The Losing Fight Against Fake Meat [View all]

[turbinetree]

Reprinted with permission from Creators.

When you visit a grocery, literal-mindedness is a handicap. Apple butter is actually not a dairy product. Grape-Nuts cereal omits grapes as well as nuts. Corn dogs don’t need leashes.

The U.S. Cattlemen’s Association, however, is appalled that new forms of protein are being sold under names such as Beyond Beef and Impossible Burger. Vegetarian and vegan substitutes for meat have gained a significant share of the market, partly because of health considerations and partly because of aversion to killing harmless animals for food. But the livestock group fears that consumers are being cruelly misled.

It wants the Department of Agriculture to stop not only the use of these brand names but any term suggesting that there is such a thing as “synthetic beef” or “vegan meat.”

It complains that Beyond Meat offers what it calls “a plant-based burger that smells, tastes, looks and even feels like ground beef” — and, if you can imagine, “strategically merchandises its products adjacent to traditional meat in grocery stores.” Yet, it notes, these foods are composed entirely of “non-meat ingredients such as ‘Pea Protein Isolate,’ ‘Rice Flour’ and ‘Yeast Extract.'”

http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-losing-fight-against-fake-meat/