Vegetarian Chicken Pieces

vegansrock only if you eat industrialised meat grown in American stockyards. Cattle reared the natural way, contribute as much to preserving our environment as anything else.

If everyone goes vegan, it is going o require the growth of huge acreages of soya, especially as people get richer in poorer countries and eat more.

The other thing no-one has been able to satisfy me about is allergies. So many allergies are plant based.

Since she developed an autot immune disease, a relative has become allergic to both soya, nuts and fresh fruit and nobody has been able t o convince me that someone with such extensive plant and nut allergies can eat a good, nutritious and varied diet if it does not include meat and dairy products.

If I make a vegetarian chilli I use lentils, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind to use something like Quorn. My dil’s don’t give their dc substitute meats as they don’t like the ultra-processed aspect of it. The GC eat a little good quality meat, cheese and home prepared vegetarian foods

I’ve been doing a bit of (Internet) research and it’s a very complex subject.

In terms of CO2 emissions (ie good for the planet) there’s no doubt that processing makes more than unprocessed. But then you have to take into account that the food waste is lower with processed foods.

It’s also true that a vegan/vegetarian diet that relies almost exclusively on imported fresh fruit and vegetables can produce more emissions than locally produced meat such as chicken and their eggs.

So, if you’re thinking good for the planet (not any other reasons) it’s got to be locally produced stuff, as much as possible or processed.

It’s changed my mind about using some of the processed stuff.
I just have to watch out for the nuts?

A lot of the newer fake meat products aren't actually soya anymore. Pea protein is a big thing now. I don't eat it, but DD says it's great.

MOnica - The “huge acreage to soya” currently feeding cattle and pigs could feed far more humans. The dairy industry is far more damaging to the environment and crueller to animals than your idea that naturally grazed organic cattle are somehow the norm. 99% of meat consumed in the U.K. is industrially produced. It’s not only vegans who eat imported food btw, we import 60% of all food- including meat from Australia and the far east-why? The U.K. can grow peas, lentils, soy, oats and quinoa- and farmers are beginning to increase production of these foods, if only for economic reasons. If people halved their meat and dairy consumption carbon emissions would fall by about 40%. - but governments are scared to let this be part of the climate change strategy. Many people are choosing to eat less meat and dairy and it’s good there are more choices available.

I don't see a problem with it - it is basically saying that this is a plant-based product that tastes of chicken. If you like chicken but are trying to go veggie, or simply eat less meat, then this is the product for you.

valdali, if you want to help the environment, bear in mind that beef and lamb are the worst offenders, so the first things to give up.

I can't see anything wrong with 'vegetarian chicken pieces', though, although I wouldn't buy them. Anything that tempts habitual carnivores to, at least, try something meat-free is welcome.

vegansrock

MOnica - The “huge acreage to soya” currently feeding cattle and pigs could feed far more humans. The dairy industry is far more damaging to the environment and crueller to animals than your idea that naturally grazed organic cattle are somehow the norm. 99% of meat consumed in the U.K. is industrially produced. It’s not only vegans who eat imported food btw, we import 60% of all food- including meat from Australia and the far east-why? The U.K. can grow peas, lentils, soy, oats and quinoa- and farmers are beginning to increase production of these foods, if only for economic reasons. If people halved their meat and dairy consumption carbon emissions would fall by about 40%. - but governments are scared to let this be part of the climate change strategy. Many people are choosing to eat less meat and dairy and it’s good there are more choices available.

Hear, hear Vegansrock!

I do not think Pasture for Life animals are the norm. But I do know that it is a small movement but growing fast.

In this country and in others there are large acreages of land that are not suitable for growing arable crops but have developed complex ecosystems as the results of 1,000s of years of grazing. There is no reason why animals should not continue to be grazed there and pass into the food chain. I recently heard James Rebank, the sheep framer, author and environmentalist argue that animals reared this way contribute to sequestering carbon and thus make a cntribution toward ameliorating climate change

What I object to the all or nothing approach of some people. You do not need to stop eating meat. We just need to eat less and farm it sustainably.

This is what I have been doing for a considerable number of years and our meat consumption is well below the national average. All the meat we eat is raised within 20 miles of our home and as far as possible as much of our other food is as well.

