I have heard of one that claims a nutritional similarity to meat, but also heard that that only applies to the protein, not the minerals and other nutrients. I haven't had the interest to pursue it farther, and hope you'll find good answers so I don't have to. I get frustrated with people who call whole plant items ”protein”. They don't compare with muscle. They're just twice as much protein as other vegetables. Things like nuts and legumes. OTOH, I've had very good saitan and Thai TVP which felt like eating animal protein in terms of how I felt afterwards. Flavorwise, as well as textureally, they also hit the mark. Not a masqueade for meat, but the firmness and chew, and contribution to the dishes they were in. Before I try extruded, lab made food, it had better live up at least to these traditional products. I'd be much more sanguine about the Star Trekian made from atomic parts stuff. In the SciFi realm, I'm reminded of the many offspring of a seminal Heinlein, where the hoi polloi are given factory burped up food (mostly not people) as subsistence rations, which all can have on demand, but workers/producers who have money buy real food as we know it.

I'm looking forward to what you find out.

I think it boils down to whether or not you want to eat highly industrialised food. From what nutritionists say here, all industrial food is to be avoided. I'd rather eat a piece of pork of chicken with some veggies than your franken-fish, puffed cereals or coffee from a vending machine. What is your impossible beef actually made of and what processes are involved? Just eat the beef!!!

https://www.allinahealth.org/healthysetgo/nourish/is-the-impossible-burger-healthy#:~:text=The%20Impossible%20Burger%20is%20made,taste%20of%20meat%20is%20heme.

Having read the article, I'm even more convinced that it's awful stuff LOL. We eat a lot less meat and fish than we used to, partly for health reasons and partly for cost. We also love our veg. I want to eat local, natural foods.

I'm for real meat too, but I want real meat (and eggs) raised sustainably and on pasture. I'm able to buy meat like that here. It's quite expensive, as it should be, so I eat much less meat but what I do tastes great and is from animals who have lived good lives and have been slaughtered in small facilities. Animals on pasture also are healthier for the consumer. Just one example: ruminants on pasture have high amounts of CLA (conjugated linoleic acid) which helps maintain lean body mass in the consumer but which disappears quite fast when the animals are fed grain.

Though I don't need to buy from them, I have sort of followed a large farm in Georgia that transitioned some years ago to sustainable animal practices and produces a wide range of meat and poultry. Here's the website. Worth spending some time there if you're interested in quality meat production and how it improves the environment

I am vegetarian, although a slightly liberal one. I don’t really enjoy meat but if I were your guest I might taste a meat dish that you made because you are a good cook.

I don’t wish for center of the plate animal protein substitutes but I have thought about trying a sausage substitute because of the complex flavor meat adds to a dish like cassoulet. I am happy to eat just beans and veggies but would like to amplify flavors, especially in winter.

Yeah, if you’re going to replace foods for ethical reasons then why try to recreate them? Kinda like faux furs or dressing your girlfriend in a school girl outfit: technically ok but still kinda creepy. 😉 I like something shaped as a burger that tastes good for what it is, not because it’s pretending to be beef.. That said, two experiences come to mind.:

The first is Beyond Burgers, which I purchased for the sake of a vegetarian at a bbq. I had one after the fact and tossed the rest of the box. Aside from being quite salty, the taste and texture were just wrong, to me. And the nutrition label didn’t justify the sacrifice IMO. Stressing IMO as they've obvioisly got a good market.

The second is watermelon tuna. My sister got me on a kick a couple years ago. At first I liked it but as I experimented with different recipes, times and temps, I got increasingly sick of it. I would consider revisiting this.

The only ”fake” I buy is cheese and milk that are dairy free. That is for my grandson, who is highly allergic to dairy and nuts. If he is eating with us, I cook dairy and nut free.

I would not buy the fake meat and fish. If I need to cut back, I would rather have 3 ounces of real than a pound of fake.

I can’t call myself a vegetarian by philosophy or practice. I eat meat but not a lot. I don’t love handling it. I also know a lot of junk food loving vegetarians. In high school I lived in a cooperative household of earnest healthfood nuts who had a freezer full of HagenDaz.

