Bison Bud

There has been plant-based meat substitute products available for years, but recently they seem to be growing in popularity with fast food places offering them as an option and now even plant based chicken nuggets. While I obviously don't understand the market for these products, I would like to hear opinions from others about their use and popularity.

As a meat eater, I have little or no desire to order a plant-based meat product and wonder why others would do so. Is it supposed to be healthier just because it's plant based? They don't seem to push that in their commercials and really don't even tell you what plants are used or how they are modified to make them taste like meat. At least in my opinion, overly processed foods are generally not a healthy choice and these products are probably as overly processed as anything I can think of being offered.

I guess there is the vegetarian market for these products, but I have to ask why a real vegetarian would even want something that tastes like meat. Many, vegetarians are so because they don't want to eat meat in the first place. Why would these folks want this product? I guess there are those that converted, but still crave meat, but I can't see that segment of the population supporting this upcoming industry. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but I am curious as to what actually drives the need for these products and would appreciate your input on the subject. Good luck and good shooting to all.

Bultaco Loc: Aiken, SC

I'll stick with BEEF.

tomad Loc: North Carolina

Yes, vegetarians as well as people diagnosed with certain cholesterol related diseases tend to be the ones that exclusively use them. I have a close friend who is convinced he will live forever if he eats only plant based products. He's also terrified of having a stroke and someone convinced him the red meat is the prime contributor to those. I've tried the Impossible Whopper and could not tell it from the real thing, but generally, I love my beef, pork, and chicken meat.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

Sorry, not for me. I went to college in the late 1960s, Eastern and Southern Illinois Universities. The dorm dining rooms only offered soy hamburgers as their only hamburger offering. Terrible stuff.

ArtzDarkroom Loc: Near Disneyland-Orange County, California

Why would vegetarians want a meat flavored plant substitute?

To me, that is a very interesting question.

Overly processed plant "meat" versus hormone contaminated meat? Seems like a wash to me.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

Where's the beef?

tomad Loc: North Carolina

Maybe because, like my friend I mentioned in an earlier post, they used to eat meat and loved it but became vegetarian for health reasons.

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

No plant based steak is going to taste like one of these.

Najataagihe

Cost.

If the (fairly) new kudzu-burgers become accepted by the mainstream, you have a cheap source of easily-renewable food.

The problem will be keeping the kudzu farms under control!

melismus Loc: Chesapeake Bay Country

It seems that most people don't know that this new stuff is really meat. It starts with cells from a live animal, which are immersed in a broth of vegetable matter, where they grow just as they would in the animal body. The main problem is that there is no fat, and that is where most of the flavor would be.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

Great Frankenstein mutant food.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

It's politically correct food!

There's a fanatical group out there that would like to drastically reduce the cows in the world because their farts and burps contribute to climate change (the cows' farts, that is... not the fanatics').

A similar group says that the Amazon rain forest is being cut down and burned to make way for cattle grazing. While that's true to some extent, what they choose to overlook is that probably as much or more of the forest is now being cleared to make way to grow soy beans, mung beans, potatoes and other plants to meet the increased demand for their use to make these meatless meat products.

(A related side note: In fact the world is getting greener, on the whole. Yes, the Amazon deforestation is happening at an alarming rate. But global analysis by satellite has shown that new growth elsewhere in the world more than makes up for that loss. And, no, the Amazon rain forest is not "the lungs of the planet", as some like to characterize it. Our vice president-elect Kamala Harris claimed the Amazon produces 20% of the world's oxygen. Actual scientists credit the entire Amazon for producing 6% to 9%, at most. Further, organisms ranging from very small to very large and everything in between living in the Amazon basin probably consume almost all the oxygen that's produced by the forest there.)

A third group that's highly supportive of meatless meats are "animal rights" activists. Hey, I want to save the whales. But I also enjoy a good steak or fried chicken dinner. What PETA and others overlook is that if it weren't for the meat industry, most of those animals would never have existed in the first place. They also don't consider that hunting, when it's properly managed, helps maintain a healthy population and protect the environment.

They've tried to sell us meatless meats for many years. I haven't tried the latest products yet. The stuff I tried in the past was a pretty poor substitute, so I'm not very excited to trying the new stuff.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I will be a bit of a smart a$$

Unless you are eating carnivores all meat is plant based in whole or part. It is just the animal eats the plants and it's body turns it into meat.

tomad Loc: North Carolina

I just drooled all over my shirt just looking at that photo... thanks a lot!

Mr. SONY Loc: LI, NY

You should of had some!

Everytime after I cook the steak i start out saying 1.5 lb steak is to much.
Until I eat the first bite.
Then I wish it was larger. :-)

ribeye from Whole Foods
steak from Uncle Giuseppe's is just as good