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Plant-Based Opportunities / Vegan Business Opportunities

MTF

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MJ DeMarco

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vshetty.vs

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When I see stuff like "vegetarian pork ribs" in the menu, it's clear to me that the owners don't understand that vegans/vegetarians are interested in eating plant-based meals, not fake meat meals. The restaurants I enjoy the most don't label themselves as vegan or vegetarian - they label themselves as plant-based restaurants. Their menus consist of plant-based meals that don't pretend to be meat substitutes. That, to me, is how you communicate as a business that you understand that veganism/vegetarianism is not a fad, but a lifestyle.


This reminds me. In India, a massive portion of our diet consists of vegetables and half our population does not any meat at all(dairy's cool though).

Now when I was visiting New York, I remember really hating your veg dishes. And the difference in quality between the vegan dishes and the rest of your food is pretty apparent.

For instance, I absolutely love the ribs we had there, but I wouldn't eat any vegan dishes even if you paid me. (This was in 2007, so things might have changed since then).

For us, going to a restaurant and picking a veg dish over something like beef is like choosing between seafood and a hamburger. They are both pretty good just depends on what you want to have.

What do you think about the growth of other cuisines(like lesser known Indian dishes) which primarily known for their vegetarian dishes?

Hope I didn't offend anyone, just my two cents
 
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I may be totally wrong here, but I think you and many others are falling prey to a cognitive bias that's pervasive in the diet space.

The idea that a particular way of eating is a "lifestyle" that's "been around a long time" is not new. Paleo and Keto can make the same claims. Paleo was getting it's foothold in the 90s. Keto has been around since the 80s. Vegetarianism has been around thousands of years in cultures around the world.

Regardless, the trend of mainstream-adoption for each of these has followed the same pattern.

I am willing to concede that Veganism may be different if there's a compelling argument - but simply saying "it's a lifestyle, not just a diet" is not enough for me to buy it.
Viewing veganism oppprtunities centered around diet only is just as short sighted as viewing cannibas legalizatuon as only wanting to open up a head shop.

The big picture is completely eluding you.

As I read your comments further, though, you communicated your stance more thoroughly.

I understand being careful, but veganism as a gift horse like no other.
It is really interesting watching as a number of my friends have turned vegan. One of my friends lost a ton of weight going vegan.

Do vegans care if vegetables are organic or not ? I've thought about raising organic vegetables commercially.
From what I have experienced in my business, yes. I view them as anti-animal consumption AND anti-synthetic.
Oh, GOD, no...this is just the tip, of the tip, of the iceberg.

I have been waiting on this to go mainstream for about 5 years.

Once industrial hemp is legalized, building a plant based hotel and hotel room will become even easier.
 

MJ DeMarco

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5 years ago, the MILK cartons got 6, 7 cooler doors.

Now they can barely grab 2 as the dairy alternatives are squeezing them out.

At my local Safeway, the dairy coolers have almost disappeared, replaced with alternatives; Soy, Oat, Coconut, Almond, etc.

This has nothing to do with Veganism, but more so that more and more adult humans realize they should be drinking breast milk from a recently force-impregnated cow, much less a human. No matter how traditional it may seem (we've done it for years!) or what the milk industry wants to advertise and promote (got Milk?), it is not natural. Folks who are listening to their body are starting to find correlation with how they feel and with what they consume.

milkcooler.jpg
 

MTF

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At my local Safeway, the dairy coolers have almost disappeared, replaced with alternatives; Soy, Oat, Coconut, Almond, etc.

It's a shame that pretty much all of these alternatives aren't really healthier than regular milk. I'm not saying that dairy is better - just pointing out that most of these alternatives are sweetened with artificial sweeteners and/or other substances to make them more palatable. They're marketed as healthy drinks, but in fact many of them aren't much different than junk soft drinks.
 
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WinYourself

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It's a shame that pretty much all of these alternatives aren't really healthier than regular milk. I'm not saying that dairy is better - just pointing out that most of these alternatives are sweetened with artificial sweeteners and/or other substances to make them more palatable. They're marketed as healthy drinks, but in fact many of them aren't much different than junk soft drinks.
This!

I would argue the alternatives are worse than the original.

At the end of the day, they are sugar water with artificial additives, transported half way around the world.

With milk you at least get some bio available protein and some saturated fat besides the sugar. Could live of milk alone. Try doing this with sugar water.

Not a milk drinker myself, and don't think humans should drink cow milk, but would choose it over sugar water if I had to.
 
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It's a shame that pretty much all of these alternatives aren't really healthier than regular milk. I'm not saying that dairy is better - just pointing out that most of these alternatives are sweetened with artificial sweeteners and/or other substances to make them more palatable. They're marketed as healthy drinks, but in fact many of them aren't much different than junk soft drinks.
Maybe in North America but not in Australia, mostly good unsweetened mylks as they spell it here.
 

