Can Thailand be a world leader for plant based meat and sustainable agriculture?

[snoop1130]

 

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children”

 

The reality of climate change is hitting us harder than we ever imagined, as I am writing this, I am watching news coverage on a glacier in the Uttarakhand Himalayan region of India which burst two days ago. The remoteness of where this happened means no-one has a definitive answer, so far. 

 

Experts say one possibility is that massive ice blocks broke off the glacier due to a temperature rise, releasing a huge amount of water. We are already seeing the possibilities of how inhabitable our planet will become in the lifetime of a teenager. The point is we are neck deep in an existential crisis we created and the question on whether we can mitigate climate change remains to be answered.

 

The food we eat has a huge impact on the planet and I was curious to understand the future of sustainable agriculture and plant based meat in Thailand. Can you imagine a day meat might be replaced by plant based meat? There are more and more plant based meat options in the meat section, I never thought I would see vegetables in the meat section. I strongly believe that the next ten years will define humanity, human action has caused climate change and human action also has the power to mitigate climate change. We have to choose between action and inaction and what we choose will define our future.

 

I met four industry leaders who are passionate about plant based meat and sustainable agriculture to understand the challenges of replacing meat with plant based meat in Thailand, a culture which has deep rooted connections to eating meat. Here is an excerpt from my Interview with them:

 

Root the future : A NGO for news and articles on plant based and sustainability related projects in Thailand.

 

Expat Life: What do you think are the main challenges for plant based meat in Thailand ?

Root The Future: The main challenges for plant based meat In Thailand are awareness, price point and accessibility. The facts and figures about plant based food and the environment have only recently emerged in social dialogue here in Thailand so it’s a very new thing that many people don’t know about. 

 

The second thing, is that because of how new the plant based movement is here, there has been no time for most companies to scale up and start selling these products at a competitive price compared to meat, so the price point can still be relatively high for plant based meat (although plant based whole food is still some of the cheapest food the world over). 

 

And thirdly, accessibility. This is a big one. For the folks who are aware of plant based food and it’s numerous benefits, and are willing to pay for it, it is still sometimes not accessible enough to make it convenient for people to purchase regularly (again talking about plant based alternatives like meat whole foods are incredibly easy and cheap to access).

 

Expat Life: Can it find a wider and a more mainstream market in Thailand in 2021?

In 2020 we saw the plant based food trend absolutely skyrocket. More people are sharing information and fast becoming aware. In 2020 we also saw a huge amount of plant based businesses start up. With the state of our environment and the ease of information sharing via social media, the only way is up. The movement is snowballing. Because this isn’t just a trend or a fad – it has real and impactful consequences for our planet, the animals and our health, there is no chance of it slowing down. That means in 2021 we expect to see more plant based business, more information and education, more accessibility and competitive price points for plant based food. 

 

We are very excited for 2021 and are so inspired by this movement here in Thailand. We have no doubt that Thailand has a real chance of becoming the next big leader in plant based food.

 

Full Story: https://expatlifeinthailand.com/education/can-thailand-be-a-world-leader-for-plant-based-meat-and-sustainable-agriculture/

 

-- © Copyright Expat Life in Thailand 2021-05-27

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[klauskunkel]

Quote

Can Thailand be a world leader for plant based meat and sustainable agriculture?

not sure about "world leader", but it could definitely be a hub!

[Thingamabob]

I hope so. Anything to stop the ridiculous and cruel cycle of raising animals to then be killed and eaten by us because we like their taste. In time people will look back at thousands of years of human history and ask "what on earth did we think we were doing" ?

[NaamGin]

3 minutes ago, Thingamabob said:

I hope so. Anything to stop the ridiculous and cruel cycle of raising animals to then be killed and eaten by us because we like their taste. In time people will look back at thousands of years of human history and ask "what on earth did we think we were doing" ?

 

Good luck with that as I have read that over 85% of the world's population eats meat, whereas vegans makeup roughly 3 - 5% of the global population... Global meat consumption has doubled over the last 50 years... There is no more vocal group railing against meat consumption than vegans... When was the last time you read of a meat-eater railing against vegans, except for calling them out on their virtue signaling? 

[BritManToo]

18 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Expat Life: What do you think are the main challenges for plant based meat in Thailand ?

The main challenge would be no normal people want to eat plant based meat products.

[natway09]

Of couse they can.

