During the pandemic, plant-based meat consumption and media coverage exploded. Now, a host of trend pieces decry its demise. That shift is no organic accident.
TL;DR: the meat industry’s misleading messaging campaign + lobbying
What is this article about. How brands exploiting certain concepts that are true tried to make a profit by marketing half truths? Is that supposed to be news or something unexpected? Come on…
A quick example about how profit destroys the planet and how this is related to the meat industry. Most of the times I ask someone which country he believes is the greatest producer of soy, I get an answer based on which region this person thinks has the longest tradition of using the soy bean in it’s food culture (most people go for china). Take a look at this
4 China 19,600,000 18,100,000 15,967,100 15,282,500 12,788,894
This is tons! The year I placed the bold on, is 2020. The three top countries (and most of the top 10 countries), produced approximately 28,3143,613 tons of soybeans, which is approximately 14 times what China produced, and almost all of it was not intended for “vegan products” but for, yeah, you guessed it, food for cows. In fact, China’s production is a good example of how much it is needed to be enough for a huge portion of earth’s population and even export a good chunk of it. This is simple because, getting a cow big enough, needs way more food than feeding actual people.
And no, you don’t need dumb, pre-processed, super-expensive plant based products to get the (full as far amino-acid profile goes) protein from soybeans. I need less than 1,5 kg of soybeans to prepare (many, as much as 3 or 4 each week) all my soy based meals in one month. And that while being an athlete shooting for the higher end of recommended (by science, not gym bros) daily amount of protein. This is way less than what a cow eats in a day. It follows that not even the 25% that was mentioned in the comments is accurate, as far as the reduction of farming required if we turn to plant based foods.
Besides that, fuck “meat replacement” foods. Really. If you start looking for what is actually cheap to produce (include water, include other farming parameters, include impact on environment -do not include profit margins), provides both good value in amino-acids and other nutrients besides protein there is literally a gazillion choices. Not just legumes and beans (which are plenty). And I am not even against meat in general. I am most definitely against the huge economic interests, destroying whole countries (not just by deforestation) to preserve their share on the market while being competitive. Which is reflected in what I linked, not just what I copied in my comment. And at the base of it all lie the same incentives that move many (if not most) of these “meat replacement” food brands. They just aren’t as huge, that doesn’t mean they are either ethical or producing good products for the health of the people that trust them.
What is this article about. How brands exploiting certain concepts that are true tried to make a profit by marketing half truths? Is that supposed to be news or something unexpected? Come on…
A quick example about how profit destroys the planet and how this is related to the meat industry. Most of the times I ask someone which country he believes is the greatest producer of soy, I get an answer based on which region this person thinks has the longest tradition of using the soy bean in it’s food culture (most people go for china). Take a look at this
This is tons! The year I placed the bold on, is 2020. The three top countries (and most of the top 10 countries), produced approximately 28,3143,613 tons of soybeans, which is approximately 14 times what China produced, and almost all of it was not intended for “vegan products” but for, yeah, you guessed it, food for cows. In fact, China’s production is a good example of how much it is needed to be enough for a huge portion of earth’s population and even export a good chunk of it. This is simple because, getting a cow big enough, needs way more food than feeding actual people.
And no, you don’t need dumb, pre-processed, super-expensive plant based products to get the (full as far amino-acid profile goes) protein from soybeans. I need less than 1,5 kg of soybeans to prepare (many, as much as 3 or 4 each week) all my soy based meals in one month. And that while being an athlete shooting for the higher end of recommended (by science, not gym bros) daily amount of protein. This is way less than what a cow eats in a day. It follows that not even the 25% that was mentioned in the comments is accurate, as far as the reduction of farming required if we turn to plant based foods.
Besides that, fuck “meat replacement” foods. Really. If you start looking for what is actually cheap to produce (include water, include other farming parameters, include impact on environment -do not include profit margins), provides both good value in amino-acids and other nutrients besides protein there is literally a gazillion choices. Not just legumes and beans (which are plenty). And I am not even against meat in general. I am most definitely against the huge economic interests, destroying whole countries (not just by deforestation) to preserve their share on the market while being competitive. Which is reflected in what I linked, not just what I copied in my comment. And at the base of it all lie the same incentives that move many (if not most) of these “meat replacement” food brands. They just aren’t as huge, that doesn’t mean they are either ethical or producing good products for the health of the people that trust them.