每日英語跟讀 Ep.K109: Big Meat Hops on the Meatless Bandwagon

Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, scrappy startups that share a penchant for superlatives and a commitment to protecting the environment, have dominated the relatively new market for vegetarian food that looks and tastes like meat.

超越肉類公司與不可能食品公司是同樣偏愛最高級事物，並致力保護環境、敢作敢為的兩家新創企業，已在外觀和口味都像肉的素食食品的新市場稱霸。

But with plant-based burgers, sausages and chicken increasingly popular and available in fast-food restaurants and grocery stores across the United States, a new group of companies has started making meatless meat: the food conglomerates and meat producers that Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods originally set out to disrupt.

而隨著植物製漢堡、香腸和雞肉在美國速食店與雜貨店日益受到歡迎，又有一批公司開始生產不含肉的肉品，而這些業者正是超越與不可能當初列為顛覆目標的食品集團和肉品生產商。

In recent months, major food companies like Tyson, Smithfield, Perdue, Hormel and Nestlé have rolled out their own meat alternatives, filling supermarket shelves with plant-based burgers, meatballs and chicken nuggets.

近幾個月，泰森、史密斯菲爾德、寶鵰、荷美爾和雀巢等大型食品公司各自推出肉類替代品，在超市貨架上擺滿了植物製漢堡、肉丸和雞塊。

Once largely the domain of vegans and vegetarians, plant-based meat is fast becoming a staple of more people’s diets, as consumers look to reduce their meat intake amid concerns about its health effects and contribution to climate change. Analysts project that the market for plant-based protein and lab-created meat alternatives could be worth as much as $85 billion by 2030.

曾大致劃歸純素和一般素食者專屬領域的植物製肉品，正迅速成為更多人正餐主食，因為消費者希望減少肉類攝取量，以免對自己的健康和氣候變遷造成不利影響。分析師預估，植物製蛋白質跟實驗室培養製造的肉類替代品，2030年時市場價值將高達850億美元。

Now, at supermarkets across the United States, shoppers can find plant-based beef and chicken sold alongside the packaged meat products that generations of Americans have eaten.

現在，購物者在全美超市均能找到植物製牛雞肉，跟歷代美國人吃的袋裝肉一起展售。

“There is a growing demand out there,” said John Pauley, the chief commercial officer for Smithfield, one of the largest pork producers in the country. “We’d be foolish not to pay attention.”

美國最大豬肉品生產商之一史密斯菲爾德的商務長保利說：「需求愈來愈大。我們不去注意就太愚蠢了。」

In September, Nestlé released the Awesome Burger, its answer to the meatless patties of Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. Smithfield started a line of soy-based burgers, meatballs and sausages, and Hormel began offering plant-based ground meat.

今年九月，雀巢推出「令人讚嘆漢堡」來迎戰超越與不可能的無肉肉餅，史密斯菲爾德亦開賣大豆製漢堡、肉丸和香腸，荷美爾則開始提供植物製絞肉。

Many supporters of meatless alternatives have hailed the new products as a sign that plant-based meat has gained widespread acceptance.

許多無肉替代品支持者對這種新產品表示歡迎，認為這代表植物製的肉已廣獲接受。

But the emergence of these meat companies in the plant-based protein market has also prompted suspicion and unease among some environmental activists, who worry the companies could co-opt the movement by absorbing smaller startups, or simply use plant-based burgers to draw attention away from other environmental misdeeds.

但這些肉品公司涉足植物製蛋白質市場，引起一些環保人士懷疑和不安，他們擔心這些公司恐透過吸納規模較小的新創企業來收服這項運動，或乾脆使用植物製漢堡來引開人們對其他不環保行為的注意力。

Pat Brown, the chief executive of Impossible Foods, has long described the project of creating faux meat as an environmental imperative. Brown has even set a deadline: eliminate animal products from the global food supply by 2035.

不可能食品公司執行長布朗一向把創造人造肉的計畫描述成一種環保責任。布朗甚至設定了最終期限，2035年之前要把動物產品自全球食物供應中剔除。

Not all his new rivals are quite so idealistic. Their goal is not to upend the meat industry in the name of sustainability. It is mainly to make money.

他的新競爭對手並非全都如此理想主義。他們的目標不是顛覆肉品業以追求永續，主要是為了賺錢。

Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/4169563

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