Would you eat vegetarian meat? « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

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Would you eat vegetarian meat?

(67 posts)

Started 12 years ago by Baldcyclist
Latest reply from Min
poll: Would you eat artificially produced vegetarian meat?
Tis witchcraft, never! : (7 votes)

44 %

No chance, it's still meat! : (2 votes)

13 %

Maybe, only if it could be proved to me no animals were hurt. : (0 votes)

Aye, when can I try it? : (7 votes)

44 %

16 votes

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12 3 Next »

Baldcyclist
Member

I'm guessing as a % of population, a higher proportion of vegetarians frequent this forum? Maybe not, but given the sandal comments etc..

Would you find it morally acceptable to eat meat which wasn't produced as a result of an animal dying?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17113214

I'm not vegetarian, but this reminds me of the project to create an artificial food source from the sixties which resulted in Quorn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorn).
Tis all witchcraft I say! I personally wouldn't eat either of these artificial substances, but interested to know if a vegetarian would indeed eat meat given the right circumstances?

Posted 12 years ago #
Smudge
Member

Not a veggie personally so probably not supposed to comment(!) but I would guess it comes down to whether you avoid meat on ethical or taste/texture grounds?

Posted 12 years ago #
wingpig
Member

The poll needs another option along the lines of "Yes, I'd try it as long as it was proven to share no side-effects with Quorn".

I eat meat only rarely on the grounds of its energy density so that I can eat more oatcakes and muffins. Wife is veggie for genetic cholesterolic reasons. Bairn is fed meatsuffs whilst he grows, pending discovery of his cholesterol-coping abilities.

Posted 12 years ago #
Cyclingmollie
Member

If you could get an animal to happily agree to be eaten I think that would remove the moral objection to eating it. Whether or not cells are separate and distinct from their source is debated. So perhaps if you could create these food cells from a human that has happily permitted their harvest for that purpose all objections would be removed...or perhaps not.

Posted 12 years ago #
recombodna
Member

I was a vegetarian for 10 plus years my wife and kids are vegetablists. I don't eat meat very often. I feel people eat far too much red meat and the planet can't sustain the energy needed to meet the demand. I cook with quorn quite a bit. Don't like the sausages though but cauldren do great veggie sausages.

Ironically soy is now consuming vast areas of rain forrest so even the veggies are raping our planet. Too many people!!! In1804 the world population was 1 billion now it's 7 billion. Doom Gloom!!!! Soylent Green!!

Posted 12 years ago #
amir
Member

"If you could get an animal to happily agree to be eaten"

Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Posted 12 years ago #
Min
Member

The soy is being grown to feed cattle, not to feed vegetarians. Ask MacDonalds about it. They will love you for it.

Posted 12 years ago #
amir
Member

"Too many people!!!"

And this seems to be a problem that politicians are unable to deal with. Given the size and importance of the issue, the whole planet thing should be much more mainstream but collectively we are incapable of doing anything about it.

Posted 12 years ago #
recombodna
Member

Cattle are vegetarians too you know! Damn cows ruining our planet with their soy going in and their methane coming out they deserve to be eaten......

Posted 12 years ago #
wingpig
Member

Cauldron's Lincolnshire-effect meatless sausages are quite palatable, though nothing whatsoever like enmeated Linconshire sausages.

I have almost entirely given up my childhood-favourite-food of cornèd beef on the grounds of its unsustainability.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"
He says the burger as currently envisaged isn't an acceptable substitute for vegetarians, but is still a step forward.
"
"
"Moral vegetarians need to promote, use and consume this test tube meat," Savulescu said. "Then it will become cheaper."
"

Well yes but.

Aside from the morality of eating dead animals (that includes fish - though there are a lot of 'vegetarians' who do...) there are good reasons for eating less meat generally - especially if it's been fed on food that is perfectly edible in the first place for humans.

Historically meat has been largely eaten on feast days or by the rich. We now have a world where being able to afford meat is a sign of aspiration/prosperity.

Population grows and food production may or may not keep pace - with or without oil-based fertilisers. People starve - though that is to do with politics and distribution rather than 'the chickens and cows have eaten all the corn and beans'.

I think 'artificial meats' are largely a sideshow.

Might be more useful developing organisms that could convert sewage and other 'waste' into food.

But that would not be quite so 'exciting'...

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

I eat less meat than I used to after getting over my loooooong hang-up about not liking veg (it took hooking up with a good cook). But I still eat meat, so I don't really see the point in me eating meat-a-like veg stuff. When I want meat I eat meat; when I want veg I eat veg; and it's also possible I may eat both in the same meal... ;)

I do try to get more 'ethical' meat (if that's possible really), from the farmer's market, or makign sure chicken is free range and so on. Long term plan is for us to move out of the city and have our own animals that can then feed us for a year.

