Pandemic Brings Huge Spike In Demand For Plant-Based Meat Alternatives (nytimes.com) 130
Food safety concerns amid the coronavirus pandemic, along with "changing consumer preferences," are "contributing to a shift toward plant-based food options," reports CNBC, citing alternative meat makers in Asia.
The New York Times shares some specifics, including statistics from Nielsen showing that from April 12 to May 9, demand for uncooked vegan products jumped 53%. To meet the demand, Impossible Foods has been hiring more workers, increasing pay and adding more shifts. Beyond Meat reported record sales in the first quarter of this year... [F]or the first time, plant-based meats are often competitive in price with ground beef, and sometimes easier to find, as fears of meat shortages prompt bulk buying... Impossible Foods, which before the pandemic sold more of its products in restaurants than in grocery stores, has expanded its retail footprint. Chief executive, Pat Brown said his products are now sold in more than 3,000 stores, up from fewer than 200 in January.
In the first quarter of the year, Beyond Meat, whose stock is publicly traded, reported net revenue of $97.1 million, an increase of 141 percent over last year. Its products are now in 25,000 grocery stores nationwide, and the company recently expanded into China. "We were saying that by 2030, Beyond Meat could have a $1 billion in sales," said Alexia Howard, the senior research analyst of U.S. food at Bernstein, an equity research group. "Now, we're saying by the end of 2020, which is only 18 months later."
The New York Times shares some specifics, including statistics from Nielsen showing that from April 12 to May 9, demand for uncooked vegan products jumped 53%. To meet the demand, Impossible Foods has been hiring more workers, increasing pay and adding more shifts. Beyond Meat reported record sales in the first quarter of this year... [F]or the first time, plant-based meats are often competitive in price with ground beef, and sometimes easier to find, as fears of meat shortages prompt bulk buying... Impossible Foods, which before the pandemic sold more of its products in restaurants than in grocery stores, has expanded its retail footprint. Chief executive, Pat Brown said his products are now sold in more than 3,000 stores, up from fewer than 200 in January.
In the first quarter of the year, Beyond Meat, whose stock is publicly traded, reported net revenue of $97.1 million, an increase of 141 percent over last year. Its products are now in 25,000 grocery stores nationwide, and the company recently expanded into China. "We were saying that by 2030, Beyond Meat could have a $1 billion in sales," said Alexia Howard, the senior research analyst of U.S. food at Bernstein, an equity research group. "Now, we're saying by the end of 2020, which is only 18 months later."
Too much sodium (Score:1)
If you are what you eat... (Score:1)
...a cow is basically a walking plant, since they eat grass. That's why I eat cows.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
A cow is basically made of the same stuff as I am, which is why I eat beef. Animal protein, healthy saturated animal fats, and an excellent variety of minerals and vitamins - by some weird coincidence in precisely the same proportions that my tissues need.
Of course you could emulate a cow and eat plants - if, like a cow, you have four vast stomachs full of specialized bacteria to digest the plants (which human stomachs do inefficiently or not at all). And if you want to spend hours every day lying down chew
Re: (Score:2)
They can't mill, cook, ferment, press, isolate proteins etc etc.
They have stomachs, we have science.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
A cow is basically made of the same stuff as I am, which is why I eat beef.
Except you're not feeding yourself; you're feeding an array of symbiotic microorganisms that break down what you shove in your craw and metabolize it into stuff that you then utilize.
Encouraging the growth of fauna that's adapted to breaking down the same stuff that you're made out of... nowhere as well-thought-out as you're telling yourself.
Of course, this is all completely aside from the fact that even a cursory examination of the human digestive system and comparison to the systems of other mammals quick
Re: (Score:1)
Encouraging the growth of fauna
I realize that people refer to them as "gut flora."
Re: (Score:2)
Besides being self-defeating -- you're attempting to argue specific combinations of words that you admit are used are not themselves used -- you're dead wrong [google.com]. 126,000 results.
Re: (Score:2)
Intelligent animals eat meat.
Stupid animals eat plants.
Which are you?
