The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term "steak" on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.

The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term “steak” on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.

  • Echo DotEnglish
    5•4 months ago

    I don’t think people want products to be labeled as meat products when they’re not meat products that would be confusing.

    But what’s the problem in a vegetarian product in the style of a steak? Like maybe you don’t want it but who cares?

    • @barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
      -3•4 months ago

      So you’re saying that mislabelling would be confusing, but if it affects me but not you you don’t care.

      • Echo DotEnglish
        3•4 months ago

        You know that’s not what I’m saying.

        No one is going to mistake a vegetarian sausage for the real thing simply because the vegetarian stuff is labeled “vegetarian” in giant letters so people who will looking for vegetarian stuff can see it.

        • @barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
          0•4 months ago

          I’m actually torn on sausage but this thread is more specifically about steak and escalope. How do you even take saitan, do a butterfly cut, and beat it until it’s flat, what you’d end up wouldn’t be an escalope but soy paste.

          • Echo DotEnglish
            1•4 months ago

            So you admit that it’s a completely pointless argument and yet you continue the completely pointless argument.

            Who cares what they label things. It’s not some weird conspiracy to get people to buy vegetarian products. It is literally the least important thing that’s currently happening, and you’re all behaving as if somehow it’s some great conspiracy.

            • @barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
              1•4 months ago

              Who cares what they label things.

              Me. I care. You care. Because we both are consumers and if something’s on the label, then that thing should be in there. I don’t want to buy beer and discover it’s coke, or buy coke and discover it’s beer. When I buy steak I want meat to be in there, When I buy saitan I expect soy in there, and not soylent green.

              It’s not some weird conspiracy to get people to buy vegetarian products.

              …and noone ever claimed so? At least not in this thread as far as I remember. Might’ve missed something. But while I’m at it, two points of critique to the meat substitute industry:

              1. Do your homework and come up with good marketing terms that don’t piggy-back on words deeply associated with meat: In my mind we don’t even need to begin to talk about sausages because “roll” is a perfectly fine word for such a product. “Saitan rolls for grilling”: Why even start to bring meat associations into it.
              2. Sell your shit at sane markups. Many more people would buy meat substitutes if companies were willing to set prices for maximum sales instead of maximum ROI: Vegans are a (kinda) captive market, many are quite affluent, if you sell saitan for 30 bucks a kg they’re going to buy it because they want it even though it costs like 1.50 to produce. It’s cheaper to produce than mea sot it should be cheaper in the stores. Something something Zizek, companies are exploiting that phenomenon for profit while getting celebrated as ethical.