People are vegetarian for a host of reasons: ethical, religious, health and so on. And then there are vegans: people who don’t eat meat or dairy products and also do not use products sourced from animals such as honey and leather. The vegan lifestyle has gained a lot of momentum, leading to the innovation of meat substitutes and so-call vegan meat. So what is vegan meat and can it really replace meat?
Meat-eating is the default position in most parts of the world. So it is safe to say that an overwhelming majority of humans are brought up as meat-eaters. When later in life some meat-eaters choose to become vegan, this would be a significant and often difficult dietary shift. When a person's system is used to a certain type of intake, it could well continue to crave milk products and meat.
Meat substitutes aren't a new concept. Soy in various different forms: chunks, granules and so on, have been around for a while, even in India. Cooked in some ways, they can be made to resemble meat, kheema and so on. In recent times we have seen a lot of R&D into more sophisticated meat substitutes. Lactose intolerance is also a significant factor in why we now see products like soy and almond milk & vegan cheese as well as meat substitutes.
Products such as the image are now available – so-called plant-based meat, or mock meat, or veg meat. This claims to have the appearance and texture of mutton but is made from soy, wheat and pea etc. It can be used to cook tikkas, curries, kebabs and so on, says the product page. This brand has a range of cleverly named products such as ‘UnMutton Kheema Kit’, ‘Vegicken curry’, ‘Eggless Bhurji' and so on. So these are solutions for people who like to but don’t want to eat meat for religious, ethical or health reasons.
Lab grown or cultured meat doesn’t require a creature to be killed for its meat. It ‘grows’ meat using in vitro cell cultures of animal cells. It is called “cellular agriculture” that uses tissue engineering techniques to meet the demand for non-animal protein. These techniques have been used in regenerative medicine and are now extended to create edible tissue in lab settings.
Another option is something called ‘air protein’ or ‘vegan meat’ that is made from air. It claims to create meat without impacting the environment, causing pollution or treating animals with cruelty and violence. The idea was born in the 1970s when they were thinking about creating protein out of the elements present in air. It claims to be the future of meat.
In India, religious considerations are the main reason why people are vegetarian. Most vegetarians will still consume milk and milk products. Caste divisions and notions of ‘purity’ are another reason so many Indians are ‘pure’ veg. In India, veganism is largely a phenomenon observed in some of the more affluent and educated segments of society. After all almond milk is something that a very tiny minority of Indians can afford.
However, in the West, there are other factors at play. Many turn vegan for health reasons. There are ethical reasons for people turning vegan – such as the desire to embrace a nonviolent and cruelty-free lifestyle that eschews the industrial breeding of and violence to other sentient beings. There are also environmental reasons why people choose to go vegan. The meat and dairy industry and industrial farming practices, in general, are seen to be destructive to the environment; another reason veganism has caught on in such a big way.
As a meat-eater myself, the ethical considerations of meat-eating do concern me. However, my taste buds and the Parsi cuisine that I was brought up with make it difficult for me to contemplate a meatless existence. And as of now, they don't seem to have figured out how to scale up the production of lab meat.
If and when they are able to create a substitute that rivals my akoori (the Parsi version of egg bhurji) or salli-boti (sweet and sour mutton with crisp fried potato sticks) I may consider it. Until they can grow tissue in the lab that adequately mimics my patra ni machchi (steamed chutney fish in banana leaf), I – and others like me – are unlikely to be swayed by any fancy claims of air protein and plant-based meat.
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