The Fake Meat Fallacy
Yes, there is virtue in plant-based “meat” products - but it depends where you get them
The year was 2019. Surgical masks were for surgeons, corona was a type of beer, and quarantine was merely the name of a trashy (yet highly watchable) horror movie on Netflix: it was a simpler time. It was also the year that sandwich behemoth Greggs unveiled their vegan ‘sausage’ roll to the delight of non-meat eaters everywhere (and a truly inexplicable fanfare of outrage and calls to boycott the company from froth-mouthed ardent carnivores up and down the country).
It was a shrewd move by Greggs, resulting in a sales boom which allowed the company to share a £7m bonus with its staff. It also made perfect sense for their brand: Greggs is a staple on the British Lunch High Street: cheaper than Pret, less pretentious than M&S, less daunting than weaving your way through the aisles of a supermarket for a Meal Deal. Their no-fuss, affordable approach to lunch on the go - as well as their glowing reputation for looking after their employees & suppliers, amongst a slew of other good deeds - makes them a very inclusive brand, so it was perfectly inline with their ethos to expand their offering to include vegetarian and vegan takes on their classic snacks.
In the last five years, the amount of vegans in the UK has quadrupled, and concern for animal welfare and the environment have proved to be two of the major factors for people considering adopting a vegetarian or vegan diet. That was certainly what was on my mind when I decided to give up meat at the beginning of this year. With impending climate doom on the horizon, I’m doing everything I can to reduce my carbon footprint: I cycle everywhere, I only buy second-hand clothes, I’ve bought a reusable water bottle, switched to bar soap & traded supermarket shopping for smaller, local grocery stores where all my purchases are transported home in paper bags - so it seemed only reasonable that I quite literally put my money where my mouth is and cut meat from my diet. The adjustment period that I had anticipated was non-existent; I spent a lot more time worrying that I was going to miss meat than I spent actually missing it.
It has to be said, that is largely due to the sheer variety and amount of meat-substitute products now available. I could still eat basically everything I wanted, and half the time you could’ve told me to close my eyes and I wouldn’t have even noticed the difference (shout-out to Quorn nuggets). I embraced what I dubbed my ‘Fake Meat Odyssey’, challenging myself to try all the meat alternatives I could find. It became a weekly challenge to hunt out new products on the shelves, each one a new discovery. I was like a plant-based Indiana Jones, searching for hidden treasures.
So you can imagine the tingling in my taste buds when Burger King’s Rebel Whopper dropped. This was surely going to fill not only my big fat mouth but a gap in the market that I’d identified in my field research thus far: that while there were myriad options for recreating meat-free meals at home, junk food eateries were to be avoided because they couldn’t cater sufficiently to my new dietary preferences. NO MORE. I’ll admit, I was suckered in. It was delicious. It tasted so much like real beef that I almost went back to ask if they’d made a mistake with my order. Suffice to say: I was impressed.
However my moment of euphoria was short-lived, as I discovered not long afterwards that viral meme denouncing pretty much all the fast food Big Guns for donating to Trump’s reelection campaign. The truth turned out to be much more complicated than the meme implied (it’s almost like I shouldn’t expect factual accuracy from internet memes…?) but nevertheless it got me thinking: when is a Good Thing not a Good Thing? Like when we all discovered that our reusable cotton totes are potentially more damaging to the environment than their plastic counterparts. Due to the energy and water used in the production of cotton - particularly organic cotton - they need to be used hundreds of times before they’ve offset their own carbon footprint. Bummer, isn’t it.
So the question on my mind was, is there any point trying to be Good if you’re still going to be giving money to a company that’s ostensibly Bad? In a word: no. Given the literal atrocities committed by fast food chains - from the deforestation of the Amazon, to single-use plastic and water waste - once you step through the doors you’ve got to take off your eco-activist hat. If McDonald’s or Burger King were able - or even willing to try - to convert their meat-eating customers, that would be another matter. But they’re not. They’re simply trying to convert their non-customers into customers, just like always. Will your choice, as a vegetarian or vegan, to go in & buy a Rebel Whopper or some Veggie Dippers make even the tiniest dent in the damage caused to our planet by these companies? No, it won’t. It’ll only make them richer. So I for one will be bowing out of this particular race. While the burger itself might be tasty, the shady goings-on of the company responsible leaves a decidedly sour taste.
That’s not to say all meat-free burgers have to come with a side of guilt: as with so many things, it’s not necessarily what is being produced, but how. Companies like Holy Cow serve up veggie options alongside traditional meat offerings, the difference being that their meat is free range and locally sourced, cutting way back on poor animal treatment and their environmental impact. And I think that’s the salient point: in this age of mixed messages, it is vital to research what you’re buying and who you’re buying it from. Don’t allow yourself to be duped by corporations who appear to be on your side when in reality they’re stuffing a veggie burger into your face with one hand and literally destroying the rainforest with the other. It’s not soy masquerading as meat, it’s hypocrisy covered in melty cheese. After all, even Hitler was a vegetarian - but that’s not what we remember him for, is it?
Written by Ruth Stewart
Ruth Stewart - otherwise known by her art moniker Ruth Draws Things - is a freelance creative from Bristol specialising in illustration, printmaking & creative writing. Ruth knows that illustration & written storytelling go hand in hand & has always dreamt of writing & illustrating her own books & graphic novels. She believes in engaging in social issues through her work - but also in art for escapism, so her writing & art work is always injected with a little signature whimsy and humour. Like many creative types, Ruth also has a part-time hustle in hospitality (one large latte, coming up) but hopes one day - in the hopefully not-too-distant future - to be drawing, making & writing full time.