[jfengel]

If you ask a bunch of meat eaters how they feel about animal cruelty, they'll get uncomfortable. Many will admit that they would like to avoid it but don't think it's practical. Look in particular at the kind who seek out organic, free range, and other (honestly, not very effective) ways to reduce suffering.

I suspect the market research turned up a large contingent of such. Perhaps not sufficient to justify a whole separate product line, but enough to hope that economies of scale would reduce price and create a virtuous cycle.

So I'm sure it seemed worth a shot. I'm sorry but not surprised that it didn't work.

[0cf8612b2e1e]

Count me as a conflicted meat eater. It is terrible, but…delicious. I would be willing to switch to Impossible Foods (much better than Beyond Meat) for most of my hamburger consumption. Yet the price is such a premium that it is hard to justify. Yes, there are scaling problems, meat subsidies, etc which are hard challenges to overcome, but not surprising to me that most consumers are unwilling to switch to a novel product that is more expensive.

[Digit-Al]

I'm a meat eater, but don't eat much red meat as I have mild arthritis and too much red meat causes me to get flare ups. I tried one of those burgers a few years ago (can't remember if it was Beyond or Impossible now) and didn't like it. The taste and texture had a bit of an uncanny valley vibe as they were sort of almost there, but not quite the same. The taste was a bit odd and then I was left with a pea protein after-taste for hours, which was not pleasant at all.

[chickensong]

> honestly, not very effective

Care to elaborate?

[jfengel]

Unfortunately, the legal definitions are the result of regulatory capture. Commercial organic farming has effectively nothing in common with JI Rodale's use when he coined it. (Well, popularized it.)

If you want to know how the animals are treated you need to visit the farm. Which you cannot do for commercial organic farms.

If you can, you could satisfy yourself that the animals are being treated in accordance with your conscience. Unfortunately it will cost at least twice as much. (And, aggravatingly, possibly emits more greenhouse gases.)