Why the Meatless Impossible Burger Does Little for Humanity

Shruti Bakshi
Aug 9, 2017 · 3 min read
Credit: Dllu

Mostly when people voluntarily give up meat, they are motivated by a heightened sensitivity to other life. They act from a place of renunciation, personal sacrifice and respect for life and nature.

However with meat substitutes, we still want to feel like we’re eating meat and want to squeeze our way through the entry gate to the moral high ground via a technicality. We stick to the letter and completely miss the spirit. It’s a classic ‘I’ll have my cake and eat it too’ attitude.

In fact here’s how the Impossible Foods website introduces its meatless burger:

“A delicious burger made entirely from plants for people who love meat. No more compromises.”

Why would someone who wants to switch to eating plants love meat? The company is basically saying, ‘Want to not change your frowned-upon habits and still feel good about it?’ It’s not a call to our humanity. It’s a call to our senses.

This attitude flies in the face of one of the most basic spiritual precepts (so to speak) — being mindful of our ‘intention’. It’s no doubt good if we stop slaughtering animals physically, but if we continue to rejoice in slaughtering them mentally, our inner growth will be very stunted. Ahimsa or non-violence is not just about killing with a knife, but also killing with our words and thoughts.

In developing fake-meat products that are as close to the real thing as possible, we are implicitly saying ‘We don’t need to exploit nature, we can make what nature can make just as well’. This brand of vegetarianism, instead of pointing towards humility, points towards hubris.

Instead of approaching a vegetarian lifestyle from a grateful and reverential standpoint, where we are humbled by the gifts of Mother Nature, we end up strengthening our arrogance and inauthentic and superficial lifestyle. With over-engineered and genetically modified foods, we lose the chance to develop finer sensibilities and may move even further away from the natural world than if we just chose to eat meat.

The meatless takeaway

While meat substitutes can have the desirable impact of lowering rates of animal slaughter, they should not replace an authentic vegetarian lifestyle which is a reflection of a satvik (purified) mind. We must remember that they are substitutes for meat, not for veggies.

Going meatless authentically, means honouring and respecting nature and feeling for all other life that shares the planet with us. It is about becoming conscious about our consumption and not being led by sensory pleasures which cause us to behave in compulsive and destructive ways. It is about realising that pleasuring the senses is not the way to real contentment and then turning within to search for more lasting fulfilment.

And all this is impossible to achieve with the Impossible Burger.

For the full article, see here: http://livingwiseproject.com/2017/08/09/meatless-impossible-burger-little-humanity/

Shruti Bakshi

Written by

Founder, www.livingwiseproject.com| Author, From Dior to Dharma| MBA @INSEAD| Ex-banker| Cambridge University| Writing| Spirituality.

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