Company backed by Bill Gates trying to replace eggs with plant-based protein products

[Bullitt]

A company named Hampton Creek is making plant-based protein products that replace eggs that almost always come from caged hens. The idea is to be more humane and less expensive.

http://www.businessinsider.com/plant-based-eggs-from-hampton-creek-2013-12

The article states the company is working on a scrambled egg substitute.

What do you think?

 

[3chickchicks]

We would rather pay $800 for an IPhone and "save" on cheap manufactured food.

Good point.
Think about the raised eyebrows from others if someone mentions making a loaf of bread. It's almost magic these days. Getting just the ingredients and putting a meal together is becoming an anomaly. Think about all of the people who are grossed out by backyard eggs. It's the same thing they get at the grocery store only it's not packaged and they didn't go to the store. Conditions our birds are in are usually much cleaner than conditions at a commercial farm. People who process their own chickens at home usually have more sanitary conditions than what you get from the store.

I'll bring a treat to work from home and people ask where I got it from. If I made it, I'm treated as a magician and a lot of people say "Oh, I don't cook."
What was a basic skill is now magic to people. Most are totally out of touch on how to live. Right now, people on wallstreet, CEO's, presidents are all celebrated and paid well. If the lights go out, those positions will be worthless. It's all a big bubble just waiting to burst.

(sorry if I side tracked the thread. I'll get off my soapbox now)

 

[WYNot]

I am not a libertarian. The government is necessary for a wide variety of things. Do you like Ayn Rand's philosophy?

In the small L sense yes. I prefer messy freedom to ordered tyranny. Government is only necessary for government's sake and those who consciously or unconsciously wish to enslave their fellow man and think they know better than someone else how to run someone else's life.

"I don't think treating animals inhumanely is a good idea either but I think allowing government to stick its nose in other people's business is an even worse idea."

Corporations will often mistreat animals unless the government (our elected leaders) prevent it. I agree that mistreating chickens is not as serious as slavery, but I was not trying to say that it was as serious as slavery. But battery chickens will still be used unless laws are changed.

No, if people actually wanted it changed they would stop supporting it. However, the bulk of the people don't care how the chickens are treated. They just want their cheap food. They made/make their choice with their wallets. You and others who clamber for yet another new law simply think you know better than other people how their lives should be run and don't care about the costs or consequences.

As I said before, the treatment of animals in some commercial operations is simply one of many reasons I have my own chickens, that my parents raise beef cattle, that I grow a garden and can/dehydrate/preserve my own food. Because it is right for me. But, I don't try to impose it on others.

"Or the so-called "Affordable Care Act". If it is such a wonderful idea, why must it be implemented and enforced under threat of violence and incarceration?"

Violence or incarceration? I have not heard that. I have read that people can be penalized on their federal taxes if they do not have health insurance. That is because the system works when everyone participates.

Yes. If you do not wish to participate in that monstrous invasion of rights, privacy, and personal responsibility, then yes violence and incarceration are exactly what will happen. Government goons will come to your house, they will probably shoot your dog, and if you survive the home invasion they will throw you in a cage.

As I said, if it is such a wonderful idea why implement it at gunpoint? If it is such a wonderful idea why did the legislatures exempt themselves, the President, and lots and lots of their cronies?

I have healthcare at the moment, an HSA. I am covered for major medical issues and basic stuff I pay for myself. I will be losing it soon because of this so-called ACA. I don't want or need all the bells and whistles. But evidently some fool up on capitol hill thinks they know better how to run my life than I do. When my HSA is cancelled, I will NOT be replacing it. I will not participate in ACA. I will not pay the fines/taxes imposed by ACA. And I will not be caged over it. So, your only options are to leave me the hell alone or kill me. Do you support this nonsense sooo much that you are willing to kill someone over it? Or will you remain on the sidelines and cheer on those who have no compunctions against harming their fellows to get their way?

Every person who has a job and makes $117,000 a year or less pays into Social Security. That is the government forcing people to participate in a program, much like the Affordable Care Act.

And SS is just as horrible as the ACA.

"In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was branded a "Communist" when he urged Congress to pass Social Security. Newspapers, radio commentators and some members of Congress denounced FDR as a dictator and Social Security as a Communist plot to destroy the Constitution."

He was both and it was/is.