Re: (Score:2)
I see, so you never have to go #2 then. You ARE special.
Re: (Score:2)
Intelligent animals eat meat.
Let's see. Buzzards, fly larva, seagulls, remoras, hagfish. Not really that high on the intelligence scale.
Stupid animals eat plants.
Humans, bears, badgers, raccoons, wolves. Not really stupid in all respects. (humans aside)
The problem with stating absolutes is they're usually absolutely wrong.
---
Re: (Score:2)
Humans, bears, badgers, raccoons, wolves
These are all omnivores. The only bears that aren't omnivores are panda bears. Not eating meat is perhaps the biggest reason why pandas are nearly extinct.
When I think of intelligent animals, I tend to think of cetaceans and avians. Flighted birds don't have the capacity to eat only plants (having the digestive facilities would weigh them down) and are the more intelligent among them.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Of course you could emulate a cow and eat plants - if, like a cow, you have four vast stomachs full of specialized bacteria to digest the plants (which human stomachs do inefficiently or not at all). And if you want to spend hours every day lying down chewing the cud.
Fortunately humans have (amongst other things) thumbs and can light fires and thus we are able to cook our plants, which means we don't need a zillion stomachs :)
Humans also have nice big smart brains, which we can use to figure out ways to get the minerals and vitamins we need without killing other animals - even if it's a little more difficult or expensive, for some people it's worth the effort and expense to save the lives of some random animals.
I say this as a meat eater that cheerfully eats meat and h
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
No, MSG gives me and others really nasty headaches. They just need to cut the damn salt. They probably also put sugar in it.
Re: (Score:2)
No, MSG doesn't give you headaches. You get headaches after having MSG because you think it will give you headaches. It's called the placebo effect, it's very strong, and in double blind tests, people like you who claim to be able to tell the difference and/or get symptoms do worse than random chance. And contrary to popular belief, MSG is very much naturally occurring, and it, along with all glutamates, are in fact nutritionally beneficial.
https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com]
Basically, MSG allergy is just as
Re: (Score:2)
Sodium isn't harmful for the vast majority of the population. There are a few people with certain heart conditions that need to watch it.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Well, a few. But look into the medical literature; a lot of the people whose doctors put them on a low salt diet are not expected to have any improvement in outcome from it. Why the doctors do it is an interesting question, with an odd answer. But it is not because it improves medical outcomes in most patients.
Re: (Score:2)
Here's how it works: Your body balances its electrolytes in many ways, primarily through your kidneys. Sodium in particular your body keeps at a certain ratio to other fluids by retaining or excreting water. The more sodium you take in, you feel more thirsty because your body needs to raise the amount of fluids to maintain this balance. The less sodium you take in, the more your body is going to excrete fluids. The idea behind it raising your blood pressure is because the higher your fluids, the higher your
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting that you feel the need to cite highly processed high sodium low quality sources of beef that have 8 times the sodium content of a nice bit of steak.
Which puts the fake meat substitute significantly higher in sodium content than actual meat.
Now I like to cook my steak with a nice rub that happens to include plenty of salt so I'm not saying sodium is a bad thing at all, but if you're going to shill for these companies then at least be honest about it.
Re: (Score:2)
You know what isn't FUD? It tastes like shit. I got a free impossible whopper through a tmobile deal, and it's really not that good. I'll admit that they have done a better job than veggie burgers in the past in that this at least tastes like food. The only way somebody might like this is if they're a vegan activist with a different palate.
I've been to vegan restaurants before, and to be honest I haven't been to a single one that makes food that actually tastes good. Every menu item at every vegan restauran
Bread and Circuses (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
we've got Netflix..
Re: (Score:2)
I'm on the bread, cheese, and coffee diet, myself. Ah, the incredible luxury of the modern age!
Re: (Score:2)
Now, try to help get the panicking people to stop panicking and to start thinking again.
Re: (Score:2)
Except for the warming planet. The pollution in the oceans poisoning the food chain. Our alleged EPA allowing more carcinogens in air...and mercury, they seem to really like increasing the mercury effluent from coal fired power plants.