I have a hard time with carob masquerading as chocolate or TVP as beef or tuna. I do enjoy foods like tofu or beans that are high in protein and have longstanding traditions and recipes. I also think all kind of things can go on a successful sandwich. A local restaurant (and grain mill) has developed a really good black bean burger.

As far a Star Trek and other visions of the future there seemed to be lots of sex and minimal other forms of hedonism. Be it the art or the food. This seems like a good mid-winter rabbit-hole to go down for reading or viewing.

I agree that eating a real live - well, not a-live any more - lamb is far preferable to ersatz plant-based “lamb”. As well, that eating less real lamb is preferable to eating more “lamb”, although the relationship must break down at some point - is having 1 oz of lamb still better than 8 oz of ”lamb”? Suppose the “lamb” was really good and really convincing?

What if you were in space, or colonizing Mars, and the choice is zero oz of lamb versus 8 oz of ”lamb” - forever?

Or, for me, if you have sworn off ahi tuna forever or until it is not endangered, but love the stuff.

You never know, maybe the food industry will come up with something good. Anyway it is interesting to see what’s out there.

Watermelon tuna, hmm? I will try this!

John - Could you give a high level of the environmental concerns with ahi? Assuming you mean yellowfin, seafood watch lists it as a good choice.

But I not in space and not likely to be , lol. I still say real not fake.

The farthest I've gone is to eat that imitation "crabmeat" that's made from pollock. :)

John, is there a factory on the space ship? How much power does it take to run the "meat" factory? They carried live animals along with the preserved meats on the ships going across the great oceans during the era of European world discovery, and I assume the Vikings and Chinese did the same, though I don't know for sure. But those were voyages with potential landfalls, and their share of starvation. And they could potentially fish wherever they were.

Going to space is so weird. There's no island in a distance with potential fresh water, birds and maybe even animals to hunt, and certainly no fish over the side. I suppose there's a lot more opportunity to have exterior accessory storage attached when the main vessel is extra planetary. So...given a truly functional hydro system that without fail reclaims and purifies pathogen free water, while fortifying it with the essential minerals, etc. needed for survival, does it matter what one eats? The keeping the water healthy and flowing is such a big accomplishment. I can't imagine the issues with live animals beyond the crew, who earn their keep, rather than wafting around using resources while waiting to be eaten, and what would be ideal. But if you had a big enough external pod to have a proper farm where the manure becomes fertilizer and the urine is captured and used as well, like the traditional dairies in Switzerland (IIRC?), maybe it would work...

Because animal or plant based, once you're going past earth's neighborhood, food storage and potentially production becomes a huge consideration.... And does the effect of being in space for extended periods, without supply missions like the space station gets, totally change the nutritional requirements? Is this an MRE type situation where the meals should be engineered to be edible but not attractive enough to eat if it's not mealtime? And making sure the optimal nutrition with available resources and storage abilities is way ahead of enjoyment. You'll have to provide me with reality rather than fiction based parameters before I can truly answer your question. For fictions, the 24th C Star Trek replicators sound best.

We used to buy and consume a lot of those highly processed substitutes, and I tried my hand at making my own too, but that was many years ago now. I've gotten away from all that manufactured ersatz subbing, and now just stick with organic natural foods. We consume full fat dairy, meats and eggs, and lots of fruits and veggies as well.

I haven't even bought tofu in years.

FOAS, we're avoiding only bluefin tuna. Sorry, I misspoke when I called it "ahi". Pacific bluefin is "near threatened", Atlantic bluefin has improved from "endangered" to "least concern", and Southern bluefin was "critically endangered" and is now "endangered". I don't know any reason to be concerned about yellowfin (ahi) or the local tuna we get here, albacore.

