Where's the Beef?

Ever wonder about what is in the new processed fake meat product? I did and read a few articles about the ingredients. I had to ask myself, is this product with its multiple plant proteins (pea isolate, textured soybean) and canola/coconut oil really better at returning carbon units to the soil or providing the majority of the essential amino acids to my body?

Since picture is worth a thousand words, I have included a picture of some of the ingredients contained in the new, trendy man-made protein produced by big Ag. Perhaps it a means of utilizing inexpensive commodities such as soybeans currently glutting the market due to a trade war. This type of thinking seems to have driven the large amounts of high fructose corn sugars placed in so many foods from breads to canned fruit. Funny, when I make bread I don't add sugar! And we wonder why American waistlines are increasing!

I didn't really get too excited about this processed product with multiple ingredients, as I am trying to avoid processed foods and choose REAL foods. This new trend seems to run contrary to a simple, wholesome food choice such as grass-fed beef.

Grass-fed beef farmers refer to themselves as grass farmers and nowadays microbe farmers. They seek to improve pasture forage nutrient availability for the cows by improving the soil, which in turn improves the forage (plants).

Without getting too far into the weeds, so to speak, about plant photosynthesis, here it is in a nutshell. The plants pull CO2 from the air and convert it to glucose and oxygen. The quality of the forage is very important since the cows convert plant proteins into animal proteins. In the process, carbon (manure) is returned to the soil as they graze.

You are what you eat, and what that animal eats.

Can nature be improved upon in the factory?