This isn't ominous at all! (Score:2)
Impossible Foods (Score:4, Informative)
If this is something of interest to you, you should look at at Gardein's offerings (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer).
Re: (Score:2)
you should look at at Gardein's offerings (no affiliation, just a very satisfied customer).
Me too. I tried the Beyond Meat stuff recently, thought it was awful.
Re: Impossible Foods (Score:2)
I tried one of their "sausages" on an a&w breakfeast burger some time ago. My expectations didn't match the sort of spongy texture or overwhelming salt, i wasnt able to finish it.
That said, I'm a weird guy.. I don't even like bacon dispite generally enjoying most types of meat. (I say that because most people want to punch me in the face when I admit my feelings on bacon)
Re: (Score:2)
I say that because most people want to punch me in the face when I admit my feelings on bacon
If they were smart they'd just realize that it means more for them.
Re: (Score:2)
Most people clearly don't care if foods are packed full of salt and a lot of the new vegan stuff I'm seeing in the UK supermarkets takes advantage of this. Noodles, sausages, pizza and burgers are the worst offenders, it pigs me off as I do like fast food but it could so easily be a lot more healthy. If you try to go for low-salt low sat-fat high fibre then there is very few options. / I'm not into complicated cooking.
Re: (Score:1)
There's a couple good youtube videos (one by Dr. Mike) where people with no axe to grind taste test all these alternative meat products. Dr. Mike liked the quinoa patty best over the new meat substitutes.
If you eat these, you may need to supplement Zinc. Meat is a major source of zinc. Friend of mine went Vegan... and turned up depressed all the time. I suggested she take a supplement and she chewed my ass off. Then 3 months later, she drops she's taking zinc supplements and the depression is gone.
Re: (Score:1)
Duly noted. Consider though, that a lot of people that refrain from meat are also heavily into nutrition and are aware of places this type of diet may be deficient and compensa
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah but good luck finding a store with Tofurky(TM) sausages right now.
Even at the restaurant we had to order tempeh three times just to get one order actually delivered.
Luckily tofu is still readily available.
Re: (Score:2)
... with much much better tasting foods.
I've been consuming products marketed to vegetarians for thirty years and for gluten-free, non-GMO, nothing touches Beyond Burger. Their "sausages" are fucking awesome.
For non-GF, Tofurky is the shit.
The nastiest vegetarian product was the "Lightlife Tofu Pups" my mom bought for me in highschool; the looked and tasted like casings full of sawdust.
Re: (Score:1)
...for gluten-free, non-GMO, nothing touches Beyond Burger
They're also soy-free - not everyone wants their thyroid functions inhibited or their estrogen levels meddled with.
Re: (Score:2)
Veganism was a growing fad for awhile and then it got attached to climate change. The whole thing seems designed to snooker people into believing that this is something that they can easily adopt without any adjustments or pitfalls.
Mock meats seem to be a very big part of selling vegetarianism to aren't really into the idea.
It seems odd to me that the only food processing plants having trouble are slaughterhouses. It seems like ANY factory would have similar problems for similar reasons.
Mock meats are as pr
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Most other factories where hundreds of people work "elbow to elbow" are closed. Meat packing plants are part of the essential food supply so they're an exception.
Mock meat manufacturing probably isn't as labor intensive. My assumption is that most of the processing of this stuff is done by machines because the product is uniform (unlike animal parts that need human judgment).
Re: (Score:2)
As someone who mostly eats vegetarian (because I keep kosher and kosher meat is expensive - not to mention hard to find during the pandemic), Gardein is very good. I love their "chicken" tenders. I air fry them and toss them in buffalo wing sauce or top with sauce and mozzarella cheese. Their meatballs aren't bad either.
Beyond Meat's ground beef is good too. I'll use this for tacos, meat sauce, fried cheeseburger eggrolls, etc.
Apart from those, I like Morningstar's bacon. No, it won't fool you into thinking
It's a scam (Score:2)
Like Impossible, Hate Beyond (Score:2)
I bought some Beyond patties, at 2 before throwing them away. I didn't feel good after eating them.
