"vegan chicken blocks" sounds positively lyrical.
Not here, it's right next to the stuff I'm eating in the aisle. Checked the label and it's made out of mostly milk (so it's vegetarian, not vegan). Sadly the Venn diagram of 'tasty meat replacements' and 'cheap' shows little overlap. If there were more I'd totally drop meat from my eating habits.
http://cspinet.org/new/201112011.htmlThe vat-grown mold used to make the Quorn line of meat substitutes causes gastrointestinal distress and in some cases, life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The nutrition and food safety watchdog group has again urged the Food and Drug Administration to revoke its “Generally Recognized as Safe,” or GRAS, designation for the controversial fermented fungus. If the agency does intend to allow Quorn’s “mycoprotein” to remain on store shelves, it should at least require a prominent warning label, the group says.
You had me worried there, it's a big part of our diet as it's available in the UK, and we have the pretty strict Food Safety Agency that would have put a shutter on it well before now if it was an issue. It looks like people are more likely to be allergic to Soy or Dairy than to mycoprotein, perhaps it could be labelled as a possible allergen in the future, but certainly it wouldn't warrant banning.
Serious Eats has a lot of really good tofu recipes, and, if you're down with gluten, seitan is relatively easy to make and vastly cheaper than any prepared meat substitute and very flexible.
I'm not a diehard vegetarian, but I am of the opinion that an enormous amount of resources are wasted in the meat industry. Like how one kilo of beef (2.2lbs) requires 15,000 liter (4,000 gallons) to make. So I try to do my part and reduce my meat intake, while also being a frugal student, which means either using the above because it's cheaper or just adding more vegetables to a meal and leaving meat out. I still eat a lot of meat though. My supermarket recently replaced all their cheap, unethical chicken products with a 'New Standard Chicken', making more space for chickens and slower growth rates mandatory. I think that's a great idea, but I'm more excited for the day when meat replacements are just as good and cheaper than regular meat.
Great! Your questioning felt a bit like a cross-examination, hence my comment. Meat or no meat is a discussion with a past: Overpopulation is bad - on the flip side though, doesn't that also imply that there isn't enough nature for them to live in?Not trying to pigeonhole, just curious.
Ah, that guy. And no, with the deer thing, it implies that they have no predators and breed like crazy. It implies that they get fat on corn and alfalfa and raise car insurance rates.