Anything that gets us closer to a world in which chickens are not farmed for their meat or eggs is good. The incomprehensible violence of factory farming for mere taste is unforgivable, and stuff like this is a small step to its undoing.
I'm aware that the USA has shockingly, appallingly low animal welfare standards, especially for a developed country - but chickens don't have to be farmed like that.
I haven't bought a non-free range egg in at least a decade, and I make sure any poultry I buy has been reared with good welfare.
What do you mean by "mere taste"? Hominids didn't evolve for 22 million years to have taste buds that are completely useless.
More often than not, better tasting food means it has higher nutritional value. This has been slightly butchered by modern food science when they started mixing chemicals to help sell industry waste as food... but for vast majority of foods that humans culturally ate before the food industry took over, good taste does mean higher nutritional value.
I would like very much to eat proteins of the same quality as animal proteins, but made by a fungus or yeast, instead of eating animal proteins.
I hope that one day this would be possible.
Nevertheless, I will never eat food having a secret chemical composition and/or food whose production is monopolized by the sole owner of some patents, as it appears to be the case with this product.
Any kind of food must have a chemical composition that is completely published, because there have been far too many examples in history, of stupidity in assessing what is good or not too eat.
I would not care if some non-essential food has a single-source, e.g. some fancy kind of chocolate.
On the other hand for a food whose purpose is to provide the nutrients that keep you alive, e.g. the necessary daily intake of proteins, it must be possible to be produced everywhere and by everyone, without restrictions.
It is acceptable for its production methods to be patented, but the patents must be licensed to anyone on FRAND terms.
Until such conditions will be met by an animal-substitute food, it cannot really substitute the animal food, except for niche uses, regardless of how well it reproduces the taste and any other qualities of the original food.
I don't think this is intended for people to put in their fridge and make breakfast with as much it's going to replace egg whites in a lot of factory processed foods and bakeries.
I can't wait to be able to buy stuff like this or "cow-free milk" in the supermarket, but it'll be a long long time due to the irrational European fear of GMOs which is a basic tool for most cases of bio-engineered yeasts.
"I can't wait to be able to buy stuff like this or "cow-free milk" in the supermarket..."
There's plenty of cow-free milks in the supermarket already: they're called nutmilks (ex: soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc). They've been around for decades.
The main thing I'm waiting for are good vegan versions of sharp cheeses like sharp cheddar and blue cheese. A good vegan smoked gouda would be nice too.
I've yet to taste creamy vegan ice cream that's on par with the best milk-based ice cream, but at least vegan ice creams can be pretty good and getting better.
We in Europe have good reasons, in fact very good reasons to reject GMOs. Its a very powerful tool, very poorly tested, side effects on whole ecosystem not tested at all (aka if you don't brag about safety in ads, it means there is nothing to brag about).
They often come from most amoral companies in the world, ie Monsanto which clearly don't care about human health and life, only profits at all costs. They are often pushed by political means (ie US business folks coming ie to UK to lobby for lowering food safety standards compared to those from EU right after it was clear Brexit is happening).
You want to solve world hunger and feed those poorest and most unfortunate that would otherwise die? Sure go ahead, but at least attempt to be moral and show some serious research into collateral damage. You try to push that cheap untested crap on one of the world's most rich and free regions? Well clearly your chops are not good enough right now.
Chicken-free egg products have become remarkably good. I bought and enjoyed ready-made folded egg recently and didn’t realize until afterwards that it was plant-based.
This type of stuff will eventually lead us to a vegan world. It's hard to see it now but future generations will find it harder to slaughter millions of animals when perfect meat substitutes are available. It will be similar to the slow transition from fossil fuels.
On a more serious note, why do ethical vegan proponents feel it is better for an animal to never live at all? To be devoid of purpose due to lack of existence?
This kind of research seems promising because it's not even a substitute, it claims to be the exact same product, only derived from a different source. A lot of people don't want weird plant based alternatives to animal products because of the taste or nutritional content.
