A10
NEWS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, December 4, 2019
Beef: A question of whether new plant-based foods are a good, healthful product
Continued from Page A1
and it’s not as environmen-
tally friendly or as healthy as
many consumers think.
A case of mistaken iden-
tity — that consumers will
think they are buying meat
when they choose a less
healthy, highly processed
product out of the grocery
store meat case — is at the
top of local rancher’s con-
cerns. The newer genera-
tion of plant-based “meats”
— most notably a brand
called Beyond Meat — have
muscled their way into the
supermarket meat case and
onto the hamburger shelves.
These products are clearly
labeled “plant-based pat-
ties.” But they are engi-
neered to look like beef.
They sort of taste like beef.
They are a different animal
than the antiquated low-fat
veggie-burgers hibernating
in supermarket freezers.
Long-time
Wallowa
County rancher Mack Birk-
maier doesn’t like having
plant-based meat substitutes
marketed next to the ground
beef and steaks in supermar-
ket meat counters. “It’s kind
of like cheating,” he said.
Rancher and County
Commissioner Todd Nash,
agreed.
“I would like people to
know that they’re buying a
plant-based product rather
than a beef product and have
it labeled appropriately so
that the consumer can make
that choice,” he said.
The unease is a national
one. Curtis W. Martin, a
board member of the U.S.
Cattlemen’s
Association
who ranches in North Pow-
der, echoes Birkmaier’s and
Nash’s concerns.
“By no means are you
going to steal our reputation,
our labeling and our quality
by trying to confuse … the
consumer by using ‘meat’
or ‘beef’ on the labeling or
advertising.” he said. The
USCA wants the U.S. gov-
ernment to ban the words
“meat” or “beef” from being
used to promote nonbeef
products.
Touted as a healthy food
that will save the planet, the
new generation of plant-
based burgers are increas-
ingly popular. Beyond Meat
is now sold in about 35,000
grocery stores nationwide.
In Wallowa County it’s
available in Safeway, Dol-
lar Stretcher and the Mar-
ket Place in Joseph. Impos-
sible Burgers, sold only in
restaurants, are available
for lunch or dinner at Heav-
enly’s. The popularity of
these “plant-based meats” is
growing rapidly across the
nation, even though they are
more expensive than locally
grown grass-fed beef.
The healthiness and envi-
ronmental credentials of the
new plant-based “meats”
are also near the top of local
rancher’s concerns. “They
just aren’t very natural,”
Birkmaier said.
Beyond Meat’s “meaty
texture” comes largely from
processed pea protein iso-
late and rice protein. The
juiciness is courtesy of gen-
erous amounts of canola oil,
coconut oil and cocoa but-
ter. These plant patties con-
tain more saturated fat per
“burger” (30% of your daily
saturated fat ration) than
most of the ground beef next
to them. The Impossible
Burger, which is soy-based,
offers a stunning 40% of
daily saturated fat. In addi-
WHERE’S THE BEEF?
Grass-fed cradle to market locally raised
beef burger:
Beef.
Beyond Meat Burger ingredients
From Business Insider
Ellen Morris Bishop
Mack Birkmaier’s family has raised cattle in the canyons
and prairies north of Enterprise since the early 1900’s. He
expressed concerns about the nutritional content and food
safety of highly touted, high-fat, ultraprocessed plant-
based “meat.” “The long-term eff ects of these products have
certainly not passed the test of time,” he said. “Should it have
a warning label attached?”
tion to its heart-stopping
fat content, the Impossible
Burger relies on genetically
modifi ed ingredients to pro-
duce its meaty texture.
Local nutritionist Lana
Rose said she would not
choose to eat products that
were as processed and as
high in saturated fat content
as these plant-based burgers.
“There are better things
to eat. You are really not eat-
ing plants,” she said.
The Harvard Health
Review notes “Along with
the ambition to replicate
hamburgers comes a com-
parable amount of satu-
rated fat. Since diets higher
in saturated fat are associ-
ated with increased rates of
both heart disease and pre-
mature death, they may not
be the type of food to opt for
if your ambitions are purely
health-related.”
