News Making Veggie Burgers Doesn’t Help The Climate

[Lou]

Making Veggie Burgers Doesn’t Help The Climate, Impossible CEO Says

Making Veggie Burgers Doesn’t Help The Climate, Impossible CEO Says

Impossible Foods has no interest in making a veggie burger that tastes like meat, its founder and CEO said Friday.

www.forbes.com

Well, we have been speculating on this for a while. here it is right out of the horse's mouth. the Impossible Burger is not for vegans - its for carnivores.

“We’re not going to solve this problem by mushing a bunch of peas and carrots together and forming it into a patty,” he said. “We have to deliver for a committed meat eater, who is not looking for an alternative, they’re just looking for the most delicious, healthy, affordable meat they can buy given their taste.”​

 

[silva]

I've had many people tell me how much they like the Beyond Burger, both at restaurants and home, some saying they prefer it over a beef burger
Haven't heard anything about Impossible- I'm not even sure where they have them--Burger King?
There is a Burger King and McDonalds next to each other and the McD's often has a line out on the road--Burger King I'm not quite sure is open except for a few parked cars
Anyway, I guess. I haven't made bean burgers since first going vegan really. I wouldn't order one out. They were what to eat when I couldn't think of what to eat. I'd much rather have beans and stuff in other forms, I love the Beyond Burger, Gardien, burgers that don't taste like veggies
My grade school served soy burgers at lunch and I loved those! Sometime my mother would buy soy patties for home, different from what you find now a days, I wish I knew

 

[Lou]

I've had the Impossible Burger four times. Mostly out of curiosity. There is a small chain out here called the Counter. They have a restaurant about a 5-minute walk from my house. They have a bar and TVs so i sometimes go over there to watch football. They started serving the Impossible Burger and I had one. It was just like a hamburger. It was OK. the counter has its own bean burger - and I like that better. Their bean burger is my very favorite now. I went back after Impossible released v2. it was better - less salty. Plus i asked for it to be made rare (the first time I thought it was overcooked.) I still like the bean burger better.
Just for comparison sakes, I went to a different restaurant, Jack's, and a BK to have them. Pretty much the same story at Jacks's. The BK was not nearly as good as having it a real restaurant, the fixings aren't half as good and it was not that hot.

I've only had a Beyond Burger once and that was when I bought it at a grocery store and brought it to a BBQ. I had one and cooked up the other three for people to taste. I liked it but I had to twist arms to get anyone to taste it.

At home I always keep a box of Boca Burgers in the freezer for emergencies. They are not great but they are super convenient. Once I put all the fixings on them I don't think it matters so much what kind of burger I use.

I also had a Beyond Bratwurst at a Beer Garden. I thought it was great. If they weren't so pricey I would have had two.

 

[Jamie in Chile]

"Making Veggie Burgers Doesn’t Help The Climate" is a) not a true statement and b) not what was said. It's a false and misleading click bait headline from Forbes. What the CEO was actually saying was that trying to convince people to eat a veggie burger for climate change reason is not the best reason.

I don't usually like anything that tastes like meat, but I do like Beyond. I have it at restaurants which have 1-2 vegan options. I never have it at home though.

 

[Andy_T]

@Jamie in Chile , I agree with your statement that it is misleading click bait, but not fully on the conclusions you make.

I still think the CEO wants to convince people to eat his *burgers* for climate change reason, he just does not want them to think of them as *veggie burgers*, which is old-fashioned hippie food no meat-eater in their right minds would want to eat.

What is important, to me, is, that they (hopefully) will not start tomorrow to add 1% of bacon grease sourced from animal corpses to their burgers, because that makes them taste 30% nicer then and are still 99% as good for the environment as the plant based burger.

 

[SapphireLightning]

Their messaging from the very beginning was this, so I do not see why this is a shocker. And yeah, the proper direction towards a vegan world starts with the carnists' stomachs. Sadly it can't just start with the heart or brain.... C'est l'vie...

 

[silva]

Well I didn't even read the article, but anytime eating plant based gets discussed almost everyone says sure, if tastes like meat.
Oh yeah, and costs the same.
I do see this meat shortage is prime time to reduce the cost of the plant based stuff. I haven't tried any but Beyond, but know there are others, and they seem to be selling well.

Can you imagine e-coli now that we're abusing sanitizers? I can imagine the bacteria will be quite stronger!

 

[Urban Gardener]

“That was not at all what we were trying to do,” Brown said. “It was to make the most delicious meat on earth directly from plants. What we think of ourselves as doing is making meat—a better way of making meat.”

He wants to redefine meat. He's referring to the way people think of food products. If meat is redefined to include plant sources, a plant-based burger will appeal to consumers who are looking to buy meat, not just vegetarians. And that is significant because to have an impact on climate change, more people need to reduce their meat consumption. So he's trying to effect a cultural change.

And yes, the quote was taken out of context in order to be clickbait. He meant that marketing veggie burgers only to people who don't eat meat won't help the climate. So he's trying to expand the target market by reconceptualizing the products.