But first they should concentrate on getting rid of this pesky deadly viral iinfection

[TKDfella]

Okay I'm gonna be 'picky' here. We haven't yet got to the stage where we can manufacture our sustenance for the basic raw chemicals (unless you are on board the USS Enterprise with Capt. Picard) . Everyone seems to talk like that plants aren't alive...they are! so the point is we have to kill something to live. There has been a lot of research over the past decades that show plants and trees react to all sorts of stimulus and produce some chemicals that our brains produce. No they don't have neurons but they have electronic pathways that parallel neurons, at least according to some researches. There is still a lot we don't understand about this.

I do eat a little meat...haven't eaten a steak in a long time...but the amount of fruit and veg I eat is quite large. What I'm saying is that small amounts of meat can supply our needs whereas if we ate totally veg the amounts would have to be increased to supply the quota.

Maybe we should go back to the caveman times and chase our next meal through the jungles with a knife (no guns allowed, ha!)...you might get a few scratches in the process though.????

[Justgrazing]

20 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Can you imagine a day meat might be replaced by plant based meat?

 

Only with 2 veg .. that'll beat the meat ..

[Excel]

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

The main challenge would be no normal people want to eat plant based meat products.

But we are talking Thailand here.

[rickudon]

Sustainable? Yes. The late king did promote 'Sufficiency economy' as a means for many people to live sustainably and feed themselves.

 

Plant based meat? Hopefully not. Most current/past options have been lacking taste, texture and where rarely cheaper. Also highly processed. Modern version may be better on taste, but some are dreadfully expensive and producing them is not something you can really do at home - which means the populace is forced to buy their food from the manufacturers, who will have little competition. Yes, more inequality.

 

Eat less meat, yes. Eat more protein rich vegetables, yes. Currently my family provide about 50% of their protein from home grown sources - cannot do that with 'plant based meat'. Also, sustainable farming works best when you can use animals to process wastes and provide manure for fertiliser. Where is all the fertiliser going to come from with no animals?

[CALSinCM]

They'll be pork chops on the Thai menu well after the West has brow-beaten the Western urban masses into eating bugs and GMO soy meat.

[CALSinCM]

4 hours ago, NaamGin said:

Good luck with that as I have read that over 85% of the world's population eats meat, whereas vegans makeup roughly 3 - 5% of the global population...

If you listened to Western main-stream media you'd think 85% of the population were GMO soy eaters.  Of course we are told by the MSM that if we continue to eat meat, the sea levels will rise and the coast will be under water.
I'm good with that.  I believe it 100% but I'm just biding my time.  When Al Gore and Barrack Obama's beach-front homes are flooded out, that will be the day I start eating soy-burger.  Until then?  Meat's on the menu baby!

[johng]

1 hour ago, rickudon said:

Where is all the fertiliser going to come from with no animals?

Have you watched the film  "Soylent Green" ?

[CALSinCM]

4 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

I hope so. Anything to stop the ridiculous and cruel cycle of raising animals to then be killed and eaten by us because we like their taste. In time people will look back at thousands of years of human history and ask "what on earth did we think we were doing" ?

A thousand years of human history shows that man and nature were in balance.  It still can be in balance. 

[CALSinCM]

1 hour ago, rickudon said:

Where is all the fertiliser going to come from with no animals?

"KLICKITAT COUNTY, Wash. (KOIN) — Walt Patrick slowly rolls a giant wooden spool-shaped cradle back and forth. Inside, a human body is gradually being turned into compost, one of the first licensed “natural organic reductions” to be performed in the entire country."

Full story:
https://www.koin.com/news/special-reports/human-composting-now-legal-begins-in-washington/

[CLW]

Why most of entrepreneurs and NGO staff look like hippies from the 70s?

[Nojohndoe]

Plant based meat ? Isn't that what beef and mutton is ?

If people want to promote the latest version of TVP at least try to describe it as anything  but "meaT".

 

[bojo]

7 minutes ago, Nojohndoe said:

Plant based meat ? Isn't that what beef and mutton is ?

If people want to promote the latest version of TVP at least try to describe it as anything  but "meaT".

 

Absolutely, I think if it wasn't identified or promoted as 'meat' and was branded differently as it should be IMO, that many sceptics and haters etc etc, (subject to the product being tasty) could well indulge and potentially incorporate it in their diet over time.....can't be a bad thing can it, surely?................. 

[wprime]

Can Thailand be a world leader for plant based meat and sustainable agriculture?

 

Plant based meat no - this is capital intensive. Thailand has no competitive advantage here.

 

Sustainable agriculture maybe - a lot of the legal frameworks are already there but the enforcement needs to be better. Actually this is probably a no as well, Thailand isn't good at enforcing anything.

[lavender19]

Why call it meat? If it's a plant.