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Comment by bambax | Hacker News Reader

> Nutrition is a major reason that people are giving plant-based burger a try

Not really sure about that. Current meat "production" involves destroying the planet at an accelerated pace while treating animals in the most horrible way imaginable (and even beyond imagination).

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Excellent example of strawman click-bait:

1 take a newsy subject involving something many people like 2 choose an aspect of it about which to adopt the "sober skeptic" stance 3 write the article as though this aspect is the only part of the newsy subject that's worth discussing

The move made in 3 is the trick. It's at least disingenuous, and may even be cynically mercenary.

I think saying “a major reason” is fair and accurate, but I agree that the it seems people are, in general, much more concerned about the ethics of industrial farming as it relates to animal cruelty, as well as beef being such a large contributor to co2.

While I think that's true for many people, I would like to have actual data about whether the wide public is more swayed by environmental/ethical or health concerns. Many companies are marketing this from a health angle, and they may know more than you and me. (Another possibility, which I'm not discounting, is that they think everyone is as cynical as they are.)

According to this survey, 68.1% of people's main reason for going vegan was "for the animals" while "health" was only 17.4%.

https://vomadlife.com/blogs/news/why-people-go-vegan-2019-gl...

That being said, the question was "What is the main reason" so people who said "for the animals" might also care a lot about health.

Going vegan (which I understand as deciding to only eat vegan from now on) is a much larger decision than just giving a plant-based burger a try in order to reduce your meat consumption somewhat.

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