Where’s the Beef?
- Posted by: TaylorClark , GregMiller
- on February 3, 2008 at 9:56 pm
When Seth Tibbott stopped eating meat, back in 1974, Thanksgiving became one of the bleakest dates on his calendar—an entire day devoted to a sumptuous roasted bird that he couldn’t touch. “It was like, ‘Here’s your salad and baked potato—be happy,’” recalls Tibbott, sitting in his office at Turtle Island Foods, his Hood River, Oregon, company. “But everyone else, they’re having turkey, eating stuffing, having fun. We tried to make things like stuffed pumpkin instead, but it took all day and was never very good.”
From this frustration, a meatless icon was born: the Tofurky, a softball-sized mound of flora and spices that boasts a surprisingly turkey-like taste and texture. Tibbott discovered that if he blended puréed tofu with wheat gluten, and threw in a few secret ingredients, the resulting creation possessed many of the same qualities as meat. When he first started selling the nonbirds, in 1995, he was met with raised eyebrows—from vegetarians and carnivores alike. After all, if you didn’t want to eat flesh, why would you crave a flesh facsimile? But doubt eventually gave way to necessity—the Tofurky granted vegetarians a reprieve from their Thanksgiving Day purgatory, and, surprisingly, it tasted good. Sales climbed. In 2006, Tibbott’s company—formerly a minuscule purveyor of soy products—sold its one-millionth Tofurky roast, and more than 250,000 now ship out each year.
Today, Turtle Island Foods is the fastest-growing meat-alternative brand in the nation, with a entire roster of fake meat products. “The whole thing that we try to do is bring vegetarians to the table on separate but equal footing with meat-eaters,” explains Tibbott, 56, as he leads a tour of his plant. Throughout the facility, Tibbott’s 54 employees pack up stout “Italian sausages” and “Bratwurst,” peppered Jurky, and even foot-long veggie franks. Tibbott’s rallying cry? “If they have it for meat-eaters, they should have it for veggies.” And the veggies have been grateful: Turtle Island has nearly tripled its sales over the last four years.
| Quote: |
| It’s a huge step going from a meat-centered diet to ‘Here’s your cake of tofu.’ |
Tibbott himself elected to give up meat back when he was a sixth grade teacher charged with educating youngsters about nature. Meat production, he began to realize, was a terrible use of resources. “The basic inefficiency of meat is striking in that it takes so much more resources and land than crops,” he says. “It’s funny how in the environmental community that’s not an obvious connection. When you go to these environmental potlucks, you see more meat there than you would at the National Cattlemen’s Association. It’s just so much more efficient for humans to eat lower on the food chain.”
Not that Tibbott won’t taste the forbidden flesh from time to time—sacrifices must be made in the name of science. In researching sausages, for example, he sampled some of the best in the world to properly mimic their flavors (the key: copious amounts of fat). Eager vegetarians mail in suggestions for new ersatz meat products all the time—think Tofuna—but he’s had the most trouble with ham. Aside from the salty flavor, the pinkish color is a nightmare to get right.
These days, though, some of Tibbott’s best customers aren’t vegetarians at all; they’re those who call themselves “vegetarian inclined” and try to eat a few meatless meals a week for the betterment of their health. The number of vegetarians in America has been stagnant for years at nearly 3 percent of the population, but it’s these heart-conscious eaters who are fueling the 5-percent yearly growth of the meatless industry.
Turtle Island Foods’ other products include Tofurky breakfast sausages, veggie burgers, and a range of faux deli meats—from “hickory smoked” to “oven roasted.”
“This is where I think we need to be less militant and sanctimonious, and more appreciative of where these guys are coming from,” says Tibbott. “Because it’s a huge step going from a meat-centered diet to ‘Here’s your cake of tofu.’”
“I’m here to tell you, Tofurky is never going to fool a die-hard meat eater,” he continues. “They’re never going to go, ‘What? That wasn’t meat?’ But their highest compliment is, ‘You know, that’s not bad.’”
LEARN MORE tofurky.com
LEAN MEAT A serving of Tofurky Italian Sausages has no cholesterol and half the fat of a real sausage.
DISCUSSION: 5 Comments
I was raised in the heavily veggie influenced ’seventh-day adventist’ christian church as a child.
Most of their religious beliefs are insane and won’t be passed on to my children (someday). However, I am very grateful for being exposed to their wonderful dietary practices and meat substitute products. Many of which the SDA’s are responsible for developing.
There’s absolutely no excuse for eating meat anymore. Especially when so many products exist now that are nearly identical in taste, texture…etc. Eating meat is wasteful financially and hurts our economy, it’s bad for the environment, your health and creates a lot of other unnecessary problems.
People everywhere will eventually realize this. It’s only a matter of time.
If you’re seriously considering going off meat for good I suggest you pick up this book by Pamela Rice titled 101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian
This article would have been relavant 10 years ago. Today, people have quickly realized the importance of replacing processed food with a healthy variety of locally grown and seasonally appropriate food.
While I would advocate a move away from the meat-centric diet of an average eater in the US, it’s a mistake to think that fake meat is a healthy alternative for people or for the environment. The US diet is clogged with processed food. The manufacturing process adds to pollution and reduces nutritional value.
Our bodies are widely varied and unique. It’s naive to believe that we can replicate nature’s bounty with soy and a factory posing as a country kitchen. Some people need more protein, others need more dark and leafy greens. Nobody needs a homogeneous diet of soy, soy, and more soy. It’s a healthy food in moderation, but like this it’s no better than corn syrup. In high quantities, it raises a person’s estrogen to unhealthy levels. It’s a terrible idea to serve it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Almost 100 years ago, we began bleaching our bread to tamper with appearances. This carcinogenic chemical process is banned in Europe and Canada. In the US, we simply mandate that companies label the food and re-inject the chemical equivalent of natural vitamins that get stripped out. We foolishly believing it will be metabolized just the same. As a result of this and other food processing, we’re a nation of fat people with rampant cancer. 100 years from now, we will realize that bastardizing soy led the way to other diseases.
Eaters everywhere: chuck the boxes and bags and buy your food fresh. Eat your fruits, veggies, and if your body needs it, meat from local farms free from GMO, antibiotics, and cruel conditions.
Editors: are you there? This article reiterates stale ideas. It’s a commercial for an industry at the expense of our health.
Actually, the best places to buy cheap fake meat are Asian grocery stores. Chinese Buddhists have working on mock duck and mock ham for much longer than American hippies. They’re usually in cans and WAY cheaper than the astronomically-priced fake sausages and “Chik’n” in the frozen cases. They’re mostly made of gluten though, so if you’re vegetarian AND celiac you’re out of luck. ~ Xenobiologista
Being a vegetarian is the best thing you can do to yourself.. it’s great that people like Seth are making these efforts..
Sadly I have to agree with thecoup. Soy is bad and processed food is worse. Plus Tofurky tastes and feels like a large rubber superball. I think it was Now & Zen that had a better one but for some reason they went out of business for personal reasons. I am grateful for the Tofurky but we don’t buy it. I’d rather make some gourmet veggies and go to the vegan restaurant in my neighborhood and buy the Seitan Scallopini marinated in caper sauce. Even the meat eaters at our Thanksgiving dinners dig in and eat it as a side dish.