Food is so deep, culturally speaking. Many people have deep memories and positive associations with making meat dishes, and “forcing” plant based meats looks like the government intruding on that. It feels overbearing for a government to try and reduce eating of meat through any monetary means, even if it just means reducing / removing subsidies already in place.
It’s doubly worse because splitting meat eating through money means the rich can still afford and eat meat in plentiful ways, where the poor won’t be able to. This makes meat a wealth signifier (more than it already is), which can backfire pretty spectacularly.
In a policy sense, I actually have no idea how to limit meat eating. Even Carbon Taxes tend to have exceptions for beef.
I honestly don’t get the point of this. Plant foods taste great, I don’t need them to be further processed to taste like meat.
I recently introduced Impossible burger for my family’s taco night and it’s become my kids preference. Price-wise, because my grocer refuses to sell exactly 1 lb. of beef they sell 1.15-1.3lbs for money grabbing), it’s only about a dollar more.
Well worth it! It’s gaining popularity for a reason. If it was priced evenly with beef, the meat industry would be sweating like they had the meat sweats.
I stand in the way by just sticking to my local farmers and butchers. But to be fair, it’s not just because of fake meat. It’s because of animal treatment by the food industry.
We don’t need parasite support for GMO frankenfoods.
All the foods that we eat are genetically modified, or at least genetically improved. We aren’t eating the same vegetables as our ancestors. We have genetically modified the plants and animals that we eat through millennia of selective breeding and agriculture techniques. This was all happening long before modern GMO techniques were even possible.