My experience for veg/ans matches the article. Substitutes like Beyond Meat and Impossible Burger are almost always a novelty or treat - something you would order out at an omni restaurant, or maybe bring to a cookout where meat eaters were also grilling. It's nice to have as an option but we're used to building our meals around staples like tofu, beans, tempeh, seitan etc.
I hear way more about these newer processed products from meat eaters who think this is what we would eat regularly, or are excited to try them out themselves. After the recent meat shortages and the million pandemic articles about "how to cook beans" I am convinced the actual target market is meat eaters who are looking to build meals around something as close to meat as possible, rather than people who are plant based.
I applaud you for taking the slow, steady and sustainable route. More people need to realize it's not "all or nothing"
> Importantly it should be noted that 93% of Beyond Meat’s consumers are in actual fact meat–eaters, not vegetarian or vegans as popularly perceived.
From their website:
> We hope our plant-based meats allow you and your family to eat more, not less,of the traditional dishes you love, while feeling great about the health, sustainability, and animal welfare benefits of plant protein.
Doesn't sound like their value proposition is really built around vegetrains/vegans at all.
you are right - it's not. They care about convincing people to eat less meat because that's where the greatest impact is. Veg's already don't eat meat - this is just a beneficial option that they can choose.
tl;dr:
* It's potentially safer than meat during the pandemic
* I support any advancements that may enable humanity to phase out killing animals over the long term, such as clean meat (lab-grown meat) and plant-based meat
* It's one of a very small number of high-quality (high-PDCAAS and low-carbohydrate) protein sources that I'm aware of
* Enjoyment-wise, it's a close enough substitute for my taste
* I'm somewhat concerned about it being a heavily processed food as well as reportedly having its pea protein isolate sourced from China, and I wish they would reduce (or eliminate) the canola oil in favor of more coconut oil, but afaict there's nothing obviously terrible in it
This inclusive of hunting and (recreational) fishing? If so how do we do animal population and habitat management?
I should have phrased that as phasing out specifically killing animals for food. I fish myself, and I'm not advocating for any kind of drastic short-term change; over the long term, it's conceivable to me that use cases like recreational fishing could be addressed with AI robot fish and/or highly immersive VR/AR.
But, I Am Not A Capitalist, so... maybe they'll manage to entrench themselves thru brand recognition or supply chain monopolies.