Meat producers become emotional at the very mention of substitute meat, however will it be as big a problem to their livelihoods as imagined?
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It is understandable that the red meat industry does not want the name of meat bastardised.
Go back to the introduction of margarine to Australia in the 1930s. Even though it was labelled margarine, it was sold on price and "spreadability."
By the 1890s, vegetable oils (cottonseed, sesame and peanut) were increasingly being used along with animal fats in margarine manufacture.
In the early 1900s, experiments with hydrogenation of coconut oil led to fresh fears that cheap oils would damage the butter industry.
Legislation was introduced in many Australian states to ensure that margarine could not be sold as butter.
The 1893 Margarine Act of Victoria prevented colouring being added, while in 1936 a new law required margarine be saffron colour.
Quotas were also introduced in the 1930s limiting the amount of margarine that could be produced.
Ahead to the present day, and butter is now not threatened by the sales of other spreads. In fact, sales of butter are on the increase due to consumer demand for "natural products".
In the case of fake meat, it is hard to mount an argument against products that are derived from plants.
Fake meat is not new. The Netherlands-based Vivera company has been producing vegetarian meat substitute burgers, sausages and other meat-free products for 30 years.
It supplies more than 50 lines to about 27,000 supermarkets across 25 European countries, with a particularly strong market footprint in Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.
Of interest is that Vivera has been bought by the Brazilian-based JBS that has a large presence in Australian meat processing.
As you chomp into fake meat, be aware that a new food tech company is proposing to grow meat from human cells derived from umbilical cords.
Israeli company MeaTech has received $US28 million in start-up funding after listing on stock exchanges in Israel and the US.
The company says it is the first 3D-printed cultured meat technology company to be publicly traded.
MeaTech is controversially developing a 3D bioprinter to deposit layers of differentiated stem cells, scaffolding and cell nutrients in the form of structured cultured meat.
The company is also developing a biotechnical process in which stem cells from living animals - such as cows and chickens - are harvested and cultivated in bioreactors, to be transformed into advanced products like steaks and other real meat products using proprietary 3D bioprinting technology.
The big recipe website Epicurious says it's no longer going to feature beef ... for environmental reasons.
Statements, articles and sponsors on this indicate that the vegan food companies and animal rights activists have managed to spread misinformation to sway the decision.