“Meatless alternatives are getting so good, you should try them! I bet you wouldn’t even be able to tell the difference! In fact….”
Please
Please
Please stop trying to sneak-feed me meat alternatives.
I am willing to prepare and share a vegan meal with you, I’m willing to skip animal products in our group spaces.
Please.
Stop trying to sneak-feed me meat alternatives.
Mycoprotein is fucking cool, vat-grown meat is fucking cool, believe me I am fucking down for figuring out efficient calories and I’m interested in attempting to reduce or eliminate animal agriculture but you wouldn’t want me to sneak-feed you cricket flour, you don’t get to sneak-feed me your stuff.
I wouldn’t mind if you snuck-fed me cricket flour, actually. If cricket flour is indistinguishable from regular flour then sure, go for it.
I really don’t know what the initial gripe is about, though. The anonymous person you quote is not trying to sneak-feed you anything. They outright say “meatless alternative.” Is your problem that they may have GMOs? I genuinely have no idea what your complaint is, because you’re talking about people sneak-feeding you meatless stuff but your pics are all about GMO corn starch or whatever.
I have celiac disease and a corn allergy and a relative who wanted to try to pass off impossible burger as ground beef to prove how good meat alternatives are.
I don’t care about “gmo” and I dont care about the fact that it’s “textured protein” I care about “corn” and “wheat” and I care that people without food allergies rarely know how inescapable some of those allergens are.
“Oh, I checked the ingredients, it doesn’t have corn”
Okay but does it have maltodextrin, modified food starch, xanthan gum, caramel coloring, dextrose, or glucose syrup?
If it does have any of those things do they specifically say “from potatoes,” “from tapioca,” “from cane sugar” or “from rice”?
If it didn’t did you check the manufacturer’s website? If that didn’t say did you call the manufacturer?
Sometimes I’ll use almond or coconut flour as a replacement for wheat flour when I’m cooking. I do not try to pretend that my alternate flour chocolate chip cookies are wheat flour chocolate chip cookies because most people don’t expect to run into coconut or almond when they pick up a chocolate chip cookie. I don’t try to hand them to people, wait for them to eat a cookie, and say “hah, bet you didn’t think gluten free cookies could taste good, huh?” because if I did that to someone with a severe allergy it could kill them, but also because people should have a say in what they’re eating.
I’ve got no problem with beyond beef or impossible burger describing their products as meat alternatives, I’ve got no problem with GMOs or the fact that quorn is made out of a heavily engineered protein. That’s all very neat, actually.
But I do have a problem with people trying to sneakily serve meat alternatives without considering that doing so is shitty for a number of reasons.
Also, insect protein can cause severe reactions to people with shellfish allergies, so that’s another reason not to feed cricket flour to people without telling them.
Honestly, there’s no good or reasonable reason to lie to anyone about what you’re feeding them. It’s not your body, you have no right to decide what goes in it.
Also, I do have questions about the relative ecological benefits of a lot of these products when you account for the level of processing required and the agricultural processes they use. Especially if you’re comparing to small-scale, local level animal agricultural (rather then focusing exclusively on horrendous factory farming practices). I think the issue is a lot more complicated than a lot of people on both sides are willing to admit.