"Medicare was denounced as a sinister government takeover of the nation's health care system. It was attacked as "brazen socialism" on the Senate floor. Ronald Reagan, in a 1961 political ad, and George H. W. Bush in his 1964 campaign for the U.S. Senate, also condemned Medicare as socialism, though they both later defended the program."

It was/is. Both are politicians. They will say whatever they need to say to get elected.

The Affordable Care Act is now being attacked in the same way. After it is fully implemented it will be a very popular program, like Social Security and Medicare.

They are only popular with those who wish to live off of the labors of their fellow man. Again, if it is such a wonderful program then why force people to participate under threat of violence? Why are the legislators and their cronies not participating?

If the Affordable Care Act was going to be such an unpopular program, why wouldn't the Republicans just allow the program to be implemented and then say, see, we told you it was a bad idea? They know if will become popular after it is implemented and are trying to stop it before it is fully implemented.

Because like Social Security and Medicare, once such monstrosities are implemented they are impossible to get rid of. Again, if it is such a wonderful program then why force people to participate under threat of violence? Why are the legislators and their cronies not participating?

By the way, the Affordable Care Act was developed by Republicans. And it was implemented by Mitt Romney as governor of Massachusetts. Republicans only turned against the program when Barack Obama started supporting it.

And that is one of the main/many reasons I didn't vote for Romney. At a state level it is a horrible idea but at least you can pick up and move to another state to escape the stupidity. At the federal level there is nowhere to escape to.

If we were a civilized country we would have universal healthcare like other industrialized countries, such as Canada and Great Britain, where the programs are very popular. No one goes bankrupt because of medical bills there. Medical cost is the number one reason for bankruptcy in the United States.

Yes, those examples are working oooh so well. So, instead of going bankrupt because of medical bills, they die from waiting on rationed services. Or you die from lack of innovation. Medical care is not a right. It is a goods/service provided by another human. They are under no obligation to provide those goods/services to you, they are not your slave.

That still doesn't make it right. It is theft, plain and simple. You are stealing from one person to give to another and calling it a good deed. When charity is forced it is no longer charity. I will gladly help those in need. But, as soon as you tell me I must, I will tell you go to hell.

 

[Gryphon]

Funny, we were just talking last night about MRE's and how the faux-egg ones were universally loathed. If they manage to make some that aren't so horrible that they're viewed as cruel and unusual punishment for soldiers (as a prank, a couple of soldiers replaced all the MREs with the egg ones for the next incoming soldiers, I'm sure they were cursed for years for that stunt) then good for them on coming up with an alternative.

 

[Cindy in PA]

So cheap & plant based, just what I love made up food! What are they going to made of, cheap & available waste from the soy industry like the rest of our food? If it comes form the food science industry. I'll pass.

 

[Bullitt]

So cheap & plant based, just what I love made up food! What are they going to made of, cheap & available waste from the soy industry like the rest of our food? If it comes form the food science industry. I'll pass.

It seems to me that the law could be changed to outlaw caged hens. Wouldn't that be the simple solution?

 

[WYNot]

It seems to me that the law could be changed to outlaw caged hens. Wouldn't that be the simple solution?

No it would not be a simple solution. More laws are the LAST thing this country needs.

 

[Bullitt]

No it would not be a simple solution. More laws are the LAST thing this country needs.

Laws change all the time. That's a good thing.

 

[Cindy in PA]

It seems to me that the law could be changed to outlaw caged hens. Wouldn't that be the simple solution?

Oh no, then people would have to pay real prices for eggs instead of the $1/dozen like they were going for in the 1920s!

 

[WYNot]

Laws change all the time. That's a good thing.

Nah. Ever changing laws means people/companies have no way to plan for the future as they don't know what the laws will be. That stifles growth, competition, and innovation.

A simpler and much easier idea is to simply enforce the legitimate laws we have (ie laws where there is an actual victim and an aggressor) and repeal the ones that aren't effective or valid (ie nanny state laws that have no victim and are simply government forcing its views on the people).

As for yet another egg substitutes, great! Bring on the new ideas and products. Let the people (aka the market) FREELY choose what they want rather than having government shove it down our throats. You and I may know our own eggs are better tasting and better for us but we have no right to force that option on others. If others choose to succumb to marketing or choose to decide with their pocketbook, that is their right.