Why not just grow mushrooms? Their cells are meaty, super high in protein, and they already exist / the “tech” has already been developed! There is an extremely large selection, some with additional health benefits.
You can want a perfect world, but it will never exist.
Like it or don't, solving meat consumption and its effects on the planet is something we'll have to do. That probably involves a meaty substitute for meat.
Salt and spices taste good.
Do salt and spices actually taste good though? When has anyone ordered only salt and spices?
Need both (or salt, spices and vegetables/lentils/beans etc), and a skilled cook for delicious meal.
I like meat. In fact, I really like it.
No shame in that.
The answer is in the fact that I (we) like a lot of other stuff!
Maximize that and meat consumption will be reduced.
Of course, there are also people who don't like the taste of meat at all. But to claim people who like meat actually like the spices is patently ridiculous, not interesting.
When cooked, most meats have the necessary fats needed to bring out great flavor. Anyone who has done primitive camping can tell you just how good meat cooked in various ways is!
The resolution, which has always been obvious to everyone (except hackernews, apparently) is that flavour is the result of the combination of ingredients. That you typically eat X and Y together doesn’t mean X is tasteless and Y is tasty (or the reverse). It just means X and Y combine to make a good dish.
But Indians still eat meat, the majority in fact.
You can want one thing, but you have to live with the real thing.
Some people think meat tastes good, regardless of seasoning. Drawing attention to seasoning is just a red herring.
We need to figure out low-co2 meat. And seasonings.
Adding more ingredients only enhances the flavor, but it’s not necessary if your taste buds aren’t hyperstimulated. Meat tastes good.
It does to me -- but I think there's a good point here (even if unintentional):
Meats have _textures_ that vegetables don't have. Someone else mentioned how the Impossible Burger replicates "the bloody meat texture". For many folks, that's going to be as important as the taste.
I love vegetables but sometimes I just want a hamburger -- or kung pao chicken, or lamb kadhi, or many other dishes where I _like_ the taste and texture of the meat, and I don't have a better replacement.
The effects on the planet can be completely eliminated with massive expansion of nuclear and/or space-based electricity generation to power vertical farms that a) don't displace natural habitats and b) capture and recycle livestock's methane emissions along with other waste products.
I wouldn't be too dismissive of the potential here.
An ideal situation only exists in a textbook, and dealing with reality is what we should do, was sort of my point.
Listen to yourself.
I'm not being dismissive of the use of mushrooms as a meat argument. But I was being dismissive of the moral superiority based, "you should do this because it's right" argument being made framed by mushrooms.
I hope that's more clear.
A comparable serving of beef has about 12x the amount of protein as mushrooms.
How many oz of mushrooms would one have to eat to get the same amount of protein?
Edit: legumes are more practical, green peas give you 2g/oz and peanuts can be 7g/oz shelled according to google, (though they are different proteins than the beef). Mushrooms are good for texture and some like shitaki can give the umami taste, but they aren’t a nutritional meat substitute on their own.
We should measure the protein density at a meaningful state for consumption.
While you can eat some mushrooms fresh and dry, their water density when fried is somewhere in the middle. Closer to dry when processed.
I love mushrooms, and am mostly vegan, but the skeptic in me suspects it's not as economically viable (with their current processes) to make meat-like products out of just their "mycoprotein" or they'd be doing more of it.
I realize they have released a few vegan products, but I've never seen them in stores and can't see why they wouldn't be as widely available as their other products if there weren't some texture/flavor issues without the eggs.
So you're not vegan.
Vegan is the church.
My local animal rights group changed their marketing 15 years ago from mainly using the term “vegan” to “plant-based” which is free from the cult-like elements of veganism, such as disapproval of anything but “100%”. The term “vegan” is back now that it has become more mainstream.
Veganism as a taxonomical distinction between animals and plants/fungi doesn’t make sense because it would entail eating sentient plants which doesn’t track the underlying ethics.
What do you feed to mushrooms?
maybe better than worcestershire