Fake Meat - it's all in the name

The province of Champagne in France is a small area covering a bit over 34,000 hectares in the northeast corner of the country.  The farmers of this area have been producing sparkling wine since the 17th Century. The process of creating sparkling wine is similar around the whole world with the quality of ingredients being the only notable difference. The farmers from the Champagne Province of France successfully banned all sparkling wine producers from any other region in the world from using the word ‘Champagne’ on any of their labelling. Other producers can’t even call their product fake Champagne.

The plant-based protein industry has been around for eons producing tofu, the marketing department has not been able to do much with tofu but is having a field day with ‘fake meat’. The farming industry should be in support of the entire primary production process, to sustain civilisation we need the full mosaic of food and fibre production. I can see an important future for plant-based proteins in feeding the lower socio-economic population and catering for the temporary flow of vegans and vegetarians. Unfortunately, the chemical and biological adaptation of plant-based protein into ‘fake meat’ is an environmental and nutritional fraud.

The plant-based protein industry takes its base ingredients from chemically grown monocultures which can provide no benefit to the land or the biodiversity that land should be supporting. Agrochemical pollutants, loss of soil microbiology, the death of up to 25 times more sentient beings per kilogram of protein produced and ecosystem decline are the environmental by-products of this big tech multi-billion-dollar industry.

The number of deficiencies in vegans and vegetarians are too long to list. One of the standouts is Vitamin B12 which is found to be deficient in 60% of adult vegans. A deficiency in B12 can cause depression, psychosis and cognitive impairment. Iron deficiencies lead to severe chronic diseases, chronic heart failure, cancer and inflammatory bowel disease. Plant based proteins contain Iron but as little as 1.5% can be absorbed compared with 20% absorption from meat. To sustain a healthy vegetarian or vegan diet you have to be an unemployed millionaire. The rest of the population who attempt this diet statistically only last less than a year on the diet, I’m guessing because they get sick and tired of being sick and tired. 

Humans don’t really need protein; they need amino acids balanced with micronutrients to sustain and balance biological and mental health. Protein is the carrier of essential amino acids but to be effective it has to be bioavailable protein, this is most effectively provided through real meat in a balanced diet of whole foods. Humans have evolved as omnivores. 

I was at an industry event where a senior manager from a large processing business said he was speaking to the head of the US giant Burger King. Asking him how the business was going with the introduction of plant-based burgers, he said he has never sold so much beef. When five University students are having a few beers and want to go out for a feed and one is a vegan they need to go to a restaurant which caters for plant based diets. Now Burger King in this instance is selling four beef burgers and one plant-based burger. 

The real meat industry urgently needs to unite to stop the biotech companies from using the word ‘meat’ in any of their labelling. We should avoid the temptation of putting energy and effort into discrediting the plant-based protein industry, that will happen naturally through the adverse health effects on their consumers. Our effort should go towards show casing the nutritional and environmental benefits of beef by engaging the global consumers in a conversation on how we are improving the red meat industry to be environmentally and nutritionally better than any other alternative. 

George King.

Carcoar NSW