Hollywood is starting to get it, The world's most vegan-friendly city, and more morsels

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Canada fast food chain Tim Horton's is giving up on Beyond Meat. It started a pilot less than a year ago, and scaled back last summer, limiting it to outlets in British Columbia and Ontario, reports Helena Hansen for Narcity. This follows news that Burger King's Impossible Whopper sales have leveled off and that MacDonald's is testing the PLT (featuring the Beyond Burger) at 52 restaurants in — Ontario. I suppose the Golden Arches could have impacted Timmie's success by bigfooting. Or it could be that fast food doesn't have to worry as much as fast casual about one person in a group having a veg veto. This could also help explain why MacDonald's really does seem to be taking its time.

Burger King has answered a lawsuit that alleges it misleads customers who expect the Impossible Whopper to be vegan with a rather straightforward defense: We never said it was, "or promised to cook them a particular way," reports Jonathan Stempel for Reuters. The patty itself is vegan, but it's cooked on the same grill as meat and IW comes with a mayo-based sauce. Plaintiff Phillip Williams "should have asked" before ordering one he said was "coated in meat by-products" and also "assumed that an Impossible Whopper would satisfy his own particularly strict form of veganism... solely because he asked a Burger King restaurant employee to 'hold the mayo,'" per BK, adding: "the smallest amount of investigation" on its website or from the news would have allowed Williams to avoid his unhappy meal.

The UK has always been vegetarian friendly (MacDonald's has sold a veggie burger there for years, and not yet for the colonies), but according to reporting by Hanna Johara-Dokal for the Financial Times (paywall) "London may be the most vegan-friendly city in the world," based on an accounting by Happy Cow, a "vegan food near me" service. The article links to some other impressive stats, courtesy of The Vegan Society, including:

• In 2018, the UK launched more vegan products than any nation.
• Orders of vegan meals grew 388% between 2016 and 2018 and they are now the UK’s fastest growing takeaway choice.
• The number of vegans in Great Britain quadrupled between 2014 and 2019. In 2019 there were 600,000, or 1.16% of the population; 276,000 (0.46%) in 2016

Factoid [?]

A recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior found that children who watched a cooking program that featured healthy foods were more than twice as likely to choose them for a snack than children who watched a cooking show featuring unhealthy foods. — Kristen Rogers and David G. Allan, CNN

Hooray for Hollywood! In a bid to make friends and not a point, the Academy Awards will not be an all-plant affair. While this week's Oscar Nominees Luncheon was entirely plant-based — as will be the spread in the lobby prior to the 92nd Academy Awards — "the post-ceremony Governors Ball will be 70% plant-based, and 30% vegetarian, fish and meat," reports Marc Malkin for Variety. Unlike the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice awards (100%-plant based), there is no food served during the Oscars ceremony, which may have made the menu choice a little less politically infused. Or it could just be that the people who've already attended two meat-free shows this season finally said, Where's the Beef? 

(Note: Since I can't include a link in the cover photo caption, a reader complained that my "Brad 'vegan thing' Pitt" reference fell flat. So here is the link that puts that into context, and absolves me of using a picture of Brad Pitt just to get attention ...)

We touched last week on Tyson's initiative to address two macroeconomic trends – sustainability and reduced consumption of meat. It's quite a statement by a major meat producer, even if it's also good for business. Now Quorn is doing something similar: The UK alt-meat company will become "the first major brand to introduce carbon labelling on its products," reports Rebecca Smithers for The Guardian. One of the reasons some people are reconsidering their relationship with meat is the effect that eating habit has on the planet, so alt-meat companies have something to crow about. Per Quorn, " The greenhouse gas impact of mycoprotein – the fungi-based protein used in Quorn products – is 90% lower than beef."