Section:GDN 1N PaGe:25 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 20:24 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Monday 12 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •World^25
Fast food Fake-meat options vie for
share of climate-conscious market
Jessica Glenza
New YorkT
he moment I walk out
of Burger King with a
warm bag of vegetarian
Impossible Whoppers,
a plastic voucher is
thrust into my hand.
“Have you tried Dunkin’s Beyond
Sausage breakfast sandwich?” a
woman asks. “It is meatless!”
Dunkin’ ( formerly Dunkin’
Donuts ) is testing its meatless
sandwich in Manhattan using
Beyond Meat protein. The woman
was a “brand ambassador” handing
out gift cards to people buying
Burger King’s latest vegetarian menuaddition and who might want to take
their newfound taste for meatless
fast food to rival outlets.
A decade ago, this development- and the fanfare accompanying the
Impossible Whopper – would have
been unimaginable in America’s
powerful fast-food industry. Fast
forward to 2019 and every employee
in a midtown Manhattan Burger King
is wearing an Impossible Whopper
shirt. There is an Impossible
Whopper-themed photo-booth.
Veggie options no longer vie for
a dusty corner of the menu in fast-
food chains – they are jockeying
to appeal to climate-conscious
young people. Plant-based options
are nearly indistinguishable from
their meat counterparts. “Early
indications are that demand for
plant-based proteins will continue
to grow,” said Tony Weisman , chief
marketing offi cer for Dunkin’ US.
He said the company intend ed
to roll out its new Beyond Sausage
sandwich nationally soon. “Given
the importance of environmental
sustainability among consumers,
and especially younger consumers,
indications are that demand for
plant-based meats will continue to
increase as time goes on,” he added.
Two-thirds of Gen Z believe the
climate crisis “ demands urgent
action ”, according to the Harvard
Public Opinion Project. Given the
enormous environmental impact of
industriali sed meat , companies such
as Impossible Foods want to driveit into obsolescence. But whether
health-conscious young people will
come out in droves for plant-based
fast food remains to be seen.
The Impossible Whopper is the
newest incarnation of a soya-based
veggie burger created by Silicon
Valley- based Impossible Foods. It
is nearly indistinguishable from
the beef Whopper, both in taste
and nutrition. Dunkin’ s meat-free
sausage sandwich also replicates the
homogeneity of fast-food meat.
The aim, Weisman said, was to
build vegetarian options as youngconsumers shift to reduced-meat
diets for health and environmental
reasons. But the strategy has
befuddled some, who point out fast-
food options including Beyond Meat
and Impossible Foods are neither
organic nor particularly health y.
The Impossible Whopper meal,
which comes with medium fries and
Coke, is a 1,280 calories. There are
34 g of fat and 1,080 mg of sodium in
the sandwich alone. “It’s diffi cult to
say which one is healthier, because
ultimately we know a burger is
not a healthy choice,” said Mhairi
Brown, a nutritionist with Action
on Salt UK.
Similarly, Dunkin’ s Beyond
Sausage breakfast sandwich
contains 470 calories, 24 g of fat
and 910 m g of sodium. Some meat
analysts have also argued that the
Impossible Whopper could actually
buoy Burger King’s beef sales by
enabling a group of people that
includes a vegetarian to eat there.
Burger King did not respond to
the Guardian’s request for comment.Bullfi ghting
and a fascist
song return
to Mallorca
Stephen Burgen
BarcelonaHundreds of animal rights activists
protested outside the bullring in Palma
de Mallorca at the weekend as bull-
fi ghting returned to the island for the
fi rst time since it was outlawed in 2017.
Around 400 protest ers chanted “ It’s
not art, it’s torture” and “ No to bull-
fi ghting”, while inside the ring 12,000
people waited to watch some of Spain’s
top toreros (bullfi ghters) enter the ring.
Bullfi ght supporters chanted “Free-
dom” while the arena’s sound system
drowned out the protest ers with the
song Y Viva España , and the fascist
anthem Cara al Sol ( Facing the Sun ).
Jorge Campos , the leader of the far-
right Vox party , arrived at the Mallorca
bullring draped in a Spanish fl ag.
The Balearic Islands regional gov-
ernment outlawed bullfi ghting in the
islands in 2017 and promoted instead a
form in which the bull was not harmed.
The torero could be armed with only
a cape, the bull could not be struck
with banderillas – skewers used to
goad it – and could not be in the ring for
more than 10 minutes. Causing physi-
cal or psychological damage to the bull
carried fi nes of up to €100,000.
In 2018, the supreme court over-
turned the decision, rul ing the
regional court had exceeded its
authority in outlawing a part of the
nation’s cultural heritage.
Bullfi ghting has been banned in
other regions, notably the Canary
Is lands, where it has been illegal since
the 1990s , and in Catalonia, which
outlawed it in 2010.
According to Spanish government
statistics, the number of bullfi ghts
in the country fell from 3,651 in 2007
to 1,521 in 2018, although there was
a small rise in Castilla-La Mancha,
Valencia, La Rioja and Navarra.Protest in Jaipur over use of
elephants to carry tourists
Amrit Dhillon
DelhiAnimal rights protesters rode through
the Indian city of Jaipur on bicycles
yesterday , demanding an end to ele-
phants being used to carry tourists to
one of the country’s top attractions,
the Amber Fort.
The protest aimed to encourage the
use of bicycles rather than elephants
and was organised by the animalcharity World Animal Protection (Wap)
to mark World Elephant Day today.
About 100 of the animals carry tour-
ists along the kilometre-long path to
the fort. It is a steep climb on hard
cobbled stones. The combined weight
of two tourists, the mahout (elephant
keeper) and wooden seat that holds
passengers can be up to 300 kg (660lb).
“It’s not just a question of the cruel
methods that are used to train them
in order to make them docile but also
the fact that many are in dire needof medical help. The ailments range
from tuberculosis, blood problems,
blindness, malnourishment, and foot
injuries from walking on hard sur-
faces,” said Kirsty Warren of Wap.
Animal rights group in the city
have been campaigning against the
elephant rides for several years, and
People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (Peta) is fi ghting a case in the
courts. But the groups have had little
luck beyond persuading the tourist
department to limit the number of pas-
sengers allowed to ride on the elephant
from the previous maximum of four
to two, and the number of rides a day
to fi ve in winter and three in summer.
The tourist department wants the
revenue from the fort, and the elephant
ride is a large part of the attraction.Although jeeps are available for those
who cannot manage the walk, many
prefer the novelty of an elephant ride.
Charities have been talking to
authorities about alternatives. “We
want them to promote the use of
bicycles instead, not on the same
steep path but on a less steep route
to the fort entrance ,” said Gajender
K Sharma, director for Wap in India.
“And we have urged them to create a
sanctuary for the elephants near the
fort where tourists can watch them in
a natural habitat. That could become a
separate tourist attraction .”▲ Some of the 100 elephants that
carry tourists up the steep, cobbled
path to the Amber Fort in Jaipur
PHOTOGRAPH: VW PICS/UNIVERSAL IMAGES/GETTY▲ The Beyond Sausage breakfast
sandwich being promoted by Dunkin’РЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS