Meat Vs fake meat - which is greener?

First off I'll say, for the record, I'm an ethical vegan. My arguments are based on whether it is right to kill an animal to eat or not, not an environmental argument, although obviously these play indirect parts as being green helps animals too. In the Netherlands they did a study comparing animal products with their fake meat alternatives. They found that although fake meats were generally better than real meats, due to the fact that a lot of stuff like tofu & non-meat burgers are shipped from Taiwan & South America the environmental impact was higher than it could be if the produce was grown & produced locally. I only read through the study itself pretty quickly as I've loads on today, but it did appear at first glance that the evaluation did not appear to include the the fodder fed to the animals & their transportation etc (although I could be wrong).
Anyway here's the article I first read & here's a pdf of the study (you'll need to have acrobat reader or another program that can read pdf's to read the study). Anyway I found it interesting & might make you think about where you are buying your produce from a little more & giving the option maybe buy the local veggies rather than the stuff from another continent?

We allow a lot of portabella mushrooms to substitute for meat in our diet, and pasta and things served by good people too.

I presume that you already know enough to decide what to exclude from your diet of factory meat. Mushrooms don't cry when they're shipped to market, and... well, you don't want to hear about beef, pork and chicken...
"...Ethical vegan..."
Yes, we know, and many of us are moving in that direction.
Tonight's salmon didn't bellow as it was taken, but I know what salmon factory fishing is done to the coasts of other countries, and how the fish are being groomed to eat non-natural foods.

Many years ago I was on the staff of The Mother Earth News magazine as we fought the good fight in these regards.
We won some and lost some, but we never stopped fighting.

Gluten based "Mock Duck" is widely available, it's okay.



I think maybe there exists other 'mock' meats out there too.

My mind is rusty right now, I use to buy a dried beef/beef jerky imitation product but it was not meat at all. It had cajun flavouring, in fact it was rather tasty.

Quote :

"...due to the fact that a lot of stuff like tofu & non-meat burgers are shipped from Taiwan & South America the environmental impact was higher than it could be if the produce was grown & produced locally."

I agree with this, I like Yeo's Melon juice added soy milk, but do wonder about a whole lot of that coming out of China, a fair amount of products come out of Vietnam, probably somewhat sounder but I don't know by how much.

Garden and Morningstar non-meat Burgers are fair, I bought a pack the other day and there was a lot of black bean filling in it and bathed in worchestershire sauce, wow, add in avocado or onions or sprouts really would have made it, I'm not much of a cook either. Delish. I should get some more really and I don't think those are made over in Taiwan or South America.

I like Soy enough but the above 2 companies I believe are making savoury non-meat burgers and frankfurters without being soy based foods.

Yes, and those Portabellos work well.

I saw a show on mushrooms, the woman said to clip the stalk because another mushroom will grow back.

I can't remember how many it's been since I've eaten that mock duck!