Cows are edible gadgets specifically designed to turn grass into human food.

When you eat them, you make their spirits happy, for they know they’ve fulfilled the purpose of their existence.

CNBC:

As consumers become increasingly comfortable eating faux-meat burgers that look, cook and taste like the real thing, a food-tech start-up backed by Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates is using fungus as the primary ingredient to create alt-meat foods.

Nature’s Fynd, based in Chicago, has raised $158 million in funding from investors including Bezos, Gates, and Al Gore. The company’s meatless breakfast patties and hamburgers, dairy-free cream cheese and yogurt, and chicken-less nuggets are scheduled to hit grocers’ shelves later this year.

Nature’s Fynd was co-founded in 2012 — initially as Sustainable Bioproducts — by Thomas Jonas and Mark Kozubal, now chief executive and chief science officers, respectively. A few years earlier, Kozubal had unearthed a microbe, Fusarium strain flavolapis, from volcanic hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. He led an R&D team that formulated the microbe into what the company calls Fy, the fermented, versatile, protein-rich source for Nature’s Fynd’s products.

Fermentation has been used in making bread, beer, wine, cheese and other products for millennia, and is now emerging as a key alt-protein platform with major potential to align science with entrepreneurship, policy and investment, according to the Good Food Institute. Even so, Nature’s Fynd has some catching up to do. U.K.-based Quorn, founded in 1985, has been offering its fungus-based meatless products in the U.S. since 2002. It was acquired by Philippine food maker Monde Nissin for about $830 million in 2015, according to Reuters. And the field of other potential competitors is growing.

Much as cows, chickens and pigs were domesticated centuries ago as protein sources, “now is the time for this second domestication,” Jonas said in a recent interview. “The farming of this microbe is an efficient way of producing protein that is just as good.”

Thomas Jonas

Beyond fungus, Nature’s Fynd also is representative of the food sustainability movement, whose mission is to reduce the carbon footprint of global food systems, which generate 34% of greenhouse emissions linked to climate change.

“The challenge for this and future generations is to learn to do more with less,” Jonas said. “Because with eight billion people, the Earth is not getting any bigger, its resources are dwindling and climate change is making it even more difficult to find land to grow crops to feed animals. The math just doesn’t work. So, the whole goal of our new protein system is to increase the efficiency of the complete protein chain.”

…

Chris Rivest, a senior climate-tech investor at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, established in 2016 by Gates and a coalition of private investors concerned about the impacts of climate change, said food is a commodity, with purchases based on taste, nutrition and cost.

He is a fan of the fungus, saying he was “blown away” by products he taste-tested (Gates was similarly impressed during a “60 Minutes” segment) and its nutritional value.

The company says the veg­an pro­tein includes all 20 amino acids, includ­ing the 9 essen­tial amino acids, and good lev­els of fiber, vit­a­mins and min­er­als, with no cho­les­terol or trans fats. It says Fy has one-tenth the fat of ground beef and 50% more pro­tein than tofu; twice as much pro­tein as raw peas.

Rivest also thinks the business can compete on cost. “We think the Nature’s Fynd model can undercut costs of traditional protein sources,” he said. “That’s what really sold us on this opportunity.”

If these people are concerned about the relationship between carbon emissions and farting cows, they should just plant more trees.

Trying to recreate from microbes what a cow already produces is an insult to cows.

Feeding humanity is their noble task.

We should celebrate cows and their eternal struggle to feed us.

The entire weight of the world lies on their juicy, steaky backs.

Pictured: what vegans see moments before their deaths.

Fake meats taste so bad naturally and are so fake that they need ridiculously high amounts of salt in order to prevent people from spitting them out right after the first bite.

Daily Mail:

Popular meat-free burgers, sausages and bacon sold in British supermarkets can contain high amounts of salt, experts have warned.

Some products, including quarter pounders made by Quorn, have almost twice as much salt as a large portion of McDonald’s fries.

Besides tasting better than fake meat, if the fries are cooked in animal fat, chances are they’ll also be healthier.

An independent body has now called for more research into the dangers of eating the meat substitutes, which can also be high in fat and calories.

Marketing of meat alternatives as ‘clean’ or ‘green’ may cause consumers to overlook potential health risks, according to The Nuffield Council on Bioethics.

It urged consumers to avoid processed foods at all costs, and stick to fruits, veg, and canned pulses and beans if they want to go meat-free for ‘Veganuary’.

Using fake meat to promote veganism or to make it easier for people to go through a month of eating a vegan diet sends kind of a weird message. It’s a bit like promoting homosexuality using fake vaginas.

“Your body craves meat but you can trick it into believing you’re eating meat with these lab-made products. DO IT FOR BAMBI.”

“Die for me, human.”

But the lab-made products are nothing like the real thing, and the effects they have on people’s bodies are nothing like the effects the real thing has.

A Quorn Quarter Pounder and a Move Over Meat Meat Free Revolution Burger, from Waitrose & Partners, contain 1.8g of salt per patty.

In comparison, a large portion of McDonald’s fries, notorious for being salty, contains 1g of salt per portion.

