This little piggy doesn’t have to go to market Your guide to veggie bangers & burgers for Meat Free May Meat-free sausages & burgers Meat-free sausages & burgers www.ethicalconsumer.org www.ethicalconsumer.org Go Meat Free in May Vegging out with a burger Josie Wexler looks at of soil mould called Fusarium), grown However, two vegan versions are now on in fermentation vats. Although the name sale in the UK, which use potato starch ‘Quorn’ is trademarked, the patent on instead – frozen hot & spicy burgers and Foreword by Fran Graham of the ethics of veggie the mycoprotein itself expired a few years chicken style pieces. ago, so other companies can now make it In terms of ingredients across all Friends of the Earth. burgers and sausages. under a different name if they wish. So far brands, however, soya is still the number no one has wanted to. one choice. It is appealing because, unlike n this guide, we’ve covered ready- As vegans will no doubt be aware, not most other beans, it provides complete made vegetarian burgers and all Quorn is vegan because egg white is protein, containing all eight essential sausages that contain mycoprotein I used to bind the mycoprotein together. amino acids that we need. It has been (definition below), soya, or other beans, very day, we make lots of little takes 15,455 litres of water to produce 1kg quality, meat, less junk and more veggies. eaten in Asia for thousands of years and and nuts. These are foods that might be decisions about what we are going of beef, against just 255 litres for 1kg of We want everyone to see how easy and was introduced to the rest of the world in considered alternatives to meat in that to eat. All these little decisions potatoes. tasty meat-free meals can be, and to help the eighteenth and ninetieth centuries, but E they are a source of protein. We haven’t add up to a big impact, especially here Factory farming (also called intensive people to discover delicious new dishes. it didn’t catch on as a human food outside covered the ones that are just vegetables in the UK. With our current habit of farming) squeezes large numbers of It’s the reason we challenge people have a of Asia until much later. in breadcrumbs, or dry packet mixes like chowing down on meat 2-3 times a animals into close quarters. Caged egg Meat Free May – ditching meat and fish Strangely, none of the main types Sosmix, although the companies in this day, we’re damaging our health and our laying hens in the UK live in spaces only for a month gives participants the nudge of meat alternatives were created for guide may also make these and other environment. slightly larger than an A4 piece of paper. they need to give new ingredients a chance. animal welfare reasons. Soya sausages meat-free products. Our excessive taste for meat is Factory farmed animals are often treated For the unconvinced, meat alternatives are were invented in Germany during the driving climate change – global livestock with high dosages of antibiotics to stop a great way to start experimenting with first world war as a way of dealing with production is responsible for 14.5% of the spread of disease in the crowded meat-free meals. They make adapting well The ingredients meat shortages. Quorn was developed in total global greenhouse gas emissions. (See conditions. This is contributing to known, familiar recipes easy, and have Quorn is the leading brand in the meat the 1960s as part of a research drive to page 5). The impacts of climate change, antibiotic resistance, hurting our ability to smaller environmental impacts than meat. alternatives market in Britain. It is made All Quorn foods contain mycoprotein which is find new proteins, due to concerns about from extreme weather events, to migrating fight previously treatable human diseases. Outside of May, we’re asking people derived from the Fusarium venenatum fungus feeding the growing world population. of mycoprotein, which means protein and is grown by fermentation using a process pests and sea level rise, are going to make The World Health Organisation warns that to take the Let’s Eat Better Pledge; to eat from fungi (in this case based on a type similar to the production of beer or yoghurt. it a lot harder for us to feed everyone in we are heading for a “post-antibiotic era less, and better, meat, fish and dairy, eat the future. – in which common infections and minor less junk and processed food, eat more As well as contributing to climate injuries can kill”. plants, especially beans and pulses, and change, the environmental impact of But Friends of the Earth recognises to waste less food. It also helps people to meat is extraordinarily large. Factory that not all meat production is the come together to demand the Government farmed animals in the UK and Europe same. Factory farming, with its huge and food industry act to make it easy and are often fed on high protein feeds like environmental footprint, dependence affordable for everyone to Eat Better. We soya. Demand for space to grow this cash on oil-based fertilisers, chemicals and all deserve better – for our health, for our feed crop is resulting in alarming rates imported feeds, is not compatible with a environment, and for our taste buds.