NOT real meat

Stella McCartney makes vegan shoes which cost ££££s. You can get vegan Doc Martens which look the same as the leather ones, plus canvas, trainers etc

Plastic shoes can’t be good for the planet though.

Eglantine21

Plastic shoes are a very minuscule % of the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis.
If we stopped using them, the planet wouldn't feel the difference - plastic wise

Its single use plastics that are the problem. Not all plastic.

I have been vegan for over 30 years after reading a book by Frances Moore Lappe called Diet for a Small Planet. The first edition was written in 1971, I read it in 1985, and it is still in print in its 20th edition. Frances was ahead of her time.
As others have said the words that describe a the shape and style of mixture of ingredients have simply evolved to cover a wider range of food stuff and the 'fake' meat is a relative millenial thing - I rarely eat it, but its not new - 'mock duck' (seitan) has been eaten in China for thousands of years. My grandmother had a war time recipe for 'mock goose'. Meat does cost the earth in more ways than one.

I do not preach conversion nor do I go out of my way to mention that I am vegan unless invited or expected to eat away from home. Most people are willing to provide an alternative without animal products although occasionally 'just the vegetables' or declining the non vegan offer is the 'choice.', As far as the Planet is concerned, if the OP, having now discovered she enjoyed the Tesco vegan dish, even she does not want to eat vegan food every day, but thinks about abstaining from eating meat and/or dairy at every single meal then it would help the environment in a small way. Every little helps (excuse the marketing pun).

I can see it’s a minuscule amount in the grand scheme of things but like they say, if you’re not part of the solution.......

No I don’t think you can just pass over using plastic shoes as an alternative and say it doesn’t count.

We definitely need to go back to rubber. The restoration of rubber plantations might help the environment. Or would it? Would it be like palm oil destroying other plants?

How complicated it all is.

My understanding is that any product - even vegetarian products - require ingredients to be listed on the packaging.

I don't care if people choose to eat meat or only vegetables. I try to stick to a vegetarian diet but occasionally eat meat. My primary reasons for trying to stick to vegetables are : 1. intensive "factory farming" is much more prevalent now, which is not good for the animals being farmed or the people eating the food, and 2. production of meat uses up far more resources.

I don't see why anyone would object to vegetarian produce looking like meat products. Some vegetarians and some meat eaters dislike vegetables being designed to look like meat products but why?

All plastic has a life of durability but what happens to it after it starts to break down?

I don't object to anyone making a choice to be vegetarian or vegan or to be omnivorous. It's natural for some animals to be obligate carnivores, cats for example, and for some to be totally herbivorous. Humans evolved to be omnivores but we can exercise choice.

What I find hypocritical is when people criticise or mock others' choices but object to being criticised or mocked for their own choices. That applies to meat eaters and vegans alike. It's juvenile to comment with "Eew!" or, "Meat is dead and rotting!" or, " Get a good steak into you!" when looking at someone else's plate or shopping basket or to describe their food choices in any emotive terms.

Most of the foods we eat are dead (and therefore, one assumes, decaying) apart from whole grains and seeds or possibly very fresh roots, which can go on to produce new plants and seeds if we don't uproot and eat them. Most leaves and fruits are certainly not viable, nor are processed legumes like split peas and red lentils. Therefore, they are dead. Flour is definitely dead. Plants often protect themselves from predation by being poisonous or growing thorns and spines. We have learned to cook poisonous things like red kidney beans by vigorous boiling. That certainly kills them.

The casserole was delicious because of all the vegetables in it. (The recipe is on the Tesco webpages for the contributor who asked) The small pieces of "sausage" tasted like stuffing, not unpleasant but when I make it with real Cumberland sausages I know I will enjoy it more.
Yes the ingredients were listed on the packaging on display and the lady who had cooked the dish did explain what was in it once she had finished speaking to other customers. More than half my meals are vegetarian, but I do object to artificial meat as it is processed and masquerading as something it is not. I feel Tesco has badly misjudged their customers from the comments I heard.

Are Cumberland sausages not “processed”?

Of course they are crystaltipps

I have a strong reaction to Quorn - linked to the fact that I have developed a violent allergy to mushrooms (& presumably other fungi) as I get older - so if the casserole hadn't been advertised as 'meat free' but looked as though it had sausages in it, I'd probably have asked whether it had mushrooms in it, and if not I would almost certainly have tried it... And if the 'pieces of sausage' had been Quorn, I'd have been very ill..

