Vegan Pork Pies? Surely not....

Now that's just bollocks! Growler lovers of the world need to unite to stop the spread of this fuckin abhorration!....🐷👍😕

I guess its probably a good product but ive never really understood the principle of vegans wanting to eat artificial meat replacement. Ive tried a load of vegan 'meat' products and quite honestly they taste shit. If i intended going vegan i would not bother looking for a meat substitute.

As a pie it probably does the business, certainly looks good. Like you say, if vegans think meat is shit, why does most of the stuff they insist on eating have to look like a fuckin steak?.... Eat silage by all means, I've even started eating a semi veggie diet myself lately but I don't insist on it looking like meat! Hey ho, each to their own as they say....

Indeed I thought the veggie bacon was messed up, but this takes the biscuit

Quote from NomadicRT

I guess its probably a good product but ive never really understood the principle of vegans wanting to eat artificial meat replacement.

Quote from oldkeith

Yeah, it's a little odd, especially when giving up meat for ethical reasons, as you'd think the last thing you'd want is to be reminded of what flesh meat looks like!

Part of it is social conditioning -- most people who stop eating meat do so after many years, and so there's a comfort in enjoying the familiar, but knowing you're not contributing to anything unethical at the same time.

Most of the flavouring in meat dishes comes from the herbs and spices and cooking techniques, and most processed meat looks so far removed from an animal that it's more about convenience than it is about creating a substitute.

Like, nuggets, sausages and burgers are food shaped, not animal shaped.

It also sends a message that you don't need to stop enjoying old favourites, that there isn't any major sacrifice -- although I agree that some fakes are gross, but some are great and some are just their own unique thing and shouldn't really be compared to anything anyway.

Point taken Paul but of course the vegan campaign has become more mainstream now and the big food companies are jumping well and truly into the vegan money train!!

Just because people give up meat for whatever reason, doesn't mean they don't miss it. It can be about texture as well. My son makes a mean three bean chilli but it's not chilli without the texture of the meat. It's just beans with some chilli thrown in if that makes sense so he throws in some meat substitute. I love the flavour of bacon AND the smell of it cooking. It doesn't have to be the real thing. Why should I give up one of life's greatest pleasures, a bacon sarnie, if I don't have to. Or is the real point of veganism to show what martyrs people are and how we suffer to prevent animals from suffering. And yes, I've met the one's with the 'martyr' syndrome. And yes, I know it's not the majority. Intellectually we can rationalise not eating meat but we've been programmed over thousands of years and if it helps people to have some kind of substitute, then I don't see why other people are getting their knickers in such a twist over it. If you don't like it, don't eat it. You don't have to understand. You just have to accept it's someone else's journey, not yours.

Mmmm each to their own, when I ate vegetables the last thing I ever fancied was bacon that wasn't bacon, I craved for a proper dripping in fat bacon sarnie and after about a year I gave in ....

Quote from oldkeith

I've no objection to vegans calling their foods whatever they like, if they perhaps enjoy following the meaty trendy terms that manufacturers think up. But it doesn't make those terms grammatically correct.

I've always wondered who it was who decided to call a pig 'pork' or a cow 'beef' in the first place. My best guess is that it was done to create a bit of distance in the consumers head to help sell the product..

Quote from oldkeith

As an interesting insight into a possible third alternative, take a look at this.

But is it really vegan? It has meat cell origins, but apparently grown without cruelty in labs, so okay in that way, and even foreseen in 1960's science fiction.

I can't really stomach meat substitutes that taste too much like meat but ethically speaking i wouldn't have a problem. Just walking down the street i kill and probably swallow lots of insects so there's no point getting upset about a few cells

Quote from oldkeith

But is it really vegan? It has meat cell origins, but apparently grown without cruelty in labs, so okay in that way, and even foreseen in 1960's science fiction.

The Vegan Society definition of Veganism is:

"A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals."

It's actually 75 years since the founders invented the word "vegan", but in my mind that gives them the right to define the word and its correct meaning.

That means it wouldn't be vegan because, even though it's less cruel, it's still considered to be a form of exploitation -- I guess it all depends on whether cells could be obtained from plucking a random hair on a wild ox, or whether they need a farm full of permanent donor animals.

The whole idea of it seems a bit gross tbh.

The fact that vegan food is now mainstream is good news , never ate meat so can not do a compere with so called fake meat ,

but with me is great to have convenience food available, now I would not eat it all time , and a lot of it has no taste at all but , to be able to pull of the motorway drive in a services and either buy a ready made sandwich a vegan subway or pop into greggs and grab a sausage roll , coffee with soya milk and a vegan belgium bun is amazing , before if I was going somewhere on a run I always made a pack lunch for myself if not in a waggon ,

and Kieth you are a bit behind the times holland and barrett have been selling porkless pies for at least 10 years

I even saw a foot long vegan sausage roll yesterday in morrisons it looked fucking horrible but wow

And what about insects?, its said that they will become the next sustainable source of protein but would a vegan have an issue with eating a mealworm etc?

Quote from Boris the Bold

would a vegan have an issue with eating a mealworm etc?

Yes, because they're sentient, and while not as sentient as cows etc. they still have the basic rudiments of a central nervous system.

Thanks for clearing that up Paul