It's probably fair to say that when most people think of ‘Irish food,’ vegan choices don't necessarily jump off the plate.
That many international people probably wouldn't rate Ireland at the top of any chart of the world's most vegan or vegetarian embracing lands isn't exceptionally surprising when climate and topography are factored in.
It's not exactly the best island to grow many vegetables on, and for most of its history, the more dependable and dinner option would have been meat. But impressions and reality can be very different things.
According to Chef's Pencil, a food magazine for culinary industry professionals, Ireland ranks as the 10th most popular country for veganism as of 2020. Such surveys are obviously not scientifically peer-reviewed studies, but while Ireland ranked in the top 10 worldwide, it did even better in Europe – grabbing sixth place.
If those numbers surprise you, hold on to your hat as we’ve got more: Irish Central reports that Dublin was ranked the world's most vegan-friendly city in the world in 2019, with over 21% of restaurants in the city classified as vegan-friendly (Phuket in Thailand took the number two spot while Amsterdam came in at number three).
Whether these reports are exaggerated or not it seems clear that a shift is occurring in Ireland towards consuming fewer animal products, which is in line with changes we are seeing across the world.
People choosing to adopt a vegan diet, or so-called ‘flexitarians’ who aim to reduce their meat intake as much as possible have various motives. Some are concerned with the damaging toll the meat industry takes on the environment, while others are worried about the damaging toll meat takes on their own health.
Others are conscientious objectors, so to speak. But perhaps less talked about than it should be is a significant reason why vegan populations are soaring… and that's meat substitutes. The days when you had to pick between a beef roast or boiled yams for dinner are long gone.
Mock meat or meat substitutes have helped many adjust to new diets, but if you thought one of those fancy veggie ‘bleeding burgers’ was the pinnacle of ‘alt-meat’ achievement, happily you’re very wrong.
Imagine a vegan kebab that even a barbeque expert has trouble differentiating from one made from lamb – this is already a reality.
Over the past 5 years or so high-tech startups have gotten massive infusions of cash – billions of dollars have been invested in a new generation of meat substitutes that are being ranked by critics as the ‘closest imitation animal protein ever created.’
A good chunk of these startups are based in startup-friendly Israel, where you'll find firms using AI software and 3D printers to create vegan steak. Yes, the words ‘vegan’ and ‘steak’ shouldn't go together… but the 21st century is only just getting started but is already doing a good job of destroying preconceived notions.
The meat substitutes currently available are sometimes good or even occasionally decent, but not anything necessarily to write home about.
Dedicated carnivores haven't been impressed but that's about to change – drastically. UK celebrity chef Marco Pierre White late last year hosted a tasting party attended by a reporter from The Guardian as well as barbecue experts and others who chomped down on products from Israeli ‘new meat’ startup Redefine Meat.
The guests – not avowed tree huggers or ‘meat-is-murder’ activists by any stretch – uniformly gave the products two thumbs up with chef and barbecue expert Ben Bartlett rating these new products (being termed ‘alternative meat’ or ‘new meat’) with scores of nines and 10s.
Those are impressive scores and point to a fast-approaching future where substitutes of all kinds (dairy, eggs, and meat) do not have to be inferior versions of the originals.
Taste and texture matter and this new crop of startups are putting sensory elements front and centre as they understand a fundamental reality; people, for the most part, enjoy eating meat.
Not because they enjoy the fact that an animal needed to be raised and slaughtered, but because of the satisfaction the taste of meat provides, a craving that’s woven into our dietary DNA. Activists who scream “meat is murder” aren’t doing to change hearts and minds (or stomachs).
But most of us know – despite some of these activists' arguable obnoxiousness – that overall, they are right.
Meat may not be murder, but any honest assessment shows the industry is unsustainable and damaging to the planet, and not all that great for one’s health, either.
It would be better for nearly everyone and everything if more of us moved to a primarily plant-based diet.
Anti-meat activists should welcome these new, revolutionary versions of meaty-meat substitutes as gateways that could help lead many eventually to adopt a meat-free diet.
Meanwhile, meat lovers (and alt-meat investors) can take heart in knowing that ‘new meat’ is already being rated by chefs and butchers as 90% similar to the real deal.
The tech can only get better, which means science is on track to more than satisfy the cravings for tastes and textures most of us enjoy.