I bought three pairs of M&S vegan boots last week.
Made in China and even the glue is vegan.
One pair are hiking boots, the other two pairs are faux suede and more 'dressy'.
£45 each and 20% off.
I'm not a vegan but these boots will last and last and can be washed.

Gabriella they may be very nice vegan boots but they will be made of synthetic materials so have a high carbon footprint (pun intended).
Leather has a much lower environmental impact.
As we are discussing Vegan products, how environmentally friendly are they in reality.

Waitrose 1 have 97% pork, Tesco 90% in theirs but the pork isn't just lean meat. It could be from the snout or tail for all you know.
Never take listed ingredients at face value.

I’m veggie have been for nearly 30years. Personally I prefer meals made from vegetable rather than substitutes meat products. I don’t understand why people would want to eat them. However each to their own. One daughter and her family all veggie, husband does eat meat occasionally and the children can try it if they want to. They love pepperoni . I must admit I always have a bag of emergency veggie sausages in the freezer, I just don’t eat them. My other granddaughter who is a meat eat likes them too.

We all have a carbon footprint, the best we can do is to make choices that we consider to be ethical whatever that means to us. Having seen where leather comes from I avoid it completely.

Very. Cows not only give out huge amounts of methane gas but the slaughter, tanning processes, dying, drying and subsequent manufacture of leather boots (or shoes) is beaten hands down by responsibly sourced and manufactured vegan footwear.

I'm with what they call the 'flexitarian' contingent.

We never ate a lot of meat in our household but recently had to morph with the times as daughter became vegetarian. It is easier (and cheaper) to cook same things as a household.

Despite being a good cook myself (and she is) we found we didn't really like the taste of veggie alternatives to meat.

There were also other dietary requirements. Me post-menopause feeling as if I need more omega three (I buy fresh sardines) and having been anaemic in the past due to period issues and flooding, sometimes eat meat by myself because I feel I need it.

Then there are financial issues and general CO2 emissions per head. It the per head bit that I feel needs to be in the forefront. We have never run a car, don't fly and insulation in house is good. So our CO2 emisisons are laughable really compared to some.

So all in all, I am still learning, will reflect on points raised here.

Was recently looking for new school shoes. Resorted to Clarks for the fit. When she was younger used to buy the leather ones from Green Shoes as you could get them stretched and though expensive, they lasted ages. But actually my babes wanted vegan school shoes but couldn't find any. Please mention if you know of any decent ones. (They can't look rustic but must fit in with school shoe requirements...black...polishable etc)

Will look out for the veggie sausages and casserole recipe. As with most things in life, variety is the key I feel for us moving forward.

Thanks
painting

m and s has closed down in our town, otherwise I would have asked there about vegan school shoes. Its a shame it has, but then they are being replaced by a charity superstore. Personally in austerity I feel that is actually more useful for people. Reduce, reuse recycle etc.

Davidhs

I have it on good authority that the boots I mentioned in earlier comment are made from plant derivatives as is the glue.
That means ya can eat them when ya finish wearing them...or bury them and ya might get a row of corn or a plot of hemp.
???

You can look on M&S website for vegan school shoes.
All vegan stuff is labelled and clear on website.

I don't much care what others eat, it's everyone's personal choice. I've never been that fond of meat and nowadays our diet is majority vegetarian. I usually choose vegetarian when I'm eating out, too. I'd probably become veggie if I didn't live with a family of meat-lovers! Fortunately, I live in rural Scotland so I can buy locally produced meat and avoid the factory farmed stuff.

However, I'm wary of meat substitutes. I was really quite ill (as in spending the night in the bathroom!) after having Linda Macartney sausages and I can't tolerate soya products so I stay away from those. I'm happy with veg and pulses etc.

I do like cheese, though, and don't think I'd want to be vegan.

Gabriella are the vegan school shoes flexible?
I was thinking that some of those awful pvc shoes have no 'give' in them, not good for young feet, and tend to make the feet sweat.
Presumably being made of plant material they would be better.
Can they be polished, cleaned? (I'm thinking of muddy puddles).