"My husband tried the mcplant n has been vegan ever since! He said with alternatives that good eating animals seems ridiculous! That was beginning on Jan n he’s loving being vegan!"
I'm really torn about the issue of vegan fast food. Obviously, it's not healthy, fat, salt, sugar and processed ingredients aren't good. It is cheap and it's also quick, convenient, but most of it comes from companies that sell meat products, a lot of meat products, some of it cooked right beside the vegan options.
The McPlant
"A vegan burger made with a juicy plant-based patty co-developed with Beyond Meat® featuring vegan sandwich sauce, ketchup, mustard, onion, pickles, lettuce, tomato, and a vegan alternative to cheese in a sesame seed bun. Vegan certified."
McDonalds
A lot of people have been waiting a very long time for the McPlant burger. McDonalds has been one of the last fast food chains to produce a vegan option for their menu. This, in no way, is a healthy vegan option, on its own the burger is 429 calories and a lot of that comes from the 20g of fat in each burger. McDonalds took three years to develop this burger, most of that time was spent trying to get the cheese right. They signed a three year deal with Beyond Meat to allow this burger to come to the market and are hoping to expand on their vegan options with more products from the partnership.
The new burger has been far more successful than McDonald's had hoped and trial launches very quickly became nationwide launches in different countries around the world as vegans and meat eaters alike came in to try the meal. Sales predictions were exceeded as the burger sold 3 times as many as anyone had thought they would. For Beyond Meat this was a huge success, their share price went up by 4%, McDonalds saw a more modest 1%, but, overall the launch went well. Reviews were mostly positive with a lot of people returning to McDonalds to eat the burger several times.
"I think they're great. I had about 5. My daughter has had about 10 and got her omni friends eating them. They say they prefer them to the cow ones. The way I see it is Mcds will never change for ethical reasons they will follow the money. By showing demand for vegan foods they will produce more. And reduce animal products"
The Ethical Dilemma
No one is questioning the ethics of McDonalds, everyone knows what they stand for, money. Cows and chickens continue, and will continue, to suffer to keep production lines going in the fast food restaurants, there are more people queuing to eat animals products than plant based options, so what should a vegan do? Should we avoid these places, call them evil and never give them a penny of our hard earned money, or should we step inside and order the meat-free burgers with pride?
The choice to eat these burgers or not is a personal one, there is absolutely no right or wrong way to think about this. On one hand you have these companies that exploit animals, if you buy from them you add more money to their mechanism, to their practices. However, if you don't buy the plant-based option it will no longer be available for sale. If demand is too low no company will invest in vegan choices, we won't be back at square one, we'd have gone backwards completely. This does not mean that it is down to vegans to make sure that these products are a success. If people, as a whole, want to eat this burger they will. You will get meat eaters that want to reduce meat consumption buying these, there will be people that will buy the McPlant when eating with vegan friends. Some people will simply prefer it.
"If all the vegans boycotted McDonalds, McDonalds would still exist -- but they might stop producing vegan food. Which will create more vegans? Vegan options available 24-7, everywhere for the entire population, or fewer vegan options -- and a trip to an overpriced specialist vegan shop that's only open during certain times?"
Thank you, this is a valuable article. I think the debate will continue to rage on. I personally would limit my exposure to Muckdonalds unless I absolutely had no choice but to eat there. Go VEGAN.