Based on these data, Wal-
lowa County ranchers’ con-
cern for consumer health
seems justifi ed.
In addition to its high
fat content, the new meat-
less-meat is also considered
to be an ultraprocessed food
— a category now under
increased scrutiny for obe-
sity, cardiovascular and met-
abolic disease, along with
breast and all cancers, depres-
sion, frailty in the elderly and
premature mortality, as out-
lined in a 2019 report by
the U.S. National Institute
of Health. (Ultraprocessed
foods are defi ned by the pres-
tigious British Medical Jour-
nal as “formulations of food
he said. “Should it have
a warning label attached?
What does this do to a devel-
oping child’s body?”
For the environmentally
concerned, there are other
considerations. Both Impos-
sible Burgers and Beyond
Meat claim that their prod-
ucts have a lower “carbon
footprint” than beef and are
helping save the planet from
climate change. A study
done for Impossible Burger
has certifi ed that its product
has an 89% smaller carbon
footprint than the “equiva-
lent beef product.” But that
statistic appears to include
cattle raised on cleared por-
tions of the Amazon rainfor-
est or driving similar eco-
logical deforestation and
devastation. It does not
take into account grazing
on rangelands or restorative
grazing practices.
Impossible Burger also
claims that the total land
area used to produce their
ingredients is only 4% of the
area needed to produce beef.
“That’s a very, very con-
servative estimate on our part
— most cattle globally require
far more land than that esti-
mate,” said Rebekah Moses,
Impossible Burger’s senior
manager of impact strat-
egy, during an interview with
Adele Peters, a staff writer at
the web ‘zine Fast Company.
“It’s completely ineffi cient,
and it’s why beef is the lead-
ing cause of deforestation in
the Amazon. If most of the
land that’s used for cattle feed
were to be left alone, without
Water, pea protein isolate (dried peas
ground into a fi ne powder with starch and fi -
ber removed), expeller-pressed canola oil (oil
that has been physically squeezed out of the
seeds of the canola plant) and coconut oil.
Also includes 2% or less of cellulose
from bamboo, methylcellulose (bulk-form-
ing laxative that increases the amount of
water in your stools making them easier to
pass), potato starch (starch extracted from
potatoes), natural fl avor, maltodextrin (white
powder made from corn, rice, potato starch
or wheat), yeast extract (fl avoring made from
the same yeast used to make bread and
beer), salt, sunfl ower oil, vegetable glycerin
(clear liquid typically made from soybean, co-
conut or palm oils), dried yeast, gum Arabic
(a natural gum consisting of the hardened
sap of various species of the acacia tree),
citrus extract (to protect quality), ascorbic
acid (to maintain color; a dietary supplement
used to prevent and treat scurvy), beet juice
extract (for color), acetic acid (acid that gives
vinegar its characteristic taste), succinic acid
(an acid extracted from amber), modifi ed
food starch and annatto (food coloring de-
rived from the seeds of the achiote tree).
Impossible Burger ingredients
From foodnavigator-usa.com
Water, textured wheat protein (a defat-
ted soy fl our product), coconut oil, potato
protein (dry coproduct of the manufacture of
potato starch) and natural fl avors.
Also includes 2% or less of leghemoglobin
(processed, GMO-altered soy), yeast extract
(fl avoring made from the same yeast used
to make bread and beer), salt, soy protein
isolate (dehydrated, defatted soybean fl akes
that have been washed in either alcohol
or water to remove the sugars and dietary
fi ber), konjac gum (made from the root of
the konjac plant), xanthan gum (made by
feeding corn sugar to bacteria called Xan-
ranchers, Moses’s state-
ment seems jaw-droppingly
exaggerated.
“First,” Nash said “you
can always manipulate sci-
ence and say whatever you
want, in my opinion. We
have a tremendous amount
of range and when cattle
graze that properly, you have
a minimal impact,” he said.