Re: (Score:2)
vegetables (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Aren't 'uncooked meat alternatives' just fruit and vegetables?
Meat alternatives are legumes and nuts, not fruit and vegetables.
Couldn't this be something to do with people having to eat at home and cook more?
Part of this is driven by meat shortages since many meatpacking plants have closed due to C19 outbreaks. Part of it is driven by fear that the meat itself may transmit C19.
Issue of worker and public safety (Score:2)
Re: Issue of worker and public safety (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Right, because the people growing, picking, and packing your fruits and vegetables are working in so much better conditions. (Heavy eyeroll)
C19 spreads much less efficiently outdoors, where there is wind and sunshine.
Meatpacking plants are kept cool, which means C19 persists for longer in the air and surfaces.
Workers in fields are more widely dispersed than workers in meatpacking plants.
Re: (Score:2)
He's talking about working conditions. I've done work in both fields back as a high school/uni student, and field work is far more gruelling than meat plant work.
In meat plants, it's far more about proximity, which is why this specific virus presents a problem. There's just not much room to socially distance when there's 7-10 of you working on one carcass, each with specialized set of tasks that must be performed in a specific order. Work itself however, while physically demanding is nowhere near as exhaust
Re: (Score:2)
>On those, your body remains in a much more optimal position for the work, so you'll last longer, remain more focused and on such a cart it is easy to haul much more per go.
Unless you have invented a way for two atoms to occupy same space, this is not a possibility. This before all the other self-evident problems, like the fact that each picker has a different pick speed and quality, and standardising this means reducing pick rate and income for all but the slowest picker on this hypothetical cart that c
Re: (Score:2)
Right, because the people growing, picking, and packing your fruits and vegetables are working in so much better conditions. (Heavy eyeroll)
Yep, in my area none of the chicken plants got COVID-19, but one of the vegetable packing plants had an outbreak.
The correct category to use when thinking about health risks is food packing plants. If you're investing in the businesses, then the different ingredients are different niches, but for public health they don't have normally have different working conditions.
Re: (Score:2)
Be co
A "huge spike" on a tiny cactus is still a tiny sp (Score:2, Funny)
And correct, it is a spike. Meaning it goes up, and then goes down again. Less tsunami, more blip.
Nice try though, P(eta)R guy.
Now go buy some contraception, to fix the real problem: You! Humanity! Overpopulation to an extent that city dwellers don't even get to see nature enough, to know eating meat is the normal case, and become ill with veganism.
(Photosynthetic life is a comparatively new thing, by the way.)
BTW: If you want to have fun, tell a vegan she's eating animals with *every* meal. Rotifers, tardi
Re: A "huge spike" on a tiny cactus is still a tin (Score:1)
Not to mention most additives to these foods and diet supplements (vitamins and gelatins) are actually derived from animals.
Re: (Score:2)
Only thing left on the shelves (Score:5, Funny)
When this started the fake meats were the only thing left in the meat section in many stores. Obviously nobody wants this shit. Only desperation--lack of real meat--has led to anyone even trying this stuff.
Re: (Score:1)
Came here to say this. The grocery stores in my area are low on real meat but have plenty of the fake shit.
Re: (Score:2)
True, perhaps. The question is, how happy were the people with the product? And would they buy it again?
Re: (Score:2)
Dead on. We noticed that, too. (Score:3)
When this started the fake meats were the only thing left in the meat section in many stores. Obviously nobody wants this shit. Only desperation--lack of real meat--has led to anyone even trying this stuff.
Dead on!
Back in early March, about the time of the big toilet paper and other supplies rush, we noticed that as well. The meat department of the local Safeway, (which had been loading up on vegan meat alternatives throughout the store) was out of just about everything EXCEPT the various veggie-fake-meat
Come to my local supermarket (Score:4, Insightful)
Plant alternative meat products are pretty much the only thing that isn't continuously sold out or has limits. I'm fairly sure the same products that were there 3 months ago are still hanging there.
There is a meme going around with a picture stating that even during a pandemic nobody actually wants to eat that crap.