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"So perhaps if you could create these food cells from a human that has happily permitted their harvest for that purpose all objections would be removed...or perhaps not"

Well...

"AN ATTEMPT to cook a human blood pudding as an act of outrageous art has been abandoned after health inspectors were alerted. Scottish artists John Beagles and Graham Ramsay were planning to slice and fry black pudding made from their own blood in a show of "live art" this afternoon. "

http://www.beaglesramsay.co.uk/press/blood%20pud%20scotsman.html

They have done it, but even using/cooking/eating blood from live people is 'controversial'.

Not forgetting -

http://www.rivercottage.net/forum/the-river-cottage-community/chat/25375the-placenta-meal

(Anything to do with food is relevant to cyclists!!)

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"animals that can then feed us for a year"

and then?...

Posted 12 years ago #
Min
Member

The animals take over and feed on them.. :-o

Posted 12 years ago #
Darkerside
Member

Ditto with anth - except I've probably always eaten a fairly consistently high amount of meat, but can now afford to buy something that hasn't been reared in a cage. I'd happily give synthetic meat a go, but I'd be basing conclusions solely on the usual taste/texture/enjoyment rather than anything moral.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

"and then?..."

It's kinda a rolling annual thing. Buy new piglets each year etc. Chickens are easy, you simply breed them yourself (can do with pigs and sheep as well, but more difficult).

Posted 12 years ago #
Min
Member

"Chickens are easy"

Are they still easy when it comes to chopping their head off with a big axe?

Posted 12 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"you simply breed them yourself"

You'll be growing your own grass next.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

"Are they still easy when it comes to chopping their head off with a big axe?"

Not sure it applies to chickens as well, but I'm pretty sure for any slaughter you have to either send the animals away for it to be done by the 'professionals', or get yourself a professional licence.

Chickens might be different (they're kind of like grouse and so on I guess). But if you've kept them on an anonymous scale, no names and for the specific purpose of meat.... Maybe... I've never tried killing a chicken, so I genuinely don't know.

Posted 12 years ago #
steveo
Member

Wasn't there documentary in the 70's dealing with a similar theme, living off the land in the city.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

You're thinking of the Good Life... ;)

Posted 12 years ago #
recombodna
Member

I've heard it's best to choke your chicken.....

Posted 12 years ago #
Min
Member

"Not sure it applies to chickens as well, but I'm pretty sure for any slaughter you have to either send the animals away for it to be done by the 'professionals', or get yourself a professional licence."

Come on now, you know what I am getting at. You are just a great big softy when it comes to chickens. :-P

Posted 12 years ago #
recombodna
Member

....... sorry

Posted 12 years ago #
steveo
Member

You're thinking of the Good Life... ;)

... And your not! :p

Posted 12 years ago #
wingpig
Member

If anyone is avoiding eating beeves purely due to their fat content rather than the environmental impact of growing them, ostrich had a similar texture and heft (at least to me, a non-meat aficionado, on the one occasion when I ate it) but appeared (to non-ethical-reason-veggie wife) to be extremely tasteless, which is understandable as fat-soluble flavours are probably interpreted as more rewarding by our brains.

Posted 12 years ago #
amir
Member

Perhaps Anth could have some ostriches on his small-holding. Just one step up from chickens. Big omelettes too.

Posted 12 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

"If anyone is avoiding eating beeves purely due to their fat content rather than the environmental impact of growing them, ostrich had a similar texture"

Buffalo. There's a farmer's market regular sells it - 90% less fat, and really tasty.

Posted 12 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

I'm in the "I like meat but try not to eat too much of it" camp. Mainly for cost, the mess and faff of cooking with it and also try and avoid anything that overtly seems like "meat flavoured industrialised product" rather than a good bit of meat. I don't want some cheap chicken breasts that are full of water and bulking protiens, I'd rather go without. But I'm sceptical of a lot of processed foodstuffs anyway (apart from the biscuity and confectionary kinds) and try avoid if and where possible.

I did the vegetarian thing for 5 or 6 years at uni, but mainly resulted in too many pizzas, chips and cheese omeletters being eaten with corresponding ballooning in waist size. I never got into any ersatz meat be it Quorn or Tofu or whatever. Quorn was a spin off of Rank Hovis Macdougall who were looking for some way to process the waste starch products of indsutrial milling and baking. It took them a good 30 years from test tube to the supermarket shelves I think.

Posted 12 years ago #

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