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mucifer

(23,374 posts)
Sun May 10, 2020, 04:45 PM May 2020

Why Illinois Will Rule the Meatless Future

More than a decade ago, Harold Wilken, a soybean farmer in Iroquois County, transformed his 2,200-acre farm into an organic operation and, rather than growing animal feed, began supplying beans for soy milk and miso soup, and to the Edgewater tofu maker Phoenix Bean.

Was Wilken ahead of his time? Since the fall of 2018, Burger King has introduced the soy-based Impossible Burger, White Castle has added the Impossible Slider, and KFC has begun selling the chickenless Beyond Fried Chicken. That means plant-based meats, once on the menu only at vegetarian restaurants, are now in every neighborhood. The Economist called 2019 “the year veganism goes mainstream.”

For Illinois, which grows more soybeans than any other state, the rise of vegan hamburgers is an Impossible dream. Just as we once dominated the meat industry with the Union Stock Yards, we can dominate the meatless industry with our farms. “Illinois is the ideal place to develop this industry,” says Vijay Singh, director of the University of Illinois’s Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory in Urbana, which is developing alternative proteins. “We have some of the most fertile ground in the world.”

Illinois’s soybeans can be converted into vegan eggs and into heme, the additive that gives the Impossible Burger its meaty taste, Singh says. Protein can also be fermented from corn sugar, providing a new market for the state’s other staple crop?—?which needs a new market now that high-fructose corn syrup is flavoring fewer soft drinks. “All the [food] startup culture is happening in California or Massachusetts, but where are they getting all their sugars?” asks Singh. “The sugars are coming from Illinois. It’s a great thing for our corn and soybean farmers.”





more: http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/December-2019/Plant-Based-Burgers/

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Budi

(15,325 posts)
4. Soy makes some people ill. I believe the fault lies in how it affects hormonal balance
Sun May 10, 2020, 05:11 PM
May 2020

Just recalling from briefs I've read in the past.

Ok. Just don't call it a burger.

Gross.

mucifer

(23,374 posts)
6. There is a reason I posted this in the veg forum. I don't want to argue with you about what is gross
Sun May 10, 2020, 05:42 PM
May 2020

abqtommy

(14,118 posts)
3. This is a good/positive read. In 1996-1997 I was living in South Dakota and during the harvest
Sun May 10, 2020, 05:03 PM
May 2020

in the fertile area where I was (this means that corn and soybeans were being harvested...poorer ground is only good for growing wheat) I visited the staging area in our small town where soybeans were being piled up to create a mound that, if natural, would be described as a hill. (corn went directly to the town's grain elevator)

I asked one local man there how much this pile/hill of soybeans was worth and after thinking a bit he told me "5 Million Dollars"! I was amazed and still am. And the harvest wasn't even over yet... That's a lot of potential food products from one small town/county!

jimfields33

(15,471 posts)
5. Only until someone decides pulling out veggies equals cruel and an awful thing to do
Sun May 10, 2020, 05:37 PM
May 2020

I can see that happening. Maybe in 15 years. Did it with trees.

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