Cows belch methane. They are a bigger environmental problem than pigs or chicken for that reason.
Personally I’m trying to eat less beef. When the meatless meat came along, I rushed to try as many of those products as possible. There are two main companies out of the USA, so far.
So far I’m not buying their products in preference to meat. The meatless meats I’ve tried are equally good or worse, are more expensive, and are not much more healthy.
I’ll keep trying. Both companies are still changing their products to better compete. Both are now very well funded. I’d love to switch to plant-based alternatives if it was worth it for me.
If you want to know more, the best source I’ve found is the Freakonomics podcast:
The Future of Meat (Ep. 367)
Global demand for beef, chicken, and pork continues to rise. So do concerns about environmental and other costs …
The average American consumes roughly 200 pounds of meat a year. …
The meat industry is massive and complicated — and often heavily subsidized. …
The agricultural historian James McWilliams, in a book called Just Food, argues that “every environmental problem related to contemporary agriculture … ends up having its deepest roots in meat production: monocropping, excessive applications of nitrogen fertilizer, addiction to insecticides, rain-forest depletion, land degradation, topsoil runoff, declining water supplies, even global warming — all these problems would be considerably less severe” if people ate meat “rarely, if ever.” …
The United States Cattlemen’s Association welcomes the competition. More food choices are good for consumers. But they want to be sure that labeling is accurate; that “beef” or “meat” means the product came from a walking, belching cow.
They note that Almond milk is not milk. It should be called Almond beverage.
Rick McCharles 