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Meatless 'Beyond Burgers' come to Carl's Jr. restaurants
The competition in lab-made veggie burgers is heating up. Beyond Meat has brought its burgers to more than 1,000 Carl's Jr. locations in the US, marking its Beyond's largest restaurant deal to date. Order a $6.29 Beyond Famous Star and you can eat a vegetarian (sorry vegans, there's American cheese) burg that tastes much like its conventional beef counterparts. You can also pay $2 to add a Beyond patty to other burgers on the menu. [...] You can already eat Impossible burgers of various sizes at White Castle, Hopdoddy, [and] Umami Burger
The veggie burgers won't be available at Hardee's (a nearly identical fast food chain operated by the same parent company). Sorry, "flexitarians".
Big Beef Prepares For Battle, As Interest Grows In Plant-Based And Lab-Grown Meats
The U.S. meat industry is gigantic, with roughly $200 billion a year in sales, and getting larger. But the industry faces emerging threats on two fronts: plant-based meat substitutes and actual meat grown in labs. Plant-based meat substitutes are a lot more, well, meaty than they used to be. They sear on the grill and even "bleed." They look, taste and feel in the mouth a lot like meat. Savannah Blevin, a server at Charlie Hooper's, an old-school bar and grill in Kansas City, Mo., says the vegetarian Impossible Burgers on the menu are popular with the meat-eating crowd. "I had a vegetarian actually turn it away, because it reminded them so much of meat, they sent it back," says Blevins. "It's delicious," she adds.
The industry that makes these products is taking off, growing 20 percent a year. "Business is booming," says Todd Boyman, co-founder of food company Hungry Planet. "We just can't keep up. We're actually having to expand our production facilities to keep up with the demand that's out there for this type of food."
[...] The meat industry is focused on shaping the regulatory environment for its new competitors, taking into account lessons learned from the rise of plant-based milks.
Previously: Would You Try Silicon Valley's Bloody Plant Burger(s)?
Impossible Foods Just Raised $75 Million for Its Plant-based Burgers
Inside the Strange Science of the Fake Meat that 'Bleeds'
FDA Approves Impossible Burger "Heme" Ingredient; Still Wants to Regulate "Cultured Meat"
Related: U.S. Cattlemen's Association Wants an Official Definition of "Meat"
Missouri Regulates Use of the Word "Meat" by Food Producers
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Saturday January 05 2019, @02:48PM (2 children)
The term 'flexitarians' is a joke. But there's a valid reason for 'cis'. Calling someone that identifies with their birth sex 'normal' automatically implies that a trans or non-binary person is 'abnormal'. So it's implicitly an insult to them. Using 'cis' instead removes the normal vs. abnormal connection.
There's no similar justification for 'flexitarian'. A person that eats meat sometimes and veggie burgers other times is still simply an omnivore.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday January 05 2019, @05:17PM (1 child)
Sorry, but while flexitarian is often used as joke, it actually identifies a very common and arguably important philosophy about eating.
There are all sorts of reasons to cut down on meat consumption -- environmental reasons, moral reasons, health concerns, cost concerns, etc. You may or may not agree with such reasons, but lots of people have them. I know a lot of people who deliberately consume mostly vegetarian diets but occasionally eat meat rarely or in specific circumstances (e.g., if it's humanely raised or on special occasions or only with unusual/special dishes or whatever). Arguably there are good health reasons for trying to consume a mostly plant-based diet without demonizing meat.
(For long stretches of my life I only tended to eat meat a couple times per week -- or as a garnish or added flavor element rather than a main dish. This started out because of budget concerns but then I realized I actually like vegetarian food. Then I read nutritional and health arguments that seemed to also be valid reasons to keep doing it once my budget was no longer a concern. I don't personally use the word "flexitarian" because it sounds stupid... But I guess I probably have been one at times.)
We don't have a word for someone whose diet is mostly plant-based but occasionally supplemented with meat. "Omnivore" doesn't connote this. Flexitarian sounds a bit silly, but given the number of people with such diets we should have a word for it.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Monday January 07 2019, @06:14PM
Well, I understand and support cutting back meat consumption for environmental, health, or ethical reasons. I'm just a little uncomfortable with terms that mean 'mostly vegetarian' because it is difficult to quantify. I can call myself a vegetarian and I might be lying. But if I'm not lying, you know exactly how much meat I consume. If I call myself a flexitarian maybe I switched from eating meat 14 times a week to eating meat 10 times a week - but maybe the woman in the next apartment has a taste for spaghetti or bean salads or something, and she doesn't even identify as a flexitarian but she eats meat 5 times a week.