I especially don't get why people want the texture of red meat like beef patties. So you like... soft food?
There's no arguing tastes, it's just weird to me that that's what other vegetarians would care about.
But I also love a good burger. To each their own, of course, but a well cooked burger (well cooked, not well done) made with quality meat.. it's hard to top. And that's the thing with Beyond and Impossible - while they don't hit the level of top tier burgers, they're actually "close enough" to the taste and texture of real beef that I actually enjoy them as a burger, not just as a burger substitute.
And being close enough is massively important. You aren't going to get the world to go vegetarian on ethical appeals. But plant-based meats that are able to get close enough, especially if they can end up priced cheaper than meat, will provide a much easier transition to less meat consumption. And hey, it doesn't even need to mean that people go to 100% vegetarian; significant reductions would help a lot.
More importantly though, I don't really thing I'm the target audience (nor are you). I think it's more like, say, my parents: generally environmentally conscious (retrofit their house with a heat pump, etc.), but have established dietary habits that have kept them from making big changes specifically around meat. I think if you were able to offer them something indistinguishable from the real thing, though, they'd be totally down to swap it out at a barbecue or whatever. Personally I think getting 50% of Americans to cut their meat intake by 20% is way easier than getting 10% to give meat up entirely, especially with good alternatives, and the outcome is the same. Worth a shot, I'd say?
As others have replied already, pure vegetarians aren't the only audience for these products. You have plenty of people (like myself) who still enjoy meat but will happily opt for the replacements when available because of the environmental/ethical/health benefits, and I'm sure they've also lowered the barrier to entry for many people making the leap into full vegetarian diets for the first time.
I've been finding myself opting for the Impossible/Beyond options on menus more and more lately (even at fast food joints, e.g. Starbucks or Burger King), and I'm grateful for the options being there.
The entire world eats meat, and you know that.
You almost certainly have some opinions on the moral correctness of animal slaughter for food.
So it's not a leap of logic to realize that probably there's a significant cross-over between people who have this view but still like the taste.
So I have no idea why you feel like this is a "confusing" product to exist.
But all other things aren't equal. One side requires raising and killing animals, and the other side doesn't.
So we're weighing "real thing that kills animals" and "fake thing that's really close, but doesn't kill animals".
I’ve never eaten a beef burger. I tried an Impossible Burger. It just tasted ... I don’t know. Not meh, not great, not bad. Just different. I’d eat it again if someone offered but I wouldn’t seek it out.
But I totally get why people who’ve had 1-2 beef burgers their whole lives love that taste. I’m the same way with a good cheese omelette or a paneer dish.
I agree with you about so many foods to choose from.
For me as a vegetarian it's an absurd thing wanting to eat something that tastes like animal but it's a taste thing so it's just a subjective view of mine.
I've tried portobello, chicken, pork, chickpea, you name it.
But when I want a burger, the only thing that actually works is minced cow meat - and Impossible/Beyond Burger. They're still a bit hard to get (usually sold out) and expensive, but we're getting there.
I want my children to live in a world where eating 4-legged mammals is an expensive delicacy, not an everyday occurrence or something you can get for $1 from McD.
These are all examples to show that when we are given a technology that allows us to access any point in a high-dimensional space of possibilities, humans will explore it starting from what they already know.
There are probably points in food space much better than what we have already, but it's going to take us a while to find them.
It fits a weird market niche. I think most people that buy it would be better served with really great (non-fake-meat) vegetarian food and the occasional bit of quality meat when they really want it, which would provide a superior eating experience all around and approximately achieve many of the same objectives. I don’t know any vegetarians that really eat the fake meat; most of the people I know that eat it seem to treat them as “offsets” for when they eat real meat.
I love hamburgers and for me, it's the biggest loss after becoming a vegetarian. Impossible is the closest I can get to recreating that experience.
I switched to vegetarian because of the animal suffering/morality angle. I have for a long time felt that it was the right thing to do, but I liked eating meat so it was hard for me to do it. The pandemic gave me an opportunity to make the switch and be more consistent.
While I strongly agree with the angle of minimizing animal suffering, I am also pragmatic because I grew up in very rural agricultural communities. All large-scale agricultural kills loads of animals, that is the nature of the thing. When you buy plant products that carnage is merely less obvious and a bit more wasteful (the animals that die usually aren’t eaten by people). Feeding 8 billion people and animals dying go hand-in-hand, even when everyone is vegetarian.
Let's be honest, most people aren't going to become vegetarian, but a lot of people will happily eat more vegetarian foods if it's available.
> I really don't get why people are so focused on realistic meat replacement.
100% this. I enjoy Impossible as an independent food, I have it whenever I see it on the menu. The taste and texture are a couple of shades off from beef, but that's more variety at the end of the day.
It's almost a mistake calling it a meat replacement.