Vegan-Carne Alliance

‘Small Family Farms Aren’t the Answer’ ∞

August 3, 2019

From Chris Newman, writing about the struggle of being a farmer and a farmer’s market vendor, with emphasis his:

Altogether, then, I’m paying $5,850 to participate in a large farmers market.
It’s pretty safe to assume that the costs of the other 99 vendors are similar. We’re shelling out a combined $585,000 to participate in just one market. Most of us participate in at least two markets, so let’s double the figure to $1.17m, then round down to $1 million just to be conservative.
A $1 million+ annual operating budget could comfortably lease, service, and staff a large urban brick and mortar market that’s open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, year-round.
Instead, we spend it on a pop-up market that’s open just half the year (in my neck of the woods), for two days a week (remember, two markets), four hours at a time. And it’s probably outdoors — where rain, excessive heat, or a cold snap will effectively ruin your day.
As much as I like farmers markets, the amount of resources that small farmers pour into them is terribly misdirected if we’re serious about mounting a real challenge to the conventional food system.

Speaking on the idea of independence and farming he continues:

Our freedom also costs us results in the marketplace. The zeal for “saving the world” is undercut by annual sales at farmers markets estimated at less than $2 billion in the U.S., with the growth of markets slowing even as hundreds of billions of dollars of food is sold annually in grocery stores. As the link above states, part of this slowdown may be the result of an explosion in local food hubs, which are themselves riddled with competitive issues of their own, in addition to (generally) being non-farmer owned and little more than middlemen that force farmers to take prices.

Because of our insistence on independence and our failure to cooperate more closely, we’re being outsold at the grocery store by a factor of 400+.

He concludes:

[Farmers] markets will still be one of the best ways to connect to the actual people growing your food and gain an understanding of what it takes to responsibly feed a hungry planet.

I’m always interested in what the word responsibly can mean when it comes to food.

‘Miyoko Schinner, the Premier Pioneer of Plant-Based Cheese’ ∞

August 2, 2019

From Gabe Kleinman on Miyoko Schinner:

“We want to be the leader in this space. We’re not just selling cheese — we’re revolutionizing dairy with plants. This will be the new norm in a matter of years, not decades.”
As we wrapped up, Miyoko made mention of misreported news that Miyoko’s Kitchen was being acquired by Nestlé. Some of her fiercest devotees were devastated and angry, taking to social media to protest. After quelling the protests, she reflected on the advantages of plant-based startups working with Big Food categorically. “Because of companies like Beyond Meat and Memphis Meats, Tyson [which invested in both] is now headed in a different direction.”

It’s easy to be upset that Miyokos Creamery would partner with Nestle, but the idea that Miyokos can be a nationwide product excites me. When I return home to my small town in the midwest, they don’t have all the products I do in Los Angeles. If this gets them in bigger chains across the globe, it’s a net positive.

Also, I love their cashew-based cheeses and can’t wait to try their new cheeses made of beans. The cost differential should be massive, and I’m betting they’ll be just as delicious.

Cross ‘Ultimate’ Off the List ∞

August 2, 2019

Vegan meat brand Gardein will soon launch a new line of next-generation vegan burgers, hot dogs, and sausages. The brand’s Ultimate line will include the Ultimate Burger, Ultimate Hot Dog, and Ultimate Sausage.

The superlative train is in full swing. Let’s see. We now or will soon have these vegan burgers:

Impossible Burger
Beyond Burger
Ultimate Burger (via Gardein)
Awesome Burger (via Nestle; Fall 2019)

Not real yet, but with Kellogg’s Morningstar, Unilever’s acquiring the Vegetarian Butcher, and everyone other multi-national hopping in—it’s only a matter of time before we see these:

Stellar Burger
Righteous Burger
OMG Burger
Pretty Darn Good Burger
Incredi-burger
Far Out Burger
Mucho Burger
Don’t-Have-A-Cow Burger

‘Where Are All the Bob Ross Paintings? We Found Them.’ ∞

August 1, 2019

Bob Ross loved the earth, and every show was a meditative joy. This little video shows where his work went.

‘On Less Meat Mondays, Harvard’s famously liberal students ate more meat than any other day of the week.’ ∞

August 1, 2019

Some interesting thoughts from Selina Wang at I.M.H.O.:

Based on employee logs, meat entrées are high in demand. To counter this trend, many universities have started “No Meat Mondays” to reduce costs and encourage students to make healthy and sustainable decisions. To ease students into this new idea, HUDS tried a less extreme version, “Less Meat Mondays”: at dinner every Monday, instead of serving two animal proteins, HUDS served one animal protein and two vegetarian proteins. Martin said that on their first try, students ate more meat than when there were two animal proteins: “The grill got hammered. It was as if students were saying ‘if you tell me that I shouldn’t be eating meat, in fact I’m going to eat more.’”
When asked what would happen if HUDS acted more as a benevolent dictator that completely removed meat options from the grille menu once a week, with a sign by the gridiron explaining the benefits of eating less meat for health and environmental reasons, Davidson laughed. “There would be a revolt,” he said. […] To get around this psychology, HUDS has become more surreptitious about their actions. Starting last year, HUDS has reduced the amount of ground beef in ten dishes by 30 percent through the addition of mushrooms. This has not been met with any pushback from students, as this alteration does not change the flavor of the meat dishes.

Any step towards more vegetables being consumed is better for the world and the environment. That’s why I don’t hate Tyson’s move to make patties that are half beef and half pea protein. It’s not what vegans want, but it’s what the world needs.

✏️ by C. W. Moss