Do Not Pin Your Hopes for Guilt-Free Hamburgers on Seaweed
Do Not Pin Your Hopes for Guilt-Free Hamburgers on Seaweed
The media is trumpeting studies that say we can drastically reduce cows’ methane emissions merely by feeding them a particular seaweed. But I did the math, and it doesn’t add up.
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The meat industry is always trying to greenwash themselves somehow, they cannot be trusted.
With how intensely serious and rapid global warming is becoming, we really don't have time to try and make meat lower emissions, we need to move away from it now.
Though unfortunately expensive, impossible burgers and ground 'beef' are virtually indistinguishable from the real deal already, and IMHO taste better than real, and truly are a guilt-free-ish alternative that exists right now. I only hope demand increases so they can scale up even harder and bring prices down to the same cost as cheap beef.
Though unfortunately expensive, impossible burgers and ground 'beef' are virtually indistinguishable from the real deal already
I'm probably up to, like, 90% vegetarian these days (it's been a long road lol). I can definitely tell the difference with Impossible/Beyond. But they're absolutely "good enough" for me. The good thing is they're still improving, so can only get better. But yeah, they're quite expensive (nearly twice the cost per pound of regular ground beef). I tend to wait until they're on sale, buy in bulk, and freeze them.
If I'm at a cookout or potluck and make burgers, I usually have to label the Beyond/Impossible ones or people react badly. If I'm making things like chili / tacos or sides like Hamburger Helper and such, people can't tell at all. The only giveaway is that they're in the vegetarian section of the table.
I'm probably up to, like, 90% vegetarian these days (it's been a long road lol).
You're way ahead of me, I've been kinda stuck trying to find a good homemadd alternative to impossible, but it's been tough to find something that passes the good enough mark.
I notice the difference with Beyond meat as well, which has a slightly unpleasant aftertaste for me too. Overall just OK. Usually don't seek it out.
I'm surprised people at those cookouts can notice with impossible though. I haven't tried to grill them, so maybe that makes it more pronounced? But out of my airfryer, I genuinely cannot detect anything unmeaty about them, which blew my mind the first time I tried em.
I tend to get them as a treat since they're so much. I rarely see them on sale around here :/
I know it's a bit of an ask because in terms of taste it's nowhere near an exact replacement for meat or cheese, but tofu is both cheap(ish) and healthy. Unless you have a soy allergy, do incorporate that rather than Impossible et al.s bleeding, complicated protein remixes powered by VC money. (I don't have a hardline stance against vegan meat replacements but when they are too pricey for you there's no reason to buy animal meat.)
You can get textured vegetable protein, or textured soya protein for pretty cheap. It gives that 'ground beef" texture and just kind of tastes like whatever it's cooked in. I made baked ziti with it last night.
I literally just want to get on with positive progress. I'm tired of this having our cake and eating it too way of progress. Change is okay and a part of it. So maybe we dont eat burgers for the rest of eternity. So what. Let's actually start advancing instead of existing in this weird "physical hardware get better but everything else must remain in limbo" era. Social progress matters just as much.
Hard agree, market solutions are bullshit designed to keep profits high and that's all.
Pin them on lab-grown meat.
Lab grown meat, Crickets, Cockroach milk... There's so many options for any population that isn't dead-set on beef. Anything the existing meat industry resists should be subsidized to hell and back.