1. "Vegetable meat", commonly known as "bean products"

This year, more and more catering enterprises have launched (or "artificial meat") products - McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, IKEA and Nestle. It is very interesting. Almost all of them are international catering enterprises.

Why are international catering enterprises scrambling to promote "plant meat" products? Do they really care about the health of your people and your environmental protection, or do they cut your leeks in the name of health and environmental protection?

Today, let's talk about "bean products" -- ah, no, it's "vegetable meat.".

"Plant meat" sounds like a very tall thing. But it is actually a product made from soybean and other plant proteins, which attempts to imitate meat in taste, commonly known as "soybean products.".

When it comes to bean products, Chinese people are no strangers at all. China's food culture has a long history, and tofu has been available since the Han Dynasty. Today, China has formed a rich tofu culture.

If someone says to you every day, don't eat meat, eating soy products is healthier for you, you must think this person is crazy. But if someone tells you not to eat meat and that eating "plant meat" is healthier for you, you will think whether his words are reasonable.

Therefore, both artificial meat producers and catering enterprises strive to strictly distinguish between "vegetable meat" and "bean products" -- but in fact, there is no difference between them.

Once consumers associate "vegetable meat" with soy products, they not only have to accept the harsh tastes, but also can not get rid of the label that it is not meat.

It is only one step to distinguish "vegetable meat" from soy products, and it is not enough to persuade consumers to spend the price of meat on soy products. It is necessary to make the image of "plant meat" as a healthy and environmental protection deeply rooted in the hearts of the people before consumers can pay for it. Therefore, in the related publicity of "plant meat", there is a lot of talk about the unhealthy eating of meat. If you believe it, you will fall into the discourse trap of capital.

Not to mention that the protein contained in meat is completely irreplaceable by "plant meat", the health of "plant meat" itself is still a controversial topic. When "plant meat" was launched in the United States in 2019, many nutritionists did not agree that "plant meat" was healthier. However, the extensive publicity of "plant meat" will only tell you what they want to tell you.

It doesn't matter whether "plant meat" is healthy or environmentally friendly. You don't eat pork, which is very important to capital.

2. What "plant meat" wants to kill is not animal husbandry, but China's animal husbandry

In the middle of the soft articles on "plant meat", I found that it pointed to an industry: animal husbandry. In the article, all of them publicize the harm of greenhouse gas emissions from animal husbandry to the environment.

Why does "plant meat" have to kill animal husbandry? Perhaps what "plant meat" wants to kill is not animal husbandry, but China's animal husbandry. The British economist once published an article saying that "the Chinese eat pork and harm the whole world." the US Time magazine said: "if China's livestock industry is halved, it may reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion tons."

China is a big producer and consumer of pork. In 2020, China's pork production was 41 million tons, accounting for about half of the world's pork production. The imported pork was only 4.4 million tons, and the self-sufficiency rate was as high as 90%. In the top ten of the global pig raising enterprises in 2021, there are six in China. The top five even occupied four.

On the contrary, soybeans are heavily dependent on imports. In 2020, China's soybean import exceeded 100 million tons, the domestic soybean output was less than 20 million tons, and the self-sufficiency rate was less than 20%. Moreover, China's soybean import source is also very single. Brazil, the United States and Argentina account for more than 90%, and Brazil alone accounts for more than 65%.

As we all know, "plant meat" is a soybean product, and the main raw material is soybean. There are three main uses of soybeans: soybean products, feed and oil extraction. In China, domestic soybeans are mainly used to make soybean products, while imported soybeans are mainly used for feed and oil extraction. In other words, animal husbandry (pork) is actually the downstream industry of soybean.

However, animal husbandry is a highly cyclical industry, and the periodicity is difficult to predict, and unexpected situations often occur. Take pork for example. It was still high at the beginning of this year, and it quickly went down in a few months. It is still unknown when the bottom will come.

The high self-sufficiency rate of China's pork has become an obstacle to international capital. Although international grain traders control the pricing power of soybeans, the periodicity of animal husbandry is also a great risk to soybeans traders. If you can't conquer the pork industry, you can bypass the pork. Therefore, "plant meat" has become a good alternative to pork.

3. If you control the food, you control the whole human race

The United States has a long history of using its agricultural strategy to occupy the agricultural market of other countries, and it is familiar with many successful cases.

After the end of World War II, the food shortage in Japan was very serious. The United States provided Japan with a large amount of wheat and flour. By the 1950s, the United States had a serious grain overproduction, and it even tried to let Japan import wheat from the United States.

In order to allow the Japanese to eat pasta, the United States established the "diet Improvement Association," which used all its propaganda machinery to advocate "nutrition improvement." it convinced the Japanese that the traditional diet was backward, and the western style diet was healthier. It was no different from the method of advocating "plant meat" today.

The United States has also vigorously promoted the bread lunch program in Japanese primary and secondary schools, with the intention of changing the Japanese diet from an early age.

In 1959, the United States launched the "live pig airlift operation", which provided 35 breeding pigs and 1500 tons of corn as feed to Japan. American pigs eating American corn were slaughtered two months faster than Japanese pigs, and Japanese pigs were eliminated. American corn successfully opened the market of Japanese animal husbandry and feed industry.

Since then, the Japanese diet has been rapidly westernized, and the proportion of bread and pasta has continuously increased. In 1965, Japan's per capita annual consumption of rice was 118 kg, and by 2015, it was only 56 kg. In 2016, the per capita rice expenditure in Japan was 1550 yen per month, the bread expenditure exceeded the rice expenditure to 2000 yen, and the noodle expenditure was 1200 yen.

India is another successful case. In 1966, India introduced hybrid wheat seeds with American technology from Mexico, thus setting off India's "green revolution". India's grain production began to explode. At the same time, American agricultural technology products such as fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides also poured into India, and American enterprises made a lot of money.

To sum up, on the consumer side, they create a healthy and environmental image of "plant meat" through mass media, advertising, and extensive publicity and packaging by catering enterprises, occupy the minds of consumers, and change the diet structure. On the production side, they seize the market through their scale advantages and first mover advantages in production, processing, circulation, scientific research and capital, and finally realize monopoly.