foods, ranging from minced meat to prawns, through 3,500 sales points in 15 countries (the bulk of them are in Dutch supermarkets) and has annual revenues of €12m ($14.2m). One in five sausage rolls sold in Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain, comes from the veggie butcher. Mr Korteweg says he wants to make factory farming obsolete by “seducing meat-lovers” without inflicting suffering on animals and damage to the environment by feeding livestock.

Not everyone welcomes this vision. Earlier this year two Dutch politicians from the Liberal VVD party called for a ban on meat names for products that contained no animal protein. In October the country’s food authority asked The Vegetarian Butcher to rename misleading products, such as its “speck” (very similar to “spek”, the Dutch for bacon) because it might confuse consumers. The topic trended on Twitter for days; sales soared.

Dutch media termed the episode “Schnitzelgate” after a similar situation in Germany, whose minister for agriculture said that “meaty names” such as “schnitzel” and “wurst” should only be legal for animal-based products. That was seen as the meat lobby reacting to a country rapidly going veggie; a tenth of Germans are now vegetarians, up from 0.6% in 1983. In Brussels lobbyists want meat to get the same protection as milk did this summer (when the European Court of Justice ruled that soy-drink producers, for example, could not call their products milk). In October New Zealand’s Poultry Industry Association said packaging by Sunfed Meats, a meat-substitute firm, was misleading because its “chicken-free chicken” pictures a chicken and the phrase “wild meaty chunks”.

Mr Korteweg says that while his firm threatens chicken and pig farmers, meat companies and butchers are customers and partners. He co-operates with a Unilever sausage and soup brand, Unox; conventional butchers sell his products alongside animal-sourced meat. The arguments are likely to intensify as the market for alternative meat takes root.
The firm sells a variety of foods, ranging from minced meat to prawns, through 3,500 sales points in 15 countries (the bulk of them are in Dutch supermarkets) and has annual revenues of €12m ($14.2m). One in five sausage rolls sold in Albert Heijn, the Netherlands’ largest supermarket chain, comes from the veggie butcher. Mr Korteweg says he wants to make factory farming obsolete by “seducing meat-lovers” without inflicting suffering on animals and damage to the environment by feeding livestock.

Not everyone welcomes this vision. Earlier this year two Dutch politicians from the Liberal VVD party called for a ban on meat names for products that contained no animal protein. In October the country’s food authority asked The Vegetarian Butcher to rename misleading products, such as its “speck” (very similar to “spek”, the Dutch for bacon) because it might confuse consumers. The topic trended on Twitter for days; sales soared.

Dutch media termed the episode “Schnitzelgate” after a similar situation in Germany, whose minister for agriculture said that “meaty names” such as “schnitzel” and “wurst” should only be legal for animal-based products. That was seen as the meat lobby reacting to a country rapidly going veggie; a tenth of Germans are now vegetarians, up from 0.6% in 1983. In Brussels lobbyists want meat to get the same protection as milk did this summer (when the European Court of Justice ruled that soy-drink producers, for example, could not call their products milk). In October New Zealand’s Poultry Industry Association said packaging by Sunfed Meats, a meat-substitute firm, was misleading because its “chicken-free chicken” pictures a chicken and the phrase “wild meaty chunks”.

Mr Korteweg says that while his firm threatens chicken and pig farmers, meat companies and butchers are customers and partners. He co-operates with a Unilever sausage and soup brand, Unox; conventional butchers sell his products alongside animal-sourced meat. The arguments are likely to intensify as the market for alternative meat takes root.

 

FEED THE MAN MEAT......Was A Bumper Sticker Here Years Ago......Still Totally Applicable

Today......No Fake Stuff For Me......I Want The "Real Thing"......



Cheers Glen.

 

I'm going to need an ingredient list

 

If there's a market for fake meat simply because consumers want alternative (fake) meat then the established meat industry will and shall accept that.
But they have a point when its called a snitchzel and made to look like a schnitzel that it's often misleading and confusing.
So no one is saying we're against the growing fake meat industry, these products should not be on the market. They're arguing for more appropriate and distinguising product names for alt meat products. After all, its not meat. I for one can see their point.

 

Fake meat will never top real meat. Even most vegetarians and vegans admit having cravings for the real thing.

I call fake newz.

Besides, just because something is not meat does not mean it's healthy. At the same time, just because something is meat does not mean it's unhealthy.

But if you're doing it for the sake of the animals then I will not argue.

I will also not argue against the fact that the commercial meat industry IS inhumane and barbaric. Evangelical vegans will claim that simply killing animals for food is inhumane and barbaric, but I don't feel that way. But I guess that is easy for me to say since admittedly I have never killed an animal for food.