Thanks. If I’m not mistaken ahi can refer to either, I just assumed yellowfin because that’s what I see. And sometimes catch. Thanks for doing your part!

plllog, do you remember the movie “Silent Running”? I thought it was so sad, but also found the idea of growing plants in space fascinating. We seem to know only a little about how to actually do it it, from some small and rather preliminary experiments on the International Space Station. https://www.nasa.gov/exploration-research-and-technology/growing-plants-in-space/

Once we get to another planet . . . in “The Martian“, Watney grows potatoes in Martian soil using human poop as fertilizer. This seems possible, but it’d be a big bummer to get there and then realize it doesn’t work. https://modernfarmer.com/2015/10/can-you-grow-plants-on-mars/

For all the enthusiasm about colonizing Mars from certain billionaires, we seem utterly un-ready to even think about an attempt. I also don’t see the point, at this time. If temperatures rise 3-4C on Earth AND we have a global nuclear war that wipes out our cities, Earth will STILL be more habitable than Mars.

But I digress. Basically, making ersatz animal proteins just seem like a big challenge, and if there are any good ones, I think it would be interesting to try them.

Eventually, long after I’m gone and likely my kids too, humans will have to figure out what to eat in space and on other planets. It seems that most of it will be plant-based or synthetically vat-grown, even if the ship is able to carry a few pigs, fish tanks, and laying chickens.

I hear you. AFIK, the space ship farm needs to be big, to work, but in theory, once one can figure out how to build it, the propulsion isn't that big a deal once it's put into motion. So, then, what you need is a great big terrarium, and the discipline to keep it in balance while sowing and reaping.

Replicators are way more fictional but seem so much easier and space efficient, though they require what to us would be unlimited energy. But, so too does FTL make things so much easier, but other than a few inklings about quarks which, to the best of my knowledge, have been disproven, FTL is just not a thing, and there are no alien tech jump gates, tesseracts, subspace, or any other folderol, and even if a wormhole were traversable, matter would be squished. A lot.

So, realistically, we're talking about Mars. Possible. With current space food. But they'd need an awful lot. The Martian's potatoes weren't enough for sustenance as shown in the movie. Self replicating food and stored food both are very risky and they'd probably need both as a fail safe. So do we build a space farm in orbit to get going? Launch a whole bunch of rockets with years' worth of food?

There was a woman on Shark Tank recently who was making a better fish dinner in an add water pouch for hikers. Making palatable real food just for use here on Earth by people carrying all their food for short periods is a big enough adventure. A lot of what hikers eat is more functional than delicious, but delicious would be a nice thing. Given the ability to make this with real fish, I'm not sure that extruded wannabes are useful except for the same political/ethical reasons that occur to those with urban feet on the ground.

So, having gotten here: Nah. Give me the sustainably produced real food, on a plate, or freeze dried in the pouch.

I've probably had all the alteratives available. Not at home or purchased, but at work. The group of chefs that keep us fed have all the dietary needs to please...gluten-free, celeac, dairy free, vegan....vegetarian is easy. Some of the vegetarians are overweight and are happy with pizza, fries, cookies, bags of chips, (i said some, not all).

Our dozen-20 close friends are plant based forward organic like us. Secondary friends are a few vegetarian and i have no issue spoiling them with so many salads and sides and 'meaty' things like falafel and fresh spring rolls, veg sushi, jack fruit CARNITAS(link) for taco night.

So many of the replacements are full of not so great ingredients. I'm fine that they exist for those wanting such things, but not for me/us. We prefer whole food alternatives.

Had to look up what is going on with the FDA approved lab grown meat.

This was a recent e-mail that would be funny 10 years ago and i did chuckle. Even now. A product from WebstaurantStore. The product name is a bit rediculous....'ISH', lol.

I've met friends in NYC vegan Restaurants for 5+ years but order whole food options, not replacements. Vegan is not always about processed replacements.

This was a recent e-mail from WebstaurantStore, ...10 years ago it might be a joke but the 'ISH' is a bit funny.

John, our wonderful fish market is now selling organic farm raised salmon (King) from Canada. I tried a piece and it was wonderful. You may not have to give up salmon. https://creativesalmon.com/

Check out their page to read how they are doing things differently than traditional fish farms.

Salmons a funny thing isn’t it! Back in the eighties when I lived in England, Atlantic Salmon was still rare enough to be served only in really good restaurants and when I first tasted it I was in heaven.

Forward to now with farmed salmon sold in every supermarket , quite cheaply, and I don’t want to eat it anymore or at least give it a rest for several months. Really is first world ridiculousness.