A laudable goal in terms of sustainability and health, but in most developed countries not a cost saving measure. Meat is way too cheap, and often forms part of the bargains supermarkets use to attract customers.
In the long term and the most pessimistic scenarios doing without meat may be cheaper though.
> A laudable goal in terms of sustainability and health, but in most developed countries not a cost saving measure. Meat is way too cheap, and often forms part of the bargains supermarkets use to attract customers.
Where I live, this is no longer true; on the one side there was a big outrage at the super cheap meat (€3 / kilo at the lowest), pushing shops to sell meat at a higher price (and presumably better animal conditions, but I'm not convinced this is independently verified), on the other there's these certifications farmers can get for their animals' living conditions, and people are willing to pay extra for this.
Anyway, in our household, freezer vegetables are a staple. We tried fresh vegetables for a while, but there's a lot of stems (in e.g. broccoli) and it's not as fresh or affordable as the frozen stuff.
That said, I think that instead of raising the price of meat, they should lower the price, availability and diversity of vegetables.
I would also encourage people to avoid these "vegetarian meat alternatives"; they're kinda scammy in that the ingredients are cheap but they sell it at meat prices. It's a lazy vegetarian's option. If you want to avoid meat for whichever reason, learn to make meals without something that kinda looks like meat.
Raw, yes. But I use alot more seasoning with vegetables. I spend more time chopping and simmering. And the end result just isn't as enjoyable as a steak.
With respect, this implies that you are not very good at cooking.
You can make delicious, quick and easy food both with meat and with vegetables. If you try and cook a steak like vegetables, you will have poor results. If you try and cook vegetables like a steak, you will have poor results. If you treat each ingredient - meat, vegetable, or otherwise - in its own right and cook/season appropriately, then you can and will make excellent food.
Nope I've had vegetables at top class restaurants so my cooking abilities are irrelevant to my claim that (on average) meat takes less effort to cook and still tastes better. I enjoy all the food I cook, I just enjoy meat more and doubt I'm the minority, but thanks for condescending.
I have to agree. I’ve eaten and cooked (tasty) Indian food for most of my life. I’m biased, but Indian cookery has some of the most diverse and flavorful vegetarian dishes of any cuisine, and as a kid, I ate mostly vegetarian. After saying all that, I’m confident I _could_ be a vegetarian eating that diet (and have), but the meat dishes are still far tastier and something I’d prefer 9 times out of 10.
You're somehow implying that eating meat is bad for human health, which considering how general a statement it is, is bound to be completely false.
Human beings have thrived eating meat for hundreds of thousands of years. And it's a lot harder to completely address all the nutritional requirements on a purely vegetarian diet, but not impossible.
If anything, it's agriculture that's "unnatural". It only came about 10 thousand years ago, and most plants we eat have been vastly altered to fit our tastes.
It's definitely possible to win this game compared to the US, because the situation in the US is so bad. We pay double and our health care isn't twice as good, not even close. You have to hustle hard in order to argue that it's even a smidgen better, let alone twice as good, because mostly it's just more expensive.
A laudable goal in terms of sustainability and health, but in most developed countries not a cost saving measure. Meat is way too cheap, and often forms part of the bargains supermarkets use to attract customers.
In the long term and the most pessimistic scenarios doing without meat may be cheaper though.