If you are a low/no meat eater, how do you feel about meat imitations?

Somebody posts a recipe, and you, without trying it, say you bet it tastes like spakel. While I certainly can believe that such a thing is unappealing to you, there's no point in going out of your way to put it down.

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Somebody posts a recipe, and you, without trying it

Funny you should bring that up. We here at the Farmemrman test kitchens had just today purchased some of this Morning Star "Chicken " . This was done because most of my comments and discussions in this thread began with Thomas. You had sorta wedged in (not that Im complaining) but Thomas was talking real data and we here at the Farmerman test kitchens had to try the stuff that was made ffrom some sort of formed soy material.

You mentioned buying 50 lbs of gluten flour for $100. Could you advise me on your source? Once again, thanks for the great idea.

In my capacity as armchair psychologist, I think Farmerman is uncomfortable with the fact that killing animals for food is a choice. Because he finds it hard to defend this choice as moral (unlike Setanta, who has no moral problem killing animals

Once you've given it your best try and still don't like it, you've earned the standing to have your disparaging remarks taken seriously. But not until then.

Once you've given it your best try and still don't like it, you've earned the standing to have your disparaging remarks taken seriously. But not until then.

Do you agree that the Morning STar "meatless meat" products taste pretty crappy?

you've assumed the high-moral mantle.

Do you agree that the Morning STar "meatless meat" products taste pretty crappy?

Fear of a Vegetarian Planet: Why the Beef Industry Is Freaked Out By a Kids’ Contest
By Melanie Warner | October 14, 2010

In hopes of casting a more healthful glow on the much-maligned school lunch program, the USDA, along with Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign, has launched a contest encouraging people to come up with creative vegetable, bean and whole grain recipes for kids. A fun, harmless PR exercise, right? Not to the beef industry, which is up in arms over the exclusion of meat in the recipe categories.

Kristina Butts, director of legislative affairs for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, complained to Beef Magazine that the contest sends the wrong message.

By excluding meat from its healthy kids recipe contest, USDA continues to add to the misconception that meat is over consumed in the U.S.

The fact that Butts even bothered to address this non-issue reveals just how sensitive large meat producers are to not only the idea that people should curtail meat consumption, but to any suggestion, no matter how innocuous, that Americans eat more non-meat items that might somehow knock meat off the plate. Who knew lentils could be so scary?

Butts went on to urge NCBA members to submit beef recipes even though the contest doesn’t call for them.

In its fear of all things vegetarian, the NCBA seems to be overlooking the fact that this is not a proposal for a rewrite of the billion dollar school lunch program. It’s a cute contest. The USDA is offering no guarantees that the winning non-meat recipe (they don’t even use the dreaded V word) will be included on any school lunch menus. The only thing the wining team can count on is that they will get to prepare their dish alongside White House chefs and receive a check for $3,000.

The beef industry has always been thin-skinned about anything that threatens to upend sales, and these days its members are even more on edge. In June, the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which counsels the agency on its all-important dietary guidelines, had the gall to recommend that Americans “shift food intake patterns to a more plant-based diet that emphasizes vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.” It sounds like common-sense advice, but for the USDA, which has been a longtime loyal ally in promoting meat consumption, it’s radical thinking.

Then there’s Bill Clinton’s revelation that he’s gone from a devoted carnivore to a vegan and the growing momentum of the Meatless Monday campaign, two things the meat industry can’t control. As to whether the NCBA and other meat groups still hold sway over at the USDA, we’ll get a glimpse of that when the updated dietary guidelines come out at the end of the year.

The beef industry has always been thin-skinned about anything that threatens to upend sales, and these days its members are even more on edge. In June, the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, which counsels the agency on its all-important dietary guidelines, had the gall to recommend that Americans “shift food intake patterns to a more plant-based diet that emphasizes vegetables, cooked dry beans and peas, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.” It sounds like common-sense advice, but for the USDA, which has been a longtime loyal ally in promoting meat consumption, it’s radical thinking.

I don't eat meat because I don't like it. It's only recently become a moral issue to me and that's since I've learned how much of the world's natural resources are squandered to raise cattle, sheep, lambs and pigs to feed people.