Chickens lay eggs. It is a fact of their life, there is nothing exploitative or bad about it (in principle, I will say that a lot of farms are garbage). "solving" egg whites is the furthest from the ideal that you are espousing that you could possibly get. What needs to be solved properly is dairy, specifically cheese. It is a giant range of foods and none of the current vegan offerings come even close to covering it.
It would require much more
than "cheaply":
1.It has to provide same
nutrition.e.g. egg with
B12 removed would not be equivalent to chicken egg.
2.It could be privately
produced like eggs.
(As otherwise people depend
on megacorporations abusing
their mass production costs
to monopolize the market)
3.It would need to have
to compete with existing
culinary preferences:
i.e. recipes with eggs would
not 'adapt to artificial eggs', with people continuing to use chicken eggs.
[+] [-] sweetheart|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] GordonS|4 years ago|reply
I haven't bought a non-free range egg in at least a decade, and I make sure any poultry I buy has been reared with good welfare.
[+] [-] ComradePhil|4 years ago|reply
More often than not, better tasting food means it has higher nutritional value. This has been slightly butchered by modern food science when they started mixing chemicals to help sell industry waste as food... but for vast majority of foods that humans culturally ate before the food industry took over, good taste does mean higher nutritional value.
[+] [-] adrian_b|4 years ago|reply
I hope that one day this would be possible.
Nevertheless, I will never eat food having a secret chemical composition and/or food whose production is monopolized by the sole owner of some patents, as it appears to be the case with this product.
Any kind of food must have a chemical composition that is completely published, because there have been far too many examples in history, of stupidity in assessing what is good or not too eat.
I would not care if some non-essential food has a single-source, e.g. some fancy kind of chocolate.
On the other hand for a food whose purpose is to provide the nutrients that keep you alive, e.g. the necessary daily intake of proteins, it must be possible to be produced everywhere and by everyone, without restrictions.
It is acceptable for its production methods to be patented, but the patents must be licensed to anyone on FRAND terms.
Until such conditions will be met by an animal-substitute food, it cannot really substitute the animal food, except for niche uses, regardless of how well it reproduces the taste and any other qualities of the original food.
[+] [-] detritus|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tootie|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eliaspro|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pmoriarty|4 years ago|reply
There's plenty of cow-free milks in the supermarket already: they're called nutmilks (ex: soy milk, almond milk, oat milk, etc). They've been around for decades.
The main thing I'm waiting for are good vegan versions of sharp cheeses like sharp cheddar and blue cheese. A good vegan smoked gouda would be nice too.
I've yet to taste creamy vegan ice cream that's on par with the best milk-based ice cream, but at least vegan ice creams can be pretty good and getting better.
[+] [-] saiya-jin|4 years ago|reply
They often come from most amoral companies in the world, ie Monsanto which clearly don't care about human health and life, only profits at all costs. They are often pushed by political means (ie US business folks coming ie to UK to lobby for lowering food safety standards compared to those from EU right after it was clear Brexit is happening).
You want to solve world hunger and feed those poorest and most unfortunate that would otherwise die? Sure go ahead, but at least attempt to be moral and show some serious research into collateral damage. You try to push that cheap untested crap on one of the world's most rich and free regions? Well clearly your chops are not good enough right now.
[+] [-] divbzero|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tootie|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zeveb|4 years ago|reply
They could be called 'chicken-free egg white substitutes,' though.
[+] [-] Flankk|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] traviswt|4 years ago|reply
On a more serious note, why do ethical vegan proponents feel it is better for an animal to never live at all? To be devoid of purpose due to lack of existence?
[+] [-] InsaneOstrich|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krageon|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Fargoan|4 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FrozenVoid|4 years ago|reply
2.It could be privately produced like eggs. (As otherwise people depend on megacorporations abusing their mass production costs to monopolize the market) 3.It would need to have to compete with existing culinary preferences: i.e. recipes with eggs would not 'adapt to artificial eggs', with people continuing to use chicken eggs.
[+] [-] 2143|4 years ago|reply
I can't wait for the day when they come out with plant-free vegetables.
If it already exists please don't tell me.
[+] [-] twoxproblematic|4 years ago|reply
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