To wonder who eats this food and why?

[BingoBonus]

https://groceries.asda.com/product/plant-based-meat-alternatives/plant-based-by-asda-chicken-style-fillets/1000383161908

Plant-based chicken-style breaded fillet. The main two ingredients are water and oil!

I don't understand the boom in plant-based ultra-processed foods...........do people actually buy these as a healthy option? And if you are vegetarian why would you want something that looked like meat?

@Thelnebriati , I think 'the meat industry' is not the same as farming.
Some of my relatives are farmers, and the animals have a good life in the open air. A chicken factory or abattoir is a completely different.

@Thelnebriati @DuchessOfSausage Yes I was referring to the meat production factories and abattoirs. I live on farm land myself and have 3 active farmers on neighbouring land and don't really see anything that would concern anyone. But I wouldn't fancy being next door to an abattoir.
You could be right about the bias, but it just seems odd that I only know (on a personal level) 5 serious vegans, and 3 of them had exposure to the meat industry via work.

Couldn’t agree more OP: That Sainsburys Vac Packed Meat is rank!

"Working in a stressful and potentially unsafe environment can, on its own, impact a worker’s mental health. However, as many researchers have noted, slaughterhouse work remains distinct from other dangerous industrial jobs in that the nature of the work itself is violent, and thus may inherently cause psychological distress or harm. Some slaughterhouse workers have discussed feeling the need to disassociate themselves from their work in order to suppress feelings of guilt when committing violent acts. Others have expressed increased feelings of aggression while working on the killing floor. These anecdotal reports from workers are borne out by academic research; slaughterhouse work has been linked to higher levels of aggression, violent dreams, anxiety, and hostility. Some researchers have categorized the psychological symptoms experienced by slaughterhouse employees as a form of trauma disorder, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or the more seldom-discussed Perpetration-Induced Traumatic Stress (PITS). As a whole, slaughterhouse workers experience significantly higher levels of serious psychological distress (SPD) than the general population."

There are numerous studies on this. But I'm willing to bet there are not many slaughterhouse workers on Mumsnet. Sadly, people turn to that type of work when they are desperate. They are paying with their health for your meat sandwich.

Who can blame them if this is what they are experiencing:

"“The worst thing, worse than the physical danger, is the emotional toll. If you work in the stick pit [where hogs are killed] for any period of time—that let’s [sic] you kill things but doesn’t let you care. You may look a hog in the eye that’s walking around in the blood pit with you and think, ‘God, that really isn’t a bad looking animal.’ You may want to pet it. Pigs down on the kill floor have come up to nuzzle me like a puppy. Two minutes later I had to kill them. … I can’t care.”

@Jumpingthruhoops

they don't like the way animals are kept/reared/killed, would then, in the same breath, say they'd like the taste of a 'faux' chicken sandwich. Surely just biting into it would conjure up images, thoughts, feelings of battery farms, for example?

Fair question.

No, it doesn’t.

😂