All things being equal, would you choose and eat fake chicken over real chicken meat?

@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

I think what manufacturers are saying is that they can sell more tempeh if people think it feels like meat.

If they want to sell to non-vegetarians, you're probably right. I understand these products are not for me only. This goes back to what I was saying about the cultural element and familiar shapes.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

Re: McDonalds.

I think this is frighteningly accurate. That "stuff" is mostly corn syrup.

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That "stuff" is mostly corn syrup.

mm hmm that corn syrup what keeps 'merica strong and productive. yep yep.

don't mind what them fancy docs try to tell you, this stuff ain't killed me yet so how bad can it be? hey while yer at it can you refill my super big gulp again?

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@ehBeth,

ehBeth wrote:

I think what manufacturers are saying is that they can sell more tempeh if people think it feels like meat.

Yep I bet is because no one wants to feel left out or different. So by making it look or feel like the real thing then people will be more inclined to consume it and not feel different or odd.

I have a lot of respect for people who chose not to eat meat. For what ever their reasoning. It is not an easy thing to do when so many products contain animal parts even non-ettable things.

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@Krumple,

When I stopped eating meat, the challenge wasn't the meat. It was the social and cultural norms.

I understand why they make veggie patties. It's not to trick the brain into thinking it's meat, it's so you can still socialize next to the grill with friends. I greatly underestimated the significance of how we communicate culture with our foods prior to this change.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

When I stopped eating meat, the challenge wasn't the meat. It was the social and cultural norms.

I understand why they make veggie patties. It's not to trick the brain into thinking it's meat, it's so you can still socialize next to the grill with friends. I greatly underestimated the significance of how we communicate culture with our foods prior to this change.

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I also noticed that on occasion (usually when meeting new people) they were sometimes insulted by my vegitarianism. As if my existence implies that are some how bad or wrong for eating meat. This usually shows up when people start asking for reasoning. They don't want to feel bad which is really easy to do if your reasoning is something they can empathize with.

I honestly don't care if people eat meat. I think it is their decison to make for what ever reason. We shouldn't force people to decide one or the other. I'm not an animal rights activist. I think it would be a little one sided if I were. I don't see how plants are any less sentient than say an animal. The plants still respond to stimuli which is the crude definition of sentience.

Life has to consume life to continue being life. Where you draw the line at what is morally acceptable is completely arbitrary in my opinion.

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@failures art,

In the 1960s, I became close friends with a man who was a practicing Seventh Day Adventist. Eating dinner at his house, we had patties which simulated meat. Made by Loma Linda company, as I recall. But on board the ship, he ate the same food as the rest of us. I was struck how ingenious they were with the vegies to get such a meatlike texture.

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@failures art,

failures art wrote:

ehBeth wrote:

I think what manufacturers are saying is that they can sell more tempeh if people think it feels like meat.

This goes back to what I was saying about the cultural element and familiar shapes.

I think it speaks to the current trendiness of veggieism (it happens about every 10/15 years). People who want to eat meat but are "social vegetarians" - they're the ones who tend to go for the faux meats (in my experience).

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@ehBeth,

I get the trendiness thing. But in my experience, they are the types that like to cameo at the vegetarian cafe, not necessarily apply any sort of lifestyle change.

I can't speak for 10-15 years ago, but I think the rise in market viability right now speaks to a degree of social acceptance. A friend of mine (an omnivore) in SF took me out to eat. I cautiously asked if the place we were going would have options for me. He casually replied that "of course, if they didn't, they wouldn't stay competitive!" And that was that. It's maybe not to the same degree here in DC, but fairly close.

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@tsarstepan,

Quote:

All things being equal: taste, texture, and price: Would you choose and eat fake chicken over real chicken meat?

Nope, I think I'd pass, tsar.