Both plant-based burgers also have double the salt of a standard Tesco British Beef Quarter Pounder, which has 0.8g of salt per portion.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics, which advises policy makers on ethical issues in bioscience and medicine, made the warning in a briefing.

It admitted the meat-free products can contain more fibre and less cholesterol – but said they can be full of fat and calories.

Meat-free products are often full of the bad kind of fat — the kind that turns into a carcinogenic cocktail of free radicals and highly inflammatory fatty acids when cooked.

Animal fat doesn’t have that problem.

Talking about two products, one of which was the Beyond Burger, the body said they were ‘highly processed’.

It added that they ‘contain similar levels of calories and saturated fat as beef burgers, and have much higher levels of sodium and iron’.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics said: ‘Terms used by manufacturers to describe meat alternatives that promote their environmental and animal welfare benefits, such as “clean”, “green” and “slaughter-free”, might mean people overlook the health implications of these products.

‘However, there are questions around whether it is appropriate or fair to hold meat alternatives to higher standards of healthiness than conventional meat, given their potential positive environmental and animal welfare profiles, and how moral trade-offs of this kind could be addressed.’

Wait. What?

Only suicidal self-haters would put the environment and random animals over their own health.

If they want to look for a solution that is better for the environment and better for animal welfare, they must also look for one that’s better for people too.

This is one thing that vegans have a hard time understanding.

Looking like Gollum while trying to shame people into giving up the animal foods that everyone’s been eating since forever triggers people’s self-preservation and survival instincts.

Saying “yeah vegan meat and dairy alternatives might actually be unhealthy but it’s okay because animals are happy” is preposterous.

The body said evidence suggests people are not buying meat alternatives to entirely replace animal products, becoming ‘flexitarian’ rather than completely meat-free.

While many consumers think they are making a positive change, it’s likely they are just increasing their overall processed food consumption.

These “meat alternatives” are malicious processed junk intended to trick people into believing that by eating them they are doing something good for the planet while in reality they’re just giving away their life energy to sustain Greta Thunberg’s current physical form.

But there’s more.

Daily Mail:

Trendy vegan yoghurts can contain more sugar than dairy ones – even if they are considered to be healthier.

Scientists analysed the sugar content of 893 yoghurts and dessert products sold in British supermarkets, 67 of which were vegan.

Dozens of yoghurts that contained milk were found to have less sugar than some of the worst offending dairy-free alternatives.

The study, which comes while many will be attempting ‘Veganuary’, revealed Coconut Collaborative Little Choc Pots contained 20 per cent sugar – 20g per 100g.

Asda’s Free From Chocolate Mousse is 16 per cent sugar, meaning a 90g pot contains almost four teaspoons of sugar in a small pot.

In comparison, natural Greek yoghurt contains as little as three per cent sugar in a 100g serving.

We know that modern dairy is harmful; it is filled with estrogen and it raises the risk of prostate cancer.

Now, knowing what we know about current year dairy and about the feminizing effects of things like soy, an interesting question to ask would be if dairy is still healthier — or perhaps less harmful — than vegan alternatives.

There’s practically zero research on these vegan lab-made “alternatives” to foods, so that question may remain unanswered for quite some time.

Because vegan products don’t contain milk, which has naturally occurring sugars, manufacturers often have to flavour their yoghurts with syrups and fruit purees.

The market for dairy alternatives has boomed in recent years and doubled since 2016, the study by the University of Leeds found.

But consumers should be wary that plant-based products may still be high in ‘free sugars’ – which are not naturally occurring and are added for flavour – even if marketing ploys give them a ‘health halo’.

Dr Bernadette Moore, first author of the study, said: ‘Movements such as Veganuary may encourage people to reconsider their eating habits.

‘But it’s important people are aware that dairy alternatives may be an unrecognised source of added sugar to their diet.

‘Because dairy alternatives do not have lactose, which is a naturally-occurring sugar, the total sugar content comes entirely from added sweeteners. Generally added sugars are considered to be worse for teeth and health.

‘Given the wide range of sugar levels across these products, people making a switch to a vegan-friendly yogurt should scrutinise product ingredients carefully.’

Many people may be duped into thinking the growing number of fashionable vegan products are healthier for them.

Making people believe they’re eating something good for them, for the planet, and for the animals while giving them plant-based junk that’s unhealthier for them than the real deal is quite an evil act.

It gets more evil once you consider that parents may be harming their kids while thinking they’re doing something good for them.

Researchers surveyed products by searching the websites of Tesco, Asda, Waitrose, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. Those which came up when the word ‘yoghurt’ was searched for were analysed, which included desserts, fromage frais and yoghurt drinks.

…

Mhairi Brown, policy coordinator for Action on Sugar, which is based at Queen Mary University of London, commented on the findings.

She said: ‘Consumers choosing dairy alternative yogurts for both environmental and health reasons could be shocked to learn that their “health halo” is hiding excessive levels of sugar.

‘Food manufacturers can take greater steps too by being transparent and displaying clear nutrition information on the front of product packaging.’

…

She said: ‘Recent research has shown a common lack of awareness about how much sugar is in our food.

‘Simply put, lowering sugar intake is the best way to prevent obesity and protect our teeth – particularly for small children.’