Posted on 11/22/2006 2:10:33 PM PST by proud_yank
Vegetarian alternatives to traditional holiday favorites are becoming increasingly popular and profitable
by Rebecca Reisner
With Thanksgiving upon us, the folks who make the vegetarian poultry alternative known as "Tofurky" have good reason to flap their wings. Having survived sitcom jokes and glacially slow initial sales, Turtle Island Foods is celebrating the sale of its 1 millionth Tofurky roast since the product was hatched in 1995.
"At first, retailers didn't believe anyone was crazy enough to make a whole Tofurky roast for Thanksgiving," recalls Seth Tibbott, founder of Turtle Island Foods, located in Hood River, Ore. "The first one served eight and cost $32. Stores would sell one per season at first, then five the next year."
Today, the company, which also makes Tofurky versions of such meat staples as sausages and cold cuts, is turning a robust profit and expects $10 million in sales in 2006, despite dramatically lowering the cost of Tofurkys over the years (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/21/06, "My First Tofurky").
Analog Meat Market
And Turtle Island Foods isn't the only happy player at the table. For businesses manufacturing vegan and vegetarian versions of dairy- and meat-based products, the outlook is pretty much all good. "Traditional supermarkets like Safeway (SWY) are stocking more of these foods," says Joe Agnese, a supermarket analyst with Standard & Poors Equity Research. "Whole Foods (WFMI) will open more stores. They give a shot to local providers as well as big producers."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
And then they found out that there are numerous crazy people.
Blechhh.
I wish them a Happy Thanksgiving Holida, but I will stick with regular turkey, stuffed ham and Fried oysters.
I wish them a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday, but I will stick with regular turkey, stuffed ham and Fried oysters.
Larry the Cable Guy:::
"I got three words for vegetarians;
Chicken Fried Steak"
I'll gladly pass on the faux-turkey, thanks.
They had one a while ago, it looked like a very poorly shaped turkey.
If I host a Thanksgiving dinner and someone brought that disgusting loaf over, I think I'd ask them to leave.
Some have health issues.
Others do it because someone on MTV told them it was cool.
Looks like my dog's stools until we got rid of the worms.
ROFLMAO!!
IF people choose to eat that way, its fine with me so long as they don't think others should be forced to do the same.
I've known some vegan types, who thought eating steaks was similar to murder, who regularly dined on look-alike meat. Never could figure that out.
Don't make me post that bacon covered Turduken again.
LOL, what is that?? Or do I even want to know?
A Turducken is a chicken, stuffed in a duck, and stuffed in a turkey.(Mmmmmm!)
Oh man, does that look good!
Plain tofu has little flavor, it tastes more interesting when spiced up. Meat and poultry taste good. Therefore, meat or poultry flavored tofu. Why not? It's like eating one of the new "healthy" margarines instead of butter.
I'd eat it!
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