Wednesday, August 09, 2023

The Fake Meat Fad Has Finally Been Exposed as a Complete Waste of Money

THE TELEGRAPH: Overhyped industry must stop believing every optimistic idea is the next big thing

Beyond Meat was supposed to be the poster child for the vegan movement, but instead it risks becoming a symbol of the worst excesses of the cheap money era of the last decade | CREDIT: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Last year, a top executive at one of America’s biggest alternative meat product manufacturers was arrested for sinking his teeth into another man during a road rage incident in Arkansas.

Douglas Ramsey, chief operating officer of Beyond Meat, later pleaded guilty to punching the motorist and biting him on the nose. The confrontation took place in a car park following an American football game after Ramsey accused the victim of bumping one of the front tires of his SUV.

For a company dedicated to weaning people off meat, it’s hard to think of a more unfortunate bit of publicity than one of your top bosses trying to tuck in to a potential customer.

But then this is an outfit with a penchant for fatuous hipster babble such as “help humans eat nutritious” and “eat what you love”, so you can understand if Ramsey thought he was being encouraged to eat meat rather than stop consuming it. Or perhaps, after being forced to consume nothing but faux-flesh made from beetroot juice and methylcellulose for months on end, he craved some real bone and gristle. » | Ben Marlow, Chief City Commentator | Wednesday, August 9, 2023

I was a champion of fake meat: but I’m not surprised people are losing their taste for it: Sales are falling due to nutritional and environmental concerns – but also because it just doesn’t taste that good »