Fake Meat - To Eat or Not to Eat, That is the Question

[Tim Gier]

 

I remember standing in my kitchen one day about 2 years ago making myself a sandwich with a vegan faux-chicken patty.  At that time, it had been about a decade since I'd eaten any actual chicken, and the thought crossed my mind "I wonder if this faux-chicken tastes like the real thing?"  I couldn't really recall what chicken tastes like.

This morning I saw this article: New vegan 'chicken' product sells out in days as it entices meat lo....  You may have heard about how the some of the vegan powers-that-be at Twitter have invested in the company Beyond Meat with the hopes that plant-based meat alternatives become mainstream. According to the article, Beyond Meat's founder Ethan Brown says:

The process that 'takes plant proteins and re-aligns them to mimic the appearance and the mouth-feel of animal proteins,' was developed over a number of years in collaboration with university bio-engineer professors. (...) Mr Brown is not necessarily looking to preach to the converted, though - instead he wants to capture the attention of the non-converts with his healthy and resource efficient alternative. 

According to the company website, as a child, he learned about animal-based agriculture at his father's dairy farm in western Maryland and subsequently grew up wondering if people would really continue to eat animals if 'a delicious and perfect plant-based replication of meat existed'.

Certainly he has managed to convince New York Times food columnist Mark Bittman that meat cab be fabricated with undetectable results.  After sampling the false chicken, he wrote: 'On its own, Brown's "chicken" - produced to mimic boneless, skinless breast - looks like a decent imitation, and the way it shreds is amazing.'  In a burrito he went on to say, 'you won't know the difference between that and chicken. I didn't, at least, and this is the kind of thing I do for a living.'

So, here's my question.  Should I, as a vegan, be seeking out faux-meat alternatives that remind me of what it's like to eat the real thing?  Is there something wrong with a vegan wanting to eat things that "mimic the appearance and the mouth-feel of animal proteins"?

I feel like there is something wrong with it, but I'm not really sure what that something is.  What do you think?

[Eriyah Flynn]

Hell no. There is NOTHING wrong with enjoying something that is familiar to what you once enjoyed, but no longer has the cruelty. If we can offer this as an alternative to people who will not change because their habits and taste preferences outweigh their compassion for animals, and if it can be healthy, I say, go for it!!

I just at "chicken rose" with my mom, which was a favorite I actually mourned the thought of never being able to eat again when I went vegan. It was the first time we had eaten it in over 12 years, and it tasted exactly like we remembered it. We used the gardein product, and it was AWESOME! While it won't ever be on the weekly menu, it may be on the monthly menu, because it has a lot of "sour cream" in the sauce and between that and the fake gardein meat, I treat processed foods like a condiment and an occasional treat; never a staple.

[Tim Gier]

This is important: "I treat processed foods like a condiment".  Also, I agree with you about the how a lifetime of habits probably has a lot to do with what we find enjoyable now.

[Monique]

The only thing I can imagine as being “wrong” with eating faux meats is that they are highly processed items.  As I see it, you would not want to be eating these things every day.

However, as a way to enjoy the tastes and sensations that we enjoyed in our earlier, meat-eating lives, or as a way to share a meal with a carnist, what could possibly be wrong about that?

It is not wrong to enjoy the tastes that are part of our biological nature and our evolutionary programming.  It is only how we obtain that enjoyment that could be wrong.

An interesting question that follows this one is:  would it be wrong for vegans to eat “test tube” meat (muscle tissues grown in labs or plants without using live animals)  if and when they become available

[Tim Gier]

I agree with you, there are cultural as well as biological needs tied up in all this.

While I have reservations about the processes involved in creating such things, I think that if it ever becomes possible to produce "test tube" meat, then it wouldn't be a bad thing.  I believe, however, that before the technology for "test tube" is perfected it's more likely that plant-based substitutes will be indistinguishable from the real thing.  I just don't see how the texture (of muscle, fat, tendon, etc.) can be developed in actual meat inside a laboratory when there is no moving, living animal at work creating it.  

Monique said:

An interesting question that follows this one is:  would it be wrong for vegans to eat “test tube” meat (muscle tissues grown in labs or plants without using live animals)  if and when they become available

[Carolyn Bailey]

I think that fake meats have helped a lot of people transition to being vegan, or even vegetarian. I don't eat fake meats myself, because the ones that are easily available here are not at all nice, with a few exceptions. 

I tend to agree with Dino Sarma, who prefers to use fresh produce, but I don't have an ethical problem if others choose to eat fake meats. 

[Geoff Chapman]

I agree with Carolyn, I have eaten the store bought fake meats and not enjoyed them. I find that Seitan, Tempeh can be made to mimic animal meat, I have experiment with different beans (soy,chick pea, protein flour) to create a similar mouth feel as animal meat. personal I prefer mine not to taste or feel to much like animal meat as I don't wish to remind myself of the times that I did eat animals. I don't think I would consume them.