 

'Veggie butcher' alone is a bogus term imo.

 

The whole pretend meat industry is strange me too. Like we have made the choice to not eat it yet we are still seeking it. I've had black bean burgers meant to simulate beef. They sort of tasted like meat but not good to me. And I felt weird like I was compromising my own morals. For a while I did crave meat but the longer I committed to not eating it the less I wanted it. It looks gross to me now. Like I see a commercial for McDonalds or something and all I see is a dead animal and I think of how and why it's dead. I know they feel pain and stress and I know I would not want to feel that pain.

Despite my choices I know it's possible for a cow or pig to live a nice life and still be food. Nature has a food chain lots of things die. But that kind of farming was only possible when there were significantly less people on the Earth. Few people are willing to pay the price premium to buy from such farms. And most farms know this so go for the real money of volume. Also because of their field of work they are much less likely to even care about the animal. So why should they even bother? It's "just a pig". Man has canine teeth we are meant to eat things.

I agree things should be labeled fairly. It's not fair to mislead a consumer and bring your own morals about what is right and wrong into it. People eat meat and always have. I don't like the very preachy vegan who always put meat eaters down and reminds them of the facts of farms. That information is out there if you want to find it. And all you do is make people angry and put them off the idea. Personally I have even seen a man take his pistol and go into his yard to try kill every bird and squirrels there ( because America fuck yeah). He did this because a friend of mind got passionate about the topic. So to show my fiend man is dominant and he was stupid every animal had to die. In the end he did more harm then good because animals died that otherwise would not have. Lucky for us most animals ran when a loud gun shot went off but he did get some.

I just found the story interesting because obviously fake meat is selling. Long term I think people are going to have to adapt to it since the farming of actual animals is so stressful to the planet. If you want to eat "meat" in 50 years without paying a fortune this kind of thing might be your only option.

 

Hope they hurry up and perfect it, I would happily replace the real meat in my diet with an alternative.

 

I doubt this'll effect my families farming.

 

Thats what I dont get. I'm not a vegetarian but I do eat a lot of vegetarian dishes and I don't see the point in meat substitutes. There are a ton of delicious vegetarian recipes out there that dont require a fake meat substitute

 

This will go over well like fake fat.

Remember trans fats? Yeah, Mother Nature isn't stupid. Just eat real food and you'll be fine.

 

Lol, I find that whole conversation so true but not limited to the subject.

 

if you point with your index finger at somebody then 4 fingers are pointing back at you, dont forget.
Yes in Europe there does exist fake meat and also fake cheese. It has been around for some time. Just as it is in the USA. BUT the difference is people in europe at least have the choice and freedom to recognize/notice whether it is fake cheese,meat,milk or not by looking at the label. It is OBLIGATORY for the manufacturer to explicitly indicate that the food is artificial/fake. On the contrary you people in the US dont even have a choice/right to know whether it is fake or not. Because manufacturer dont have to write it on the label. Even if the food is genetically altered (which is forbidden in most of europe by the way) you will never know/find out because it is, again, it is not mandatory to label it. When i am in the US i do not eat anything except what comes from the local farmers market. Its better to eat cartboard than what they sell at vons,walmart,albertsons & co

 

We need a meat substitute for Tofu to fight back

 

I don't like tofu.

 

grilled tofu is ok, and miso soup is alright. tofu give me a lot of energy but I only eat it maybe once every couple months.

 

You don't have to only eat Tofu. Many restaurant chains in America have vegan options even Domino's pizza. The only problem being with a place like that they will likely fuck up and put something on it that to be fair most of the public does not care about. It's not that hard of a life if you want. And there is lots of things that taste good to eat.

People like the text conversation are weird. Even if meat eater ate meat less often they could have significant change positive to vegans.

 

We are not vegetarian but since vegetables are not seasonal as they were 30 years ago and imported items have added to the range, we eat less meat these days. Sometimes it will be a cheese dish and on other occasions just less meat and a increased amount of vegetables and salad.
Here in the UK, we do not have a problem with fake meat being sold by deception, but their is a large choice of meat flavored substitutes available. We have bought them a couple of times when vegetarian friends are invited for dinner and while they taste different, I am quite happy to eat them occasionally.
We are however careful not to buy low quality meat and processed meat containing trans-fats.

 

Meat isn't the problem. Eating meat isn't unhealthy. What's unhealthy is the meat industry feeding their animals hormones and shit that we then digest. And it's the same for vegetables too. If you go to chain supermarkets you're kidding yourself if you think your fruit and vegetables are being grown in a conventional safe way.