“Agriculture as a whole has
changed practices radically
and we can sequester more
carbon in agriculture than
we produce.”
Martin, the North Pow-
Wallowa County rancher and County
Commissioner Todd Nash is concerned that
consumers may not understand that the
new plant-based Beyond Meat and similar
products are made from highly processed plant
products, and not the same as eating beef.
substances often modifi ed by
chemical processes and then
assembled into ready-to-con-
sume hyper-palatable food
and drink products.… These
foods
include…reconsti-
tuted meat products, pre-pre-
pared frozen dishes and soft
drinks.”)
This is also perfectly in
line with Birkmaier’s prin-
cipal concern about these
plant burgers: their potential
negative effects on human
health.
“I think the mothers of
America should be somewhat
wary of feeding this con-
coction of cells, plants and
chemicals to their children,”
the gassy animals, to revege-
tate and actually store carbon
in trees and grasslands, it’s not
an exaggeration to say that we
could set the clock back on
climate change through food
choice alone.”
However,
Impossible
Burger did not address the
fate of private land once
cattle were removed. And
it also seems unaware of
the environmentally-based
farm-to-table
movement,
which advocates buying
locally-produced foods and
supporting local agriculture
as a way to lower carbon
emissions globally.
To Wallowa County
der-based rancher, said he
was unsure of the carbon
footprint involved in plant-
based substitutes, portions
of which may be raised in
places as far away as Indo-
nesia or the Philippines, and
may be grown on deforested
land, shipped long distances
for processing and then
shipped again to consumers.
But he does know about
cattle production.
“It’s pretty dramatic how
American ranchers are cre-
ating more protein with less
input,” he said. That claim
is substantiated by a 2012
study published in the jour-
nal Sustainability, which
Courtesy of MorningStar Farms
Morning Star Farms’ is an “old-fashioned”
low-fat
veggie
burger
composed
principally of wheat gluten and soy fl our.
It contains only 3% of a individual’s daily
recommended amount of saturated fat, vs
Beyond Meat’s burger which weighs in at
30%, and Impossible burger’s 40% daily
recommended amount of saturated fat.
thomonas campestris), Thiamin (Vitamin B1),
zinc, niacin, vitamin B6, ribofl avin (Vitamin
B2) and Vitamin B12.
Morning Star Farms Grillers veggie burger
ingredients
From product label
Water, wheat gluten, soy fl our, vegetable
oil (corn, canola and/or sunfl ower oil), egg
whites, calcium caseinate (a protein derived
from the casein in milk) and corn starch.
Also includes 2% or less of onion pow-
der, soy sauce powder, methylcellulose
(bulk-forming laxative that increases the
amount of water in your stools making them
easier to pass), cooked onion and carrot juice
concentrates, salt, natural fl avor, soy protein
isolate (dehydrated, defatted soybean fl akes
that have been washed in either alcohol
or water to remove the sugars and dietary
fi ber), garlic powder, sugar, gum acacia (a
natural gum consisting of the hardened sap
of various species of the acacia tree), whey,
yeast extract, xanthan gum (made by feeding
corn sugar to bacteria called Xanthomonas
campestris), potato starch, tomato paste and
onion juice concentrate.
showed that U.S. beef pro-
duction had decreased its
carbon footprint by 16%
per animal over the period
1977-2009, and that rate of
decrease was expected to
continue. And a 2017 report
on livestock production and
climate by Oxford Universi-
ty’s Food Climate Research
Network noted that while
range-raised, grass-fed live-
stock could not feed the
planet’s growing population
sustainably, “... well-man-
aged grazing can cause car-
bon to be sequestered in the
soil — and at the very least,
can provide an economic
rationale for keeping the car-
bon in the ground.”
Demand for the new
plant-based meatless burg-
ers seems to be exploding.
The Motley Fool’s web-
site reported in October
that “… major players like
Tyson, Nestle and Hormel
have announced that they
are launching or developing
(similar) plant-based prod-
ucts.” Food giant Smith-
fi eld Foods is already in
the game, along with Safe-
way/Albertsons. In addition,
more fast-food and other
restaurants are adding faux
meat to the menus, includ-
ing Subway, which plans to
offer Beyond Meatballs in
its marinara sandwich early
next year.
