@Jason Self @Sean Tilley Most of the vegan burgers I eat are of the chickpea / black bean variety, and aren't trying to recreate "real meat", and most of the vegetarian stuff I eat is some sort of bean + veggie + rice dish.

But is there a good reason to want something that emulates "meat"? You bet there is! Plenty of people grow up enjoying these kinds of foods, and all sorts of social situations are easier if you have a similar food (think cookouts) where there's a shape of food (patty, sausage) that fits with something else.

Personally, going veg has expanded my pallete greatly. But do I want to be able to continue to live some of the flavors I used to like? Of course!

Vegetarians already eat a bunch of food that a large portion of meat eaters turn up their noses at... tofu, tempeh, etc. What's annoying is I often get a simultaneous dose of "vegetarian food (esp tofu) is gross" and then "why do you want to eat the kind of meat food I'm eating?" It feels like I can't win!

Anyway, I don't think it's a sin to desire the flavor of some kind of meat-ish thing. If you're going veg because of ethical issues (the treatment of animals, environmental, etc), I don't believe in the "desiring something is the same sin as doing/having that thing". I grew up Catholic, and got plenty of that point of view... but it doesn't mesh with how I believe in things these days. ;)

Personally, yup, I think the world needs to move away from meat for ethical/environmental reasons. If we can give people alternatives to make their lives easier, great. Plenty of people say "I'd love to go vegetarian but I just couldn't give up meat". Is it harmful to capture those people, too?

Let me ask you a question: is it a good or a bad idea to provide drop-in replacements for proprietary software? And if both are ethical issues, could you expand that reasoning to replacements for meat?