In discussions about vegetarian food you regularly run into vegetarian fundamentalists. ‘I don’t understand people who eat meat substitutes. Why would you want the taste and texture of meat? You just have to start thinking about your food completely differently, not always based on that meat.’ An unnecessary, puritanical attitude; there are several vegetarian flavors and we are going to need them all.
For those who missed it, last week the UN climate panel IPCC – again – put out a rather disturbing report. Even if we want to limit warming to a rather undesirable 2 degrees, significant steps have to be taken. One of the possible measures is to limit meat consumption. But that has to happen quickly. Meat substitutes can help with this.
Humans are creatures of habit. Demanding a major change from users or consumers can be a barrier to the adoption of innovations. Reason why people prefer not to switch from Android phone to iPhone and vice versa. That takes effort. And switching from an omnivore to a vegetarian diet means two changes: in taste and in cooking routine.
And that is where meat substitutes can play a role. I recently ate a delicious seaweed burger in a restaurant. Much the same user and taste experience as a meat burger. We also eat more and more vegetarian food at home. Partly new recipes, but also just potatoes-vegetables-vega schnitzel. And in the latter case, not only the basic recipe structure to which you are used is maintained, but also your cooking routine. You don’t have to look up or learn a new recipe, you can easily adapt an existing recipe and still eat vegetarian.
You might think it’s crazy that some people want imitation-death-animal on their plates. But addressing wannabe or beginner vegans with ‘You’re doing that vegetarian thing all wrong!’, that is not motivating. Or even worse: ‘Why vegetarian? No, you should go vegan right away!’ The greater the change that is required of people in their daily lives, the smaller the chance that the change will succeed what really matters: reducing meat consumption.
Because that is the goal: to eat less (animal) meat together. Because that is better for the climate and for animal welfare. Some will enjoy trying out new recipes, others will opt for a soy burger or cultured meat. Or for a mix. If you really want to focus on something, then study Life Cycle Assessments that calculate the sustainability impact of the various vegetarian alternatives. That matters more in the current context than whether something you think is the ‘right’ way to eat vegetarian food.
Enough big changes will be required of us, let’s not make things unnecessarily difficult. The point is that we are going to eat vegetarian (and vegan), what will be worst for me.
Jasper van Kuijk on Twitter: @jaspervankuijk