Re: (Score:2)
The same joke works for gluten allergies. Stores were completely cleared out of bread while the gluten free products weren't touched.
Re: (Score:2)
Plant alternative meat products are pretty much the only thing that isn't continuously sold out or has limits.
Proving that the marketplace doesnt want it.
Well, of course (Score:1)
If you have no basis to differentiate yourself from animal meat, how can you comfortably eat it?
I'm not surprised that vegetarian food demand is up with increased secularism, I'm surprised that it isn't 100% among that subculture.
Re: (Score:1)
If you have no basis to differentiate yourself from animal meat, how can you comfortably eat it?
This very question was what led me to becoming a vegetarian thirty years ago,
Re: (Score:1)
Well, at least you're logically consistent on this point.
Theism naturally has a different categorical system than Linnaean Taxonomy (though, ironically, he was theist himself, if an inconsistent one), but kudos for making basic metaphysical sense. Many do not.
Re: (Score:1)
And, obligatory post at this point.
[They saw] a Samaritan carrying a lamb on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples, "That man is round about the lamb."
They said to him, "So that he may kill it and eat it."
He said to them, "While it is alive, he will not eat it, but only when he has killed it and it has become a corpse."
They said to him, "He cannot do so otherwise."
He said to them, "You too, look for a place for yourself within repose, lest you become a corpse and be eaten."
--Thomas 60
Jesus said, "This
Re: (Score:2)
All these things are the FSM, because his genius knows no limits and he's been successfully impersonating other non-existent deities throughout humanity's time on the planet.
He couldn't reveal his true form until Italian immigrants in New York perfected the meatball and spaghetti combination.
People are the worst (Score:5, Informative)
For fear of the possibility of a food and toilet paper crisis they artificially created a food and toilet paper crisis like absolute morons.
Actually my favorite moment of the pandemic was when the Dutch Prime Minister gave a press conference. He reiterated that people should stop "hamstering" (hording) there's absolutely no reason for anyone in the country to do so.
He was then asked by someone in all seriousness "Given that trade with other countries is being impacted by the virus, how long can the Netherlands realistically sustain itself?" The Prime Minister was absolutely dumbfounded and just answered "We're the biggest food *exporters* per capita in the world."
It's amazing how stupid people can be. It's a sad reflection on our species when shops need to declare "only one bulk family pack of toilet paper per person may be purchased"
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I still do not get the toilet paper thing. What is the point of buying enough toilet paper to last for years? I even know of one guy that complained to a relative of mine that he did not know what to do with all the toilet paper he bought once the crisis was over. Some people are too stupid to live.
Re: (Score:2)
The issue with TP isn't hoarding, it's that people were shitting at home instead of at businesses, and home and business TP go through different supply streams.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You discovered the magic of just-in-time logistics! Store inventories are kept as tiny as possible to reduce storage costs, which means that if demand increases to 140% of normal, they get depleted really quickly.
Re: (Score:2)
No they don't. If it was JIT logistics it would be resolved within 2-3 days as stores get constant deliveries. The TP shortage lasted for weeks as morons were literally buying entire shelves worth.
Every single one of my local supermarkets enacted a policy of one pack per person. That wasn't because just in time logsitics couldn't cope with the poowave. People were literally stripping shops bare, and only from select goods.
Toilet paper? Gone. Eggs? Gone. Chicken? Gone. Beef? Plenty of it everywhere. Fish? No
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The issue with TP isn't hoarding, it's that people were shitting at home instead of at businesses, and home and business TP go through different supply streams.
No it absolutely is not. A family of 4 couldn't shit through a family pack of toilet paper faster than 2 weeks, even if every night were burrito night and those burritos were 2 weeks old.
A family of 4 does not cause crazy people to run to the supermarket and attempt to buy 10 packs (10 packs, not "a 10 pack") at once.
None of the crisis is related to normal bowel movements, especially not those people who fill up their trolleys, those people who punch each other, those people who got arrested, or the fact th
Re: (Score:2)
Local restaurant supply wholesalers that are open to the public were also hit, and sold out for over a week. Then they got a small shipment and were selling 50 cents a roll, limit 2 per customer. Then another week and they had supply again.