Any food that looks like this, as its being processed, turns me right off. (Reminds me of those reconstituted chicken nuggets, sold at fast food outlets. yech.)
I'd also worry about the flavourings used, to mimic the chicken "taste".
Say nothing of possible preservatives & colouring agents which might be used.
I can't see any mention of those in the article.

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/05/11/meat5.jpg?t=1336769156&s=3

A dry mix of soy and pea powder, carrot fiber and gluten-free flour is heated, cooled and extruded through a machine, producing a fake meat that mimics chicken

I'm with the others here who'd prefer to eat the real thing, rather than a similar, artificially produced food ... food of any sort, really.

I do think that this artificially produced "chicken" is a far better alternative to chickens reared in factories, though. Hideously cruel. (I don't buy eggs from battery hens either. Poor, miserable things. Sad

)

So I think I'll stick with free range chicken (& it'd better be what it claims to be!). If free range was not available, or became too expensive, I'd prefer not to eat chicken at all.

I've been admiring that fine looking chicken at the beginning of the article.
What a handsome creature! Smile

http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/05/11/meat4.jpg?t=1337091941&s=3

Yuki Noguchi/NPR
Ethan Brown, founder of Beyond Meat, holds a chicken raised on his family's farm. He says childhood experience with farm animals was the inspiration for starting his company.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/05/17/152519988/a-farmer-bets-better-fake-chicken-meat-will-be-as-good-as-the-real-thing

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@msolga,

Olga - seeing how "fake" chicken gets made turns you off? Have you seen how the real chicken patty gets to your plate???

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@msolga,

You'll like this guy, MsO.

http://www.joelsalatin.com/

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/

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@JTT,

Polyfacefarms has a great approach to farming.

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@failures art,

Quote:

Olga - seeing how "fake" chicken gets made turns you off? Have you seen how the real chicken patty gets to your plate???

No, I haven't Art.
I'm not sure what a chicken patty is, though.
Sort of a chicken rissole?
If so, would touch one with a barge pole! Wink

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@ehBeth,

Me thinks the only one, Beth.

Art should go bonkers over this guy. After he reads and sees this, he'll
de-veganize.

Smile

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@JTT,

What's not to like about a "Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist lunatic.”?

Sounds good to me! Smile

Quote:

At Polyface Farm, the owner jokes, the primary crop is grass. In gently rolling fields, set against a postcard backdrop of the Blue Ridge mountains, Salatin raises grass-fed “salad bar beef,” pastured poultry and eggs, and free-foraging pigs.

http://www.joelsalatin.com/

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@msolga,

I agree about the wonderful taste of chicken. It's almost as delicious as a freshly-harpooned piece of whale sushi. To hell with ethics!

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@Thomas,

Frankly, I'm ashamed of my own weakness.
Reverting to eating meat after 20 vegetarian years.
It's a compromise, & a huge one, I know .... trying to figure out the most ethical of the meat eating options. But that's the best a person who's compromised their beliefs can do, really.
Sigh.

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@msolga,

msolga wrote:

Frankly, I'm ashamed of my own weakness.

Me too. Ever since I read Peter Singer's Ethics of What We Eat and found it convincing, I've been thinking I should become a vegan. But I can't muster the willpower. To be sure, I cut out about three-quarters of the average American's meat, egg, and dairy consumption, and that's progress. But I can't seem to push myself that last, fourth of the way, and that irks me. You definitely have my sympathy. Come here, have some sushi!

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@Thomas,

I'll pass on the sushi, thanks! Wink

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In real life... Libtards and Gaea-worshipers could apologize to all of the chickens, turkeys, and cattle of the world and release them, saying:

Quote:

"Oh, dear brothers and sisters in Gaea, we are freeing you from your long bondage and servitude, we apologize and set you free!"

What would happen? Three weeks later, there would not be a single chicken, turkey, or cow left alive from amongst the newly freed. Some few of the pigs might make it in the wild, but I can't even picture Gaea being pleased over that.

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All things being equal, would you choose and eat fake chicken over real chicken meat?

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