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It's a shame that pretty much all of these alternatives aren't really healthier than regular milk.

My store has an "unsweetend" version of almond milk that I buy. They're stocked about 50/50 on the shelf. Not sure if that's the same everywhere.
 
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MTF

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Even if it's unsweetened, it probably still has some other unhealthy ingredients. For example, one of the most well-known European brands selling milk alternatives, Alpro, sells unsweetened almond milk. It has gellan gum (here are some pros and cons of it: Belly Trouble? Your Almond Milk Could Be to Blame) and locust bean gum (Millions of People Are Eating This Shoe Polish & Cigarette Ingredient (Are You?)).

Obviously, much better than the sweetened version, but it's still a processed drink.
 

NateKruse

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Obviously, much better than the sweetened version, but it's still a processed drink.

I am a huge proponent of the Dr. McDougall way of eating. I use unsweetened original (not vanilla-flavor) almond milk, but I don't drink it as a beverage. I use it as an ingredient in recipes or occasionally poured over cereal. Dr. McDougall believes milk and milk-substitutes should not be used for drinking. Water is the ultimate beverage.

If you want a milk alternative and want to know exactly what goes in it, some are not too hard to make at home. I have made almond milk with almonds soaked in water, vanilla beans, and dates for sweetness. Blend it in the Vitamix with some water and squeeze it with a nut milk bag. It turns out pretty decent. I've heard brown rice milk is easy to make as well.
 

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Obviously, much better than the sweetened version, but it's still a processed drink.

Thanks for that, I'll look more carefully at it.
 
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Darius

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Regardless of what milk (or alternative you use) - there are a few things you can do to figure out how healthy it is:

1. Check the Macros. Make sure it's either high in fat or high in carbs - mixing the 2 is unnatural and likely a prime contributor to all the metabolic problems a lot of humans have (insulin resistance, diabetes, etc.)

2. Check the ingredients. If you don't know an ingredient, look it up on your phone at the store. Since we're talking about processed food (milk alternatives) - it's probably ingredients you don't know OR ingredients you do know that was made with ingredients you don't know. Try to keep the list of ingredients as short as you can

3. Learn how that 'milk' is made. All of the milk alternatives I've researched are unnatural and not much better (if at all) than regular store-bought milk (basically sugar water with no vitamins) - similar to what @MTF & @WinYourself said.

No one should drink milk (unless you're being breastfeed) or milk alternatives at all. But, if we're being practical - try to limit your intake of them to the bare minimum because they have no fat-soluble vitamin content aside from what's 'fortified' (usually fortified with low-bioavailability and can cause deficiencies in other vitamins).

If you're a coffee drinker (and not vegetarian or vegan) and use store-bought milk or alternatives solely for drinking coffee, try getting a hold of raw cream from a farm (fat-soluble vitamins are still present) if you don't add sugar to your coffee.

I know this isn't a thread about nutrition but just wanted to throw that out there in case it helps anyone.

Vegan products are definitely on the rise and a big opportunity
 

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Not here to discuss or argue the pros/cons of veganism but I see a lot of ANTI-veganism videos on youtube. Literally hundreds of EX-vegans, many who built their following on Youtube by following the vegan diet.

These social media influencers have had health problems due to veganism and are telling their audience (millions of views) about the side effects that have happened years after starting vegan diet. These influencers are telling their followers NOT to become a vegan.

What's everyone's thought? Do you guys think this will effect the vegan market? How powerful are these youtubers?

A lot of people have been experimenting with the carnivore diet.

Is the carnivore diet a business niche to look into?
 

MJ DeMarco

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MJ DeMarco

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Some interesting developments...

Burger King to take meatless ‘Impossible Whopper’ national later this year

The Impossible Burger is pretty good, had one a month ago and I thought they slipped in the real thing...

Beyond Meat is going public: 5 things to know about the plant-based meat maker

Meatless provider going public in May. I'm on the list to acquire shares but I'm not sold on their outlook. I think Impossible is a better alternative, not to mention the supply side issues.

On the same topic, Del Taco (Ticker: TACO) goes to a plant-based option at all 500+ locations (the above mentioned Beyond) ... I will be sampling their vegan offerings today. Will report back...

Nice to get some vegan fast food options (re: junk food) finally.
 

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A $22 billion dollar corporation entrenched in the meat industry sees what is happening and is trying to get ahead of the curve...

America’s biggest meat producer wants to take a bite out of the vegetarian market

View attachment 23712
6% a year might not seem like a lot, but it is when you consider it's going up against a behemoth steeped in tradition and culture.
I'm not surprised by this. Meat is actually really expensive in comparison to other food staples, and when I got married and started in the work force during the recession, meat was the first thing that went for us. And so many great vegan/veggie friendly recipes have come out that are so quick to make, that this is actually one of those times that the market spoke before the political climate did. There isn't a lot of innovation in the meat industry, but a meat replacement industry has a huge bubble of growth.
 