In Wallowa County,
where grass-fed beef produc-
tion is an economic main-
stay, the rapid rise of faux
meats presents a challenge.
“The problem is, we’re
a county with 7,000 people
and 25,000 cows and we can
provide everybody with a
wholesome, grass-fed prod-
uct here and even the tour-
ists who come in, we can fi ll
up the trunks of their cars
with grass-fed products,”
Nash said. “But we don’t
have a processor that is large
enough to be able to handle
that.”
Still, local cradle-to-mar-
ket grass-fed beef, (and
lamb, bison and yak) are
available here, and its pur-
chase supports local ranches
and the local economy. It
contains less fat and sodium
than plant-based burgers. It
has just one ingredient, and
no added chemicals. There
are no genetically modi-
fi ed organisms in Wallowa
County beef. It has a low,
and probably much lower
carbon footprint than the
new plant-based alternative.
And it costs the same or less.
To all interviewed, the
choice between local beef
vs meat substitutes comes
down to the quality of the
food, as well as the effects
on our local landscape and
economy.
“We (cattlemen) question
whether these new plant-
based foods are a good,
healthful product,” Birk-
maier said. “I look at these
new kinds of patties, with
all their chemicals, process-
ing, and fat. And I wonder
if they won’t be like other
things that we thought were
healthy and good, but turned
out to be very, very bad for
us. I think that especially
mothers should think about
this when they decide what
their children are eating. We
know what’s truly healthy.
These plant-based products
have not yet stood the test of
time.”
Fairgrounds: Donations help to make improvements on aging structures
Continued from Page A1
Bill Bradshaw
Greg Seufer, grounds manager for the Wallowa County
Fairgrounds in Enterprise, stands by a stack of lumber that
will be used to replace the seats in the nearly century-old
grandstand at the fairgrounds.
The current indoor arena
gets a lot of use and will be
kept, Elliott said.
Projects now underway
are less expensive and less
affected by the weather.
The current calf-rop-
ing chutes are in the pro-
cess of getting new gates. At
least one has been installed
and others are being built
at Stangel Industries, said
Greg Seufer, grounds man-
ager. Since the chutes won’t
be needed until springtime,
he said, Stangel’s is build-
ing the gates as they get
time between more urgent
projects.
A bigger project involves
replacing the wooden seats
in the current, nearly cen-
tury-old grandstand, Seufer
said. The lumber has been
delivered and is just wait-
ing for another contractor to
remove the old seats to repur-
pose the wood. That work,
too, can be done amid snowy
weather, though the repaint-
ing may have to wait. Once
installed, the bleachers must
be laser-leveled and will be
painted the same shade of
green as the old seats, Seufer
said.
A new storage space under
the grandstands was recently
completed, Elliott said. Items
such as open-class display
racks will be stored there 50
weeks a year, she said.
Before the snow fell last
week, work was completed
to install electrical conduit to
the animal barns, the Quon-
set hut used for storage and
to vendors’ stalls, Elliott
said. Further work on that
has been halted until spring,
she said.
Also on the “dream” hori-
zon is a new valve and a pres-
sure tank for the fairgrounds
well/sprinkler system, Elliott
said. She said they would
like to add a pumphouse that
could include a work shed
for Seufer’s use.
The fairgrounds also will
soon be ordering new, plastic
chairs for the Cloverleaf Hall
to replace the old, metal fold-
ing chairs long in use there.
Elliott said they also hope to
purchase a new barbecue for
the food booth.
Many of these projects
are scheduled for completion
before next year’s fair, set for
Aug. 1-8, Elliott said.
She expressed thanks for
donations toward these proj-
ects, including one for $500
and another for $2,500. She
said the fair board is always
eager to accept more.
“If anyone wants to take
up any of these projects,
we’d be happy to have them
help move them along,”
Elliott said.