But who needs a beef plant, or beef, when we have Impossible Burger?
Impossible Foods, producer of plant-based protein patties for Burger King and other vendors, is quite sensibly pivoting from restaurants to retail grocers:
Impossible Foods announced Tuesday that because demand for the Impossible Burger has “skyrocketed among home chefs,” the company is accelerating its retail expansion this week, rolling out the burgers at 1,700 Kroger-owned grocery stores nationwide.
Impossible Foods began 2020 with only about 150 grocery stores selling its flagship burger, so this rollout represents a huge increase. And it’s just the beginning.
“Our existing retail partners have achieved record sales of Impossible Burger in recent weeks,” said the company’s president, Dennis Woodside, in a statement. “We expect our retail footprint to expand more than 50-fold in 2020 alone, and we are moving as quickly as possible to expand with additional outlets and in more retail channels” [Sigal Samuel, “Demand for Meatless Meat Is Skyrocketing During the Pandemic,” Vox, 2020.05.05].
Fake meat costs more, but turning flora into some semblance of ground fauna doesn’t put workers at the same risk of coronavirus as slaughtering livestock:
Unlike traditional beef, meatless meat has a production process that somewhat insulates it from the ravages of the pandemic, both pragmatically and ethically: Its supply chain is obviously unaffected by recent meat plant closures, and its workers are not contracting Covid-19 at high rates because they do not have to work shoulder to shoulder like their meatpacking counterparts [Samuel, 2020.05.05].
Hmm… maybe instead of ordering workers into inherently pandemic-prone meat factories, the White House should consider subsidizing plant-based protein manufacturing to help the industry expand, develop cost efficiencies, and provide a healthier product at a lower price to hungry Americans who are seeing their pork sent to China?
Not to hijack the column, but, this rollout in this economic scenario is a yoooooooooge risk for shareholders and a likely big taxpayer bailout/subsidy if it crashes.
We’ve tried some of these plant based “burger” products over the years. We have found a considerable amount of improvement in taste and texture over that time. Try ’em.
I’ve been missing Porter Lansing’s posts on DFP. This would be a topic he would normal lead the discussion on. Anyone know what happened to Porter?
OK, that covers “hamberders.” What about “covfefe”? :-)
Take the subsidized soybeans and make it happen! Farmers would be just as happy selling soy to make fake meat as they are selling soy to make soy milk. In the end, it saves the planet and we still use the same amount of toilet paper, a win win.
I think Porter is on vacation as I remember.
Debbo was wondering the same about Porter. So was I. We know he is usually absent for Lent.
I have not tried any of the recent attempts at man-made-meat. I am skeptical, but I admit I have no actual experience to base that on. I would give it a shot, but it will take a lot of time before it becomes even close to a cultural substitute for actual meat. We humans are meat eaters, so I don’t think this will be a quick replacement by any means.
As for the issue of the production being less risky – I wonder if the current model could be scaled up with the same safety benefits. It’s easy for plant workers to stand 6 feet apart when they are only making meals for 100,000 curious americans…but when they are producing food for millions or billions, would they be forced to cram people in the plants like smithfield or tyson?
Beyond Meat is rocking. It’s a generational change, that includes diet, environmental concerns, etc. It’s an ethos. Not a fad. https://realmoney.thestreet.com/jim-cramer/jim-cramer-beyond-meat-is-an-ethos-not-a-hobby-and-it-s-winning-15315981
Harvard educated Cramer, can be a showman. Yet sometimes a showman is right.
And there is reason to not process it HERE. Grow food. Not feed.
My recent tastings of fake meat were fairly positive regarding taste and texture.
Numlock News by Walt Hickey says we should expect chicken prices to increase by 25-30% and see more whole birds for sale because they require less labor.
Having dressed literally 1000s of chickens in my life, whole is no problem. I can have that bird separated into pieces in just a few minutes. Because the price differential will be greater, I imagine lots of people will be watching YouTube videos on chicken butchering soon.