I have asked you before about the problems facing those with soya and nut allergies, you avoided it then. You seem to be avoiding it again.

I do not agree with everything in this polemic, but it makes an interesting read.
unherd.com/2022/01/what-vegan-propaganda-ignores/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=af220f32de&mc_eid=be97ec1684

Can’t tolerate soya but I’ll do my best with eating less meat. I just don’t like manufactured stuff that announces it as a ‘meat’ like vegetarian scampi or ‘*no-chicken kiev* or Quorn vegan chicken free slices (on sale in Tesco.)

After I read that I just had to go and make a bacon sandwich....I can resist anything except temptation ...

I quite fancy trying vegan fish and chips.
I've not managed the real deal yet.

Sorry, that was after Alegrias' and MissAdventure's posts yesterday.

It feels like another sleepless night coming up.

Germanshepherdsmum

I would think that someone would have to be pretty stupid not to understand that ‘vegetarian chicken pieces’ aren’t made from meat.

So why call it vegetarian chicken?
Just call it what it is, whatever IT actually IS!! lol

If people don't want to eat meat that's fair enough, but WHY do manufacturers etc insist on making this meat-free stuff either shaped like or sounding like real meat products?
Vegetarian bacon? If it isn't from the pig it isn't bacon!!
Vegetarian chicken pieces? They don't want to eat the real chicken pieces, so why eat something that looks like chicken pieces?
It makes no sense!!

I am a lifelong vegetarian, nearer to vegan for the past 20 years. Apart from a brief experiment with Textured Vegetable Protein in the 80s as a student I have never eaten meat substitutes.

I much prefer to treat fruit and vegetables as themselves rather han pretend to be something I am avoiding.

It would be different for a new vegetarian who is missing the taste or texture though.

I can never understand people who need to understand why other people can’t understand that they don’t understand their dietary choices.

Live and let live . Why worry about what other people are doing unless it impacts on your life in some way? Calling a soy product a Vegetarian Chicken Burger is highly unlikely to make a material difference to anyone.

Even the chicken who wasn’t killed to produce it won’t care what the Marketing team decide to call it - he’ll just be glad he’s not on the (compulsory) list of ingredients that anyone thinking of buying it can check before deciding for themselves whether to eat it.

Ali08

Germanshepherdsmum

I would think that someone would have to be pretty stupid not to understand that ‘vegetarian chicken pieces’ aren’t made from meat.

So why call it vegetarian chicken?
Just call it what it is, whatever IT actually IS!! lol

Yes, ali08. Just so.

I recently came across a recipe for a mixture of mushrooms and ground almonds that I thought I'd try because I had some ground almonds that needed using up. I added it to some minced beef (or ground beef as Americans call it) that I was making up to have with mash or spaghetti or whatever, which made the meat go further.

The name the recipe gave it was "vegetarian ground beef". In its immediately made state it did bear a passing resemblance to mince but the water content of the mushrooms and its general greyness (no blood!) soon gave it away.

Why not just call it a mushroom and ground almond meat substitute? I had to look up what it was made of in any case, as I would with anything that's called a vegetarian version of meat, not least because I don't want to eat unfermented soy.

MissAdventure

Richmond veggie sausages are very nice.
It means I can cook a dinner for both of us easily, too.

On a taste test with Matt Tebbit, new series, which is very good, they won hands down. Keep meaning to give them a try.

We still eat fish, but very little meat these days, and what we do eat at home is local/free range. Other than that we cook with loads of veg and pulses, but have also tried quorn, tempeh, tofu. And we do like some of the ready made quorn products for a quick meal.

Apart from hoping that the move to a more plant based diet continues, I couldn’t get worked up about how others go about it. It’s none of my business what they choose to eat.

It’s none of my business what they choose to eat.

I agree. But it is our business what foods are called, which is what this thread is really about, not people's food choices.

I’m not sure that it’s even an issue. Why would anyone be outraged that a vegetarian product that tastes like chicken is called vegetarian chicken? Does it even make a difference to our lives?

So Quorn have Quorn Vegetarian Chicken Style Pieces. Is this horrifying too? Or is the addition of the word Style enough?