Beyond Tofu: The World of Mock Meats

Mock Meats.

If you are unfamiliar with this term, maybe you are familiar with plant-based meat, imitation product, meat substitute, meat that's not meat, or stuff that gives me enough gas to propel an airplane......

Image via Flickr by Tony Webster

Whether it is one word or the other, it's the same concept everywhere. "How do I consume meat without killing animals?". People have different reasons for turning vegetarian or vegan, they might care about the environment, they might care about their health or they might care about the fact that they need to feel superior to others for eating an organic kale salad with roasted beets, jellified pomegranate seeds and two tears from a bird species that is about to be extinct........(a bit of a stretch)

If you didn't know, the above sentence was a joke, obviously. (in case you didn't understand my impeccable sarcasm) I want to talk more about that later though.

But for now, the question that arises in every meat eater's mind is "Why should I care? By the time this is gonna affect me, I am most probably not even gonna be alive, just like with global warming".

Firstly,......... No and secondly, No. It is gonna affect every single one of us soon. How soon? Maybe by the year 2050. We might run out of meat by the year 2050 and we are gonna see the effects of that pretty soon.

Humans have been hunting and killing animals for a long time. This was before we discovered farming, and the availability of edible plants was scarce at that time. So hunting became a requirement and after many years of evolution, it became our tradition. We kill and consume animals as part of our dietary requirement, our carnal pleasure, and also because of tradition. We eat meat to celebrate festivals, events, and Sundays. But over time, we figured that we can grow food from the ground and so the requirement for killing was reduced. But now in the modern era, we eat meat for pleasure and honestly some people can not be convinced to eat vegetables even for a week. So, now it is a habit.

But now we have the availability of resources, technology, and knowledge. We started finding ways to substitute animal products. This isn't something new, we have been doing this for a long time. But it is only now that we have products or methods which are really close to the actual thing and some would say almost indistinguishable.

Jackfruit

Mushrooms

Aubergines

Paneer

Soybeans

Tofu

Seitan (Wheat Gluten)

Take Jackfruit, for example, a very popular fruit in India. It is considered to be the meat of vegetarians since it absorbs flavor really well, and its texture after cooking can be compared to that of meat. Similarly, we have tofu, paneer, soybeans, eggplants, mushrooms, seitan(wheat gluten), and many more which are not only just meat substitutes, we use them for different purposes as well. But their flavors, textures, and appeal remind us of meat. But now we have more complex and accurate meat substitutes made in a laboratory (yum!).

Some of which are:

Just Egg: Just Egg is a plant-based food company that produces eggs from mung beans. They claim to use theirs in a 1:1 substitution for real eggs. They have products like Just Egg, Just Egg Folded, and Just Egg Sous vide for different applications. You might have seen them on the show Most Expensivest hosted by 2 Chainz, a famous rapper, on Vice TV like me. If you haven't heard of them before, they have a wonderful and snazzy website for you to check out to learn more. (made it sound like a plug, trust me it's not.)

Good Meat: Good Meat is a company that aims to produce sustainable meat by creating them from animal cells, therefore, avoiding the slaughtering of animals and usage of many acres of land to rear them. They are a subsidiary of the company Eat Just, which is also the parent company of Just Egg. On their website, they claim that Good Meat uses 95% less land and emits 92% fewer carbon emissions compared to regular meat production.

Beyond Meat: Beyond Meat is a company that produces plant-based meat, unlike Good Meat they provide vegetarian substitutes for real meat. They started with plant-based burgers which were a huge success and then explored other options such as sausages, ground beef, steak, jerky, chicken, etc. Their "meat" is made up of five ingredients(mentioned on their website) peas, coconut, potato, mineral salts, and beetroot. These five ingredients serve different purposes which is explained more on their website, if you would like to check out.

Impossible Foods: Similar to Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods also started with plant-based burgers, which were beloved by people. But, they released their products only for restaurants at first, but now it is also available in stores. Their ingredients differ from that of Beyond Meat. Their ingredients include soy protein, yeast extract, coconut oil, Methylcellulose, and food starch. Their products include beef, sausages, chicken, pork, meatballs, meal sets, etc. as mentioned on their website.

The more we progress, the more options we get (Thanks to food technology). It's not just from an ethical perspective that these products are developed, it's also an issue of sustainability. As said earlier, by the year 2050, we might run out of meat. The rising demand of consumers and the costs needed to produce meat from animals is not economically sustainable. According to Food Dive, feeding the world's population by 2050, which is expected to hit 10 billion, will require a 70% increase in food production, and producing meat is much more detrimental to the environment than producing plants.

In the beginning, I wanted to talk about the mentality of meat eaters. I want you all to ask yourself this question (and comment with your answer if you are interested) if the price isn't an issue "Would you be willing to turn completely towards meat substitutes?". I have met people who are willing to starve than follow a plant-based diet for a week. Also, it's part of our responsibility to adopt a more plant-based, environment-friendly diet for a sustainable environment. This can include buying organic produce, substituting meat with plant-based meat, and decreasing the overall consumption of meat in our diet.

This attitude of vegans or vegetarians being elitist and eccentric has died and hopefully should die more. In 2010, vegan food was considered to be unappetizing and weird. But just like with anything, all it took was some time to evolve and adapt, and I think so long as you are doing something for the right cause it will eventually find its way and take course.........with a little bit of help from people like you and me...............hopefully.

See you next week!