How to spatchcock a chicken easy and you can save the backbone for soup stock. Get a few of those local grazed chickens and have yourself some good eats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=19&v=pod4x5NJoYI&feature=emb_title
Ditto , Debbo, and you can identify the pieces after I get thru cutting up a chicken. :-) As for the faux burger, I thought it was OK. If I don’t have access to beef or prices force me to take another look, I could do that. Right now, I am trying to keep my local rancher/supplier happy.
Mr. Pay, I will gladly pay the premiums for the real meat and won’t stomach the soylent green version of beef. As to Mr. Lansing, let us hope he is not prostrated with the agonies, and only on a cruise ship vacation or somewhere not hooked up to the internets.
As if South Dakota agriculture hasn’t enough challenge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8ioFjN7viY&t=2629s
In the cow calf business you historically have an opportunity to make your fortune two or if lucky three times in your life. Has to do with economics and the nature of the beef animal. We now have a system that if the price of beef goes up just a tad the market will be flooded with imports from everywhere. The chance to actually make money in this country if you are not the 1% is gone.
Agree with the interviewee that the last money to be made in cattle was, for us, 2015. The cattle cycle had finally gone in favor of the producer. What should have lasted several years was killed in one by throwing open the borders to imported beef.
Now you have a public company that has shown nothing but loss since its inception but is doing great. Just because the investors keep dumping in money.
Knowing how our crops are grown that are used in making that “impossible burger” I’m thinking that the real thing is probably the healthy choice. Even if its coming from Namibia.
I had one fake Whopper back in September. It tasted fine, as satisfying as a real Whopper. If the meat supply chain collapsed and plant-based protein was the only available substitute product, I’d shrug and buy it.
But what I could really use is fake salami. I eat cold sandwich meat more regularly than any other meat.
Jerry, you mentioned soy and I thought, “Sure! perfect economic fit for South Dakota!” Turn the new AGP plant’s spigot from the Chinese export market to the Impossible factory and churn out fake burgers!
Impossible Foods does use protein from soy and potatoes. But soy legume hemoglobin is a core taste ingredient of Impossible’s product, the thing they say makes meat taste like meat. But they produce their “heme” through fermentation in the factory, not in the field:
I wonder how long it will take them to advance their technology to produce all of their proteins in vats and completely eliminate large-scale outdoor cultivation.
If only they could make brains for wingnuts.
I’m with Cory – figure out some cold cuts and you’ll probably win me over.
And most farmers I know are part of the 1% that clyde mentions. Farming is obviously incredibly important and these families provide a great and necessary service, but among the thousands of midwest farmers I’ve worked with in my career, almost all were way way way ahead of average income and assets compared to other midwestern families.
Important job? Yes. Hard job? Sometimes, sure. Sympathy worthy? Not really.
Thousands of chickens? Sure. Thousands of farmers? Hmmm. Credibility? “Me thinks poor Ry doth protest too much” yahdahyahdah…”limited resources…illegals last; …we are all meat eaters”? We, paleface?(: Google “omnivore”. Anne Gibbons, “Evolution of Diet” NATL GEOGRAPHIC (“meat is great if’n yah wanna live to 45”)
As usual mfi says more in one true pithy observation than … all in-staters! Ha!
Impossible meats could make 12 dollar plus soybeans possible. In addition to local markets, South Dakota’s soybean farmers could export with a more favorable hand in determining the price structure to the export markets. All of this could be done and as a plus, by making it non GMO, they could demand and get more for their products. What’r we waiting for?
The dried, cured meats from soy? That could be possible with the correct salt cure. Man, that would be big! Hey, I know, how about putting that task in front of these sharp youngsters https://www.sdstate.edu/agriculture-food-environmental-sciences, and then give them the money to make it happen!!
Leslie, I understood part of your attempt there. Do omnivores not eat meat? I googled it for you and it seems like they do. You should google what quotation marks are for. And yes, thousands of farmers. Hundreds every year. And I was specifically involved with managing their financial and material resources. So doubt whatever you want because you don’t like me but just keep in kind your ignorant opinions don’t change facts.
