There is a quote that says “the best education you’ll get is traveling.” Based on my recent travels across the pond to Europe, I would have to wholeheartedly agree. It was there on that continent, in the country of England, and in of all places on restaurant menu after restaurant menu, that I learned that the two letter acronym that I’d known my whole life to mean peanut butter — no longer means peanut butter at all. PB now stands alone without the J. The two letters that were eternally tied to JIF, Skippy and Peter Pan have now arrived in the never, never land that we now live. And in this new world of environmental consciousness and “wokeness” PB simply means “plant-based”.
First of all how boring, and slightly insulting, to know that peanut butter — the true original icon of plant-based protein — now has to share its PB acronym with the likes of tofu, fake cheeseburgers and almond milk. Putting such sarcasm aside, this is no laughing matter as the future of plant-based foods will undoubtedly determine the future look of agriculture on this planet.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no beef at all with people having the choice of a Beyond Meat burger or an Impossible meatball. In fact, in full disclosure, on my flight to London I had the choice for dinner of some suspect chicken dish or a plant-based meatballs meal made by Impossible Foods. I felt the safest bet was the fake meatballs. Pretty sure I made the right choice. Truthfully, it wasn’t bad, but given the choice I’d choose the real deal any day.
The real elephant in the room when it comes to plant-based foods is not the ingredients or the sometimes over-the-top health claims. No, it is the agenda that comes along with it. And that agenda is to promote a world where there is no choice. Animal-based agriculture has no place in this new PB world — all because cows, pigs, chickens, and all those cuddly woolly sheep are deemed much worse for the planet environmentally than an innocent chickpea plant. That’s the focus group message in a nutshell.
If saving the planet were only that simple. Despite the media hoopla, high-profile deals, and positive public karma that initially surrounded plant-based food companies like Beyond Meat and Oatly their public stock price has imploded. Not just down 20 to 30%, these two companies are down 90 to 95% from their all-time highs. Now, many of these company’s original pub-lic cheerleaders asking whether they are even worth saving.
Could it be that these new foods imitating their traditional staples — meat and milk — are suffering the same Back to the Future reality we saw happen with butter and eggs? Consumers and Julia Child always knew “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” never tasted like real butter. But we bought it because we were told butter was bad. Ironically, nutritionists eventually conceded it wasn’t as bad as originally thought. Are we really far enough along in this plant-based dietetic journey to know the long-term risks and benefits of such alternatives? Think about it. Beyond Meat has 18 different ingredients. Some of them you cannot pronounce, let alone spell. I leave you with the word methylcellulose to ponder on.
Savvy consumers also seem to be wising up to the reality that being a plant-based alternative doesn’t automatically make it the hands-down healthier choice. The latest Beyond Burger touts that it has 35% less total fat than a beef burger and overall less cholesterol. But the rest of the story is that it has that laundry list of processed ingredients to help it achieve its simulated mouthfeel, and it contains a whopping five times the amount of sodium. Let’s just put it this way — it isn’t exactly a salad equivalent.
Okay forget taste, forget the health benefits, its the environmental benefits that plant-based alternatives stand on — right? Hold your horses, it’s much more complicated than advertised. Yes, in most cases, plant-based foods generate less greenhouse gases (GHG’s) than their animal-based counterpart. Almond milk makes the bold claim that it produces 78% less GHG’s than regular milk. Never mind that it uses 20 times more water than dairy. Then go on to ignore that 80 percent of the world’s almonds are grown in California, a state in such an extreme water crisis that only New Mexico outranks it in terms of direness.
If you want to throw some shade back across the pond you have to give those in the United Kingdom some grief regarding asparagus. Turns out, asparagus in the UK has the highest carbon footprint as any other vegetable consumed in the country. The reason is mainly because most of it has to be flown in from Peru. So if you’re keen on being green — this is one green vegetable that should be taboo. That’s the problem. A healthy diet and healthy planet are sometimes at odds with each other.
If you’re thinking that the plant-based foodie movement may have had its moment in the sun, don’t for a minute think this is over. The overall public sentiment in Europe toward PB was seemingly much more promoted, accepted, and engrained than here in the U.S. Maybe, because politics and social trends no matter how misguided can still run roughshod over common sense. A perfect example of this is because of its vegan and environmental message, Oprah, Natalie Port-man and Jay-Z were part of a recent $200 million investment into Oatly. That’s a lot of star power and money behind a message whether you agree with it or not.
Be prepared for what could come next. If you can’t win market share by choice, then you have to wonder if the next step involves some serious regulatory arm-twisting. How long it will be until a European country or California bans certain animal-based products in grocery stores and restaurants? They are doing it for internal combustion cars, why would a methane producing cow be excluded? Will the USDA’s school lunch program be overhauled to exclude real meat and dairy? Then there is the issue of USDA’s quest to define commodities that are “climate-smart”. Will animal-based products start showing up on USDA’s blacklist?
All pointed questions that should keep us shaking in our boots. Common sense says animal agriculture has a place and a purpose in our lives and on this earth. Those closest to the land and the farm have known that for centuries. The question is are we up to the challenge and hard work to make sure it stays that way? We’d better be or the true meaning of PB & J will be lost forever.