- will of deforestation in places like Paraguay. low-carbon future. But if we can reduce you join us and demand food that doesn’t Meat is also incredibly water intensive the demand for meat and dairy, we can cost the earth? – agriculture consumes 70% of the global change how we farm; graze animals To help you go Meat Free in May, use fresh water supply, a third of this is on instead of housing them in sheds and this guide to veggie and vegan sausages livestock production. The water footprint feeding them imported crops. and burgers to make ethical meat-free of meat is staggeringly large when It’s why Friends of the Earth are asking choices. compared to fruit and veg. For instance, it everyone to join us eating less, and better | Dreamstime.com Davydenko © Mykola Meat-free sausages & burgers Meat-free sausages & burgers www.ethicalconsumer.org www.ethicalconsumer.org The veggie sausages The greenhouse gas emissions of food Greenhouse gas and land use impacts (upper limits) products is a big deal – agriculture of the future accounts for about a third of world greenhouse gas emissions.1 Some people are experimenting with As a rule of thumb, the production of making meat alternatives out of lupin Veggie vs meat meat from plants is inherently inefficient. beans, sometimes called “the soya bean of Each time you go up a level in the food the north”. chain you lose energy. For example, in the They are also very high in protein, and case of beef, which is substantially grass- they can grow in cooler climates than the environmental impacts fed, about 50g of soya goes into creating a soya, which makes them better suited to 100g beef burger.2 Europe. Their aficionados claim that they Red meat is also plagued by other are nutritionally and environmentally climate issues, as it is the source of so superior. At the moment lupin burgers are 129 kg CO much methane and nitrous oxide, both 2 extremely niche and not included on the far stronger greenhouse gases than carbon table, but can be bought online in places © Pipa100 | Dreamstime.com dioxide. like boutique-vegan.com. (Please note, it is only animals that eat grass or other cellulose-based food that produce significant amounts of methane Cows in their flatulence and burps. Human flatulence is nearly all nitrogen). However, exactly how bad you think meat is for the climate depends on many things, not only how it is produced, but how you divide up responsibility for Lupin beans. things like deforestation. 2 It is hard to find figures specifically 420 m on veggie burgers, but the relative figures Which sausages & for meat, Quorn and soya-based meat substitutes in general are given in the burgers are vegan? graphic opposite.3 • All sausages & burgers from Veggies, Although there are wide ranges in the Dragonfly, Taifun, VegiDeli and Fry’s. figures (ranges shown under the graphic), Pigs • Goodlife Spicy Veg Beanburgers, for simplicity the graphic only shows 11 kg CO2 Chickens Quorn 2 Soya Goodlife Nut Burgers. the upper limits. The overall picture that 15 m 6 kg CO2 6 kg CO2 2 2 2 kg CO • Wicken Fen Carrot & Coriander emerges, unsurprisingly, is that veggie is 8 m 3 m 2 2 sausages, Tomato & Garlic sausages, generally better, and red meat is the super 3 m Mushroom & Tarragon sausages. villain. • Quorn hot and spicy burgers Out of the veggie options, soya • All Linda McCartney sausages, plus generally seems to beat Quorn on plain burgers and 1/4 lb burgers = Land use – m2 years per kg of product = Greenhouse gas emissions – kg CO equivalent per kg of product Veggie and vegan 2 2 Figures show the upper limits. Ranges are: Beef 9-129 CO2 and 7-420 m land; Pork companies 2 2 4-11 CO2 and 8-15 m land; Chicken 2-6 CO2 and 5-8 m land; Quorn 2-6 CO2 and 1-3 2 2 Vegan companies: Veggies, m land; Soya 1-2 CO2 and 2-3 m land. Dragonfly, VBites (VegiDeli), Life Foods (Taifun) and Fry’s. Vegetarian companies: Goodlife and Weeks Foods (Wicken Fen). greenhouse gas emissions.