Find a way to scale up test-tube meat, and we meet the world’s nutritional demands without factory farms. We could abandon CAFOs and satisfy our remaining meat cravings with free-range beef—or heck, how about free-range bison allowed to roam free on the newly liberated Buffalo Commons spanning central South Dakota.
Leslie, you are too kind. I have known many farmers and cattle feeders who were paper millionaires but not in real life financial terms. There were many in the early 2010’s whose property values jumped sky high and inflated their worth. Then, again, there were many who took on massive new debt for larger, newer equipment and hit head on with drumpf’s trade wars and falling prices and land values who are now closer to bankruptcy.
I believed they tried adding stuff to hamburgers back in the early 70’s that wasn’t a real commercial success. Maybe they have improved since then. I don’t eat much burger anymore because of the price. I do trade lots of spuds to a friend and they give me home raised beef patties. And my favorite burger is a vegetable cheese burger with all then trimmings except secret sauce.
Wow, the replies speak volumes!
Ryan claims to have some expertise in the business of agriculture but fails to recognize that his so called 1% farmers are the only ones left. The small farmer couldn’t make enough of a return to feed his family and his 1% farmers are likely making almost nothing on their investment either.
The rest of you folks that seldom eat beef and endorse plant based substitutes haven’t noticed what has happened to America. Everyone is a lot poorer and things like substitute meat just makes it not as obvious. The push is on to get the public switched over to the third world diet that is all we will be able to afford before long.
Rather than endorsing the globalist agenda to continue with a big effort that worries about feeding a over populating world maybe we could tie “most favored nation” status to crowded country’s making a effort to reduce their birth rate rather than just the country’s where the people work the cheapest.
The ruminant beef animal is capable of doing something only ruminants and termites are capable of. Converting cellulose to protein. The process isn’t very land efficient and that is its only flaw. If we didn’t have unsustainable cheap energy to grow the intensive crops along with lots of questionably safe crop production chemicals ruminant animal agriculture would be the norm as it once was.
“Globalist agenda”. Come on Clyde. That’s as descriptive as MAGA.
What exactly is a third world diet? Could it be this?
“Why 3rd World Countries Are Much Healthier Than Americans” Damn, do tell.. https://medium.com/thrive-global/why-3rd-world-countries-are-much-healthier-than-americans-313aacd5f0a1
Well, Jerry, if you look forward to a every meal a meal of rice and beans have at it. The rest of the article you linked mentioned a lot more than just meals that make us unhealthy compared to country’s where the populace does actual physical labor and aren’t all fat.
leslie, tell me we haven’t a “globalist agenda” when we can’t even secure PPE for our health care workers unless it comes from another land. BTW, the company that puts its name on these items is supposedly a American company. We import beef from 18 country’s when cattlemen in this country can’t make a profit and the number one market for pasture land is to be broken up for row crops.
I think I could actually have tacu tacu for most every meal, Toss a couple of eggs on it one day and some biscuits another, yeah. I can flip those bad boys with enthusiasm. I don’t use canned refried beans, I use dried beans to get exactly the combination and the texture that I want. The beans are grown here or you can use garbanzo beans, again from South Dakota or lintels. The rice is to difficult to use wild, so you need to get that from the store and it has to be day old cooked. https://www.piscotrail.com/2011/04/06/recipes/tacu-tacu-peruvian-refried-beans-and-rice/
When I was a kid, I went with my uncle and another old rancher to Fort Pierre. These two old ranchers were talking about livestock and grass as we passed miles of both. They said that this grass here was the best hard grass they had ever seen, much better than in Nebraska and east river for the most part.
Right now, there is no money in those lands unless you put them under till. Then you qualify for the big government bucks of wheat subsidies. We lose all of this incredible ground so speculating farms can buy it up on the cheap and make it into something it is not. We want growth hormones and we want to put the livestock on power feed that’s killing us, but we’re convinced it’s the market. I don’t think it is. I think ranchers could get more money for less as long as it’s certified. Hell, you could get even more by a Kosher kill or Halal. Get to know your consumer and you can find a better market.