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The price is going down for lots of vegan items like Beyond Burgers, and they aren't going out of stock for weeks at a time now. More demand and better supply. I remember when A&W launched the Beyond Burger in Canada, you couldn't buy them anywhere else because they bought basically all the inventory that existed in Canada (allegedly).
 

MJ DeMarco

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Will report back...

The soft/hard tacos (had both) was a 9 out of 10 ... might have been a 10 if it wasn't sitting in a bag for 30 minutes. I actually was pleasantly surprised.

I great example of a value skew... never been to a Del Taco before, but this slight menu change (a simple vegan option) will have them getting hundreds of dollars from me this year alone. This visit was $25.

Of course the real question is, will the incremental revenue exceed the carrying cost of the menu change and yield a good ROI? Then it's a win. Del Taco (Ticker: TACO) is publicly traded so in the next quarter's earnings report might reveal some clues.
 

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Beyond Burger seems to be sweeping through Canada like wildfire.

It's already on the menu at a few places I frequent, which is surprising because "smaller" US companies generally don't sweep through Canada like this. A&W being one of the larger chains that are shouting about it from the rooftops.

I almost tried it the other day out of sheer curiosity. I'm a meat loving man but it's hard to ignore all the love and praise Beyond Burger gets from its fans. I'll probably grab one next time just to see what everyone's talking about.
 
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The-J

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Beyond Burger seems to be sweeping through Canada like wildfire.

It's already on the menu at a few places I frequent, which is surprising because "smaller" US companies generally don't sweep through Canada like this. A&W being one of the larger chains that are shouting about it from the rooftops.

I almost tried it the other day out of sheer curiosity. I'm a meat loving man but it's hard to ignore all the love and praise Beyond Burger gets from its fans. I'll probably grab one next time just to see what everyone's talking about.

I loved it. I love a good burger, and the Beyond Meat Burger from A+W was a good burger. (Wow I just sounded like the biggest corporate shill!)

Personally, I'm most excited about plant based eating because it's got the potential to be less energy, water, and land intensive than meat. I mean, eating whole plant foods as a diet is already cheaper than eating a whole foods diet with meat in it. I'm hoping the 'fake meat' becomes cheaper than meat, and soon.

Where I live, a pound of ground beef converts to about $3.50 US. Yves meat substitute (which doesn't taste all that great mind you) is only a little bit more expensive than that, and when on sale, it's even cheaper than real ground beef.

I don't think that a fake meat burger will ever be more nutritious than a real meat burger, but people don't eat burgers for nutritional value anyway.
 

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The Beyond Burger at A&W is really good.

Kinda hated sounded like their adverts but I really couldn't tell the difference.

Looking forward to it hitting stores. Hopefully it wont be too expensive.
 

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Currently supplementing myself with a plant based protein powder shake; I don’t know what was in that other crap, but I’m glad I ditched it (less stomach aches).
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Beyond went IPO today.

I printed out the prospectus to read last week, never got around to it. So I never parcipated in the offering ($25/share).

Beyond Meat Inc.

As of now the stock is up 120% at $53. Guess the market likes Beyond. And I missed out on an opportunity to double my money in one day. SMH.
 

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Beyond went IPO today.

I printed out the prospectus to read last week, never got around to it. So I never parcipated in the offering ($25/share).

Beyond Meat Inc.

As of now the stock is up 120% at $53. Guess the market likes Beyond. And I missed out on an opportunity to double my money in one day. SMH.

My extremely amateur 100% not-an-investment-professional opinion: still a good buy at $53. My justification:

- Main competitor, Impossible Meats, has been moving much slower in non-US markets.
- Beyond Meat only needs to snag a few fast food deals and enter into a few major stores to become king of the roost
- Beyond Meat has a bit more of the 'natural' edge compared to Impossible while still tasting like a good burger. also no soy, gluten, GMOs, not heavily reliant on scientific progress

Don't know if it will win out in the very long run but Beyond has a short term edge imo
 

MJ DeMarco

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Pretty impressive, for what some argued, is just a fad or a trend that will die in a few years.upload_2019-5-2_16-7-30.png
 
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Seems like a fairly decent opportunity, but how does a poor schmuck like me best his odds?

a)Assist already established vegan businesses with a service?
b)Start a vegan product business with little to no investment, just sweat equity? (vegan software? lol)
 

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Seems like a fairly decent opportunity, but how does a poor schmuck like me best his odds?

a)Assist already established vegan businesses with a service?
b)Start a vegan product business with little to no investment, just sweat equity? (vegan software? lol)

If you go vegan you'll spot lots of opportunities
 

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