The French government issued a decree Tuesday banning the term “steak” on the label of vegetarian products, saying it was reserved for meat alone.

  • barsoap@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    It makes sense to call it vegan bacon or vegan steak because it clearly imitates the meat product and I don’t want to have to decipher what it’s supposed to be first.

    It makes sense to call it sex because it clearly imitates sex and I don’t want to decipher what “masturbation” means first.

    Words have fucking meaning. They need to have for communication to not break down. Don’t get your recipe book in a twist if people like their meaning to stay the same.

    • theonyltruemupf@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Words do have meaning, but that meaning is not set in stone. I’d argue that plant based sausages, schnitzel, burgers, steaks, bacon etc. are still just that. It’s more about the form factor than what exactly it’s made of.

      It should of course clearly be stated on the package what’s inside.
      I don’t see how “Vegan Bacon” might be a problem.

      • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        You’d argue that in France as a vendor, and you’d go to jail. Other countries will follow soon and I can see France Italy and Spain to push for this as a European law.

        Not a problem for you doesn’t mean that it’s okay for all customer of a country or of the eu, it can be misleading.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        It’s more about the form factor than what exactly it’s made of.

        It makes sense to call it a woman because it clearly has a hole and I don’t want to decipher what “fleshlight” means.

        EDIT: Oh, du sprichst deutsch. Bratling. Is das denn so schwer.

        • theonyltruemupf@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          I don’t think you argue in good faith. Also, Bratling is not a good word for many vegan meat substitutes.

          • barsoap@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Oh I do I’m just being crass. Let me try again:

            It makes sense to call it a beer because it comes in a bottle and I don’t want to decipher what “alcoholic soda with artificial flavour” means.

            …are there any substitutes that are neither Bratling nor Saitan (which is well-established?). Don’t buy the latter and make the former myself so I wouldn’t know. In my mind substitutes have no place in proper recipes but that’s a personal thing, a Bratling doesn’t try to be meat it just tries, and succeeds, at being a Frikadelle – something that you can put on a bun, or eat cold, or drench in sauce, really it’s astonishing how interchangeable the two are precisely because a good Bratling doesn’t try to imitate a product, but replicate a function.

            • theonyltruemupf@feddit.de
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              8 months ago

              There are tons of products that neither qualify as Bratling nor are made from seitan. Seitan is specifically wheat protein. Many things are based on soy, peas, beans etc.

              Also, why would I use an umbrella term like “seitan product” when I could just call the vegan sausage a vegan sausage?

    • Vegoon@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      What is the meaning of steak? Is it enough to kill some animal and write steak on the package? Or do you care which animal it was? If you don’t buy [generic steak] you likely would want to know which animal the flesh is from and it requires another word to describe it. Horse steak is as fine of a descritption as saitan steak.

        • Vegoon@feddit.de
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          8 months ago

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steak

          Steaks are cut from animals including cattle, bison, buffalo, camel, goat, horse, kangaroo,[1][2] sheep, ostrich, pigs, turkey, and deer, as well as various types of fish, especially salmon and large fish such as swordfish, shark, and marlin.

          So you can distinct between all these animals flesh but you feel challanged to read “plant based meat”

          • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Oh good lord, you all have the same edgy argument on this thread. Are you gonna tell me that I need to learn how to read next, or that I am an idiot, and that the problem is just me?

            Millions of people buy their meat as I just described. They expect to be able to do so moving forward. If youbare used to grab a head of broccoli and move on why do you need someone to start questioning how you chose it, how do you really knownits not cabbage, and really don’t you even read if it’s organic or where it comes from?

            Yes in many cases the label can be misleading. A whole country just legislated about it. I’m not french but agree this is the right decision.

            I’m all for veganism and vegetarianism. And for plant based products. I also like to fuckong know what I am buying without having to dissect it.

            • Vegoon@feddit.de
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              8 months ago

              I’m all for veganism and vegetarianism. And for plant based products. I also like to fuckong know what I am buying without having to dissect it.

              Then go vegan and learn how you have to truly dissect food and read the ingredients to find if it contains something like pig bone powder.

              If you don’t want to then legislate for a label like the (V)egan label and put it on all products made from animals, I would still support you. Telling a vegan how hard it is to read ingredients is weak.

              • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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                8 months ago

                No I’m not going vegan we should both be able to make out food choices and not have to second guess. That’s my whole fucking point about not mislabelling food.

                I’m telling a vegan that reading ingredients could be even harder if we don’t regulate and use the right words. The fact that you had it hard doesn’t mean everyone else should.

                • Vegoon@feddit.de
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                  8 months ago

                  I’m telling a vegan that reading ingredients could be even harder if we don’t regulate and use the right words.

                  The ingredient list is already regulated. We could make it easier for all with a “animal product” label but at the moment it is only the animal industry which is lobbying for restrictive product names. I am against restrictions of names but in favor for a clear declaration of ingredients.

    • FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      They do have a meaning, yes. And ultraprocessed vegan steaks fulfill the general functions of a steak, so I don’t see what the fuss is all about. There are different kinds of actual meat steaks, and they can’t be used interchangeably. I wouldn’t eat a chicken “steak tartare”, for instance. So differences are allowed as long as the general description matches. And I think we’ll need to agree to disagree, but I have enough imagination to qualify the vegan sewage roll as sausage, because they can be used as substitutes for meat sausages in a meal.

      You language prescriptivists are fighting a lost battle anyway. If people call it a steak, it is a steak, the Académie Française be damned. Languages aren’t decided centrally. The language’s speakers collectively make it what it is.

    • Exocrinous@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Handjobs are sex and you should definitely be including them when your doctor asks if you’ve had any sexual activity recently in your STI risk factors diffusion.

    • SkippingRelax@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Brigaded by vegans. Would love to see a thread about products labelled as vegan actually containing meat or eggs but only listed in the fine print. Their mouths would he froting about the actual.meaning of the word vegan and the importance of not mislabelling profucts

      • FlorianSimon@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        The word “meat” describes physical objects that fulfill a specific function, for which you can find substitutes. Sausage is an oblong object made of a casing filled with protein. Steak designates a (honestly delicious) slab of protein.

        Dictionaries haven’t caught up with modern uses of terms like “steak” or “sausage”, but it doesn’t really matter, because they don’t decide language centrally. Their role is to document how language is at a given point in time. And the consensus for the majority is that a steak is meat, but that is not set in stone. Things are changing. A growing proportion of people has started calling vegan sausage vegan sausage. Dictionaries might eventually follow the majority, if that majority ever materializes.

        Vegan foods mean, at the very least, that a food contains no animal products. Eggs don’t fit the bill, by any stretch of imagination. It’s a straight-up lie, like saying an American Camembert is an AOP Camembert de Normandie. I don’t think you made a strong case here.

        And look, I haven’t adopted all the newspeak myself. I don’t like the word “vegan steak”, because it strays too far from my definition of what steak is. Fake sausage and milk work for me. But my point is that my own stance doesn’t matter. It’s what the majority thinks that matters.