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The "Backlash" to Plant-Based Meat Has a Sneaky, if Not Surprising, Explanation
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this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Environment
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I do eat meat (I do acknowledge that this is an ethical and moral failing) but with the plant-based alternatives being so good I have changed my eating habits a lot.
Plant Based is now what I tend to buy as my first choice in the vast majority of cases and I don't feel that I've lost anything in doing so. This is far from a properly consistent moral choice but it has helped me dramatically lower how much animal products I buy.
Classic plant-based recipes are usually better than the ones that try to replicate a burger with plants.
So I try to change habits and eat vegetarian recipes more often. Still like to eat burger, with chicken meat since it has a smaller impact on the environment.
I had assumed that a plant-based burger would be better for the environment than a meat based burger (including chicken) - or am I entirely wrong here? (I guess there is complexity depending on the type of "plant-based" burger and the type of meat and where it was sourced from etc)
Think of it in terms of inputs and outputs. This is drastically simplified with rounded numbers, but gets the point across.
I can take 1 acre of land, add seed, and 500,000 gallons of water. These are my inputs. From that, I get an output of 2000 pounds of grain. I could take that output and eat it myself. Or I could decide I want to grow meat.
If I grow meat, I need another 1 acre of land, another 100,000 gallons of water, and at least half of that 2000 pounds of grain from my first acre. Now I can grow a cow.
It is more efficient in terms of resource utilization to go directly from plant to human, instead of going from plant to animal to human.
I agree, that is the major reason I try to choose plant based options. I was just thrown by @Hirom saying about chicken being better for the environment, I'm assume they meant it's better than beef (which it is) but not as good as the plant-based versions.
Exactly, I meant chicken has less impact on the environment than beef. And chicken burger as an alternative to beef burger.