They never ran out of the giant rolls they use in parks and malls, but the regular size commercial packaged TP rolls did have supply problems.
Re: (Score:2)
There was absolutely ridiculous TP hoarding going on. At my local grocery store I saw people with shopping carts piled comically high with nothing but paper products, sometimes a couple with two carts pushing these twin leaning towers of toilet paper. Enough to last for several years even if they had a bunch of kids. The hoarders emptied the whole section of the store in a day, way faster than any effect of shitting at home instead of work would show up.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Also, some people, as some people will do, won't 'let a good crisis go to waste', they think they'll make profit off it (The Special Hell for those people!); vis-a-vis: someone I heard about on Ebay selling toilet paper for something like $1 for something like 5 *squares* of it (again: The Special Hell).
I suppose you can also blame The Media, and all the propagandists/foreign nationals/Useful Idiots/conspiracy theorists/FUD-spreaders/etc on the Internet, exponentially raising the level of
Re: (Score:2)
Just blind panic.
Probably. Any sane person should pretty much immediately see that toilet paper is convenience, not survival-essential.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. I still do not get the toilet paper thing.
I think the real problem was that when people started speculating that a shortage could happen because people were stocking up, other people rushed to hoard thinking they could sell it for a lot of money during the shortage.
And then they realized that they couldn't; their friends and family would hate them, and they might get robbed. ("I was just kidding, really! You know me, I would never do something like that!") People were setting up on the side of the road offering TP at crazy gouging prices, and inste
Re: (Score:2)
The point missed in that one is that to remain in the position of big net producer, certain chemical inputs are required. Modern agriculture of the kind being practised in Netherlands is impossible without them.
Netherlands is not a net producer of those. Which is why it being a "net producer of food" is misrepresentation of reality. It's not one if it can't get relevant inputs.
Same is true for almost all nations on the planet today due to globalization. Whatever it is you're exporting likely requires critic
Re: (Score:2)
The point missed in that one is that to remain in the position of big net producer, certain chemical inputs are required. Modern agriculture of the kind being practised in Netherlands is impossible without them.
The Netherlands has almost a fully vertically integrated supply chain here. Chemical plants catering to farming are all over the country, and those that aren't are in Germany, a border that wasn't ever closed. The reality is also that stuff in the ground has been sowed, it doesn't need much to keep a nation fed for the duration of a pandemic. The knock on effect of fertilizer and chemicals not being supplied would take most of a growing season to realise, and even then if food output dropped 70% the entire
Re: (Score:2)
Modern ag is much more effective at the cost of being much more fragile than you seem to think. Let me point you at a few key points:
1. The typical decline from lack of modern agriculture is in the upper 90-percentile. Not only do you decline to the numbers of pre-modern ag, you decline beyond them because your fields are significantly more nutrient-depleted due to efficient usage from time it was used for modern ag, as well as have a very different set of micro-organisms which maximize efficiency, but requ
Re: (Score:2)
Great, let's sabotage our health with that crap (Score:2)
Doesn't matter. Won't last. As soon as this is all over people will go back to their usual eating habits and forget about that overpriced meme 'food'.
Clue me in, I don't get it (Score:2)
If you want to eat vegetables, why do you want to process them to the point that they taste like meat? Logically you'd simply forgo the trouble and just use meat.
Re: (Score:2)
"Uncooked vegan products" (Score:2)
Banned Exotic Meat.... (Score:2)
...was already banned
Meat was not the cause, exotic farmed meat was not the cause, the trade in exotic meat was not the cause, the already illegal trade in wild caught exotic meat was the cause
Banning something that is already illegal ....
Meanwhile in Australia (Score:2)
I know what I am going to eat...
Re: (Score:2)
Who knew that pea protein could be made to taste like retriever?
It can't. But I understand it does a hell of a number approximating bats.
Re: (Score:2)
Apparantly, eating bats [mlb.com] is a long-standing tradition in this country.