The Daily Valet. - 2/4/21, Thursday

✔️ Where's the Beef?

February 04, 2021

Thursday, February 4th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

By next week, there will be 25 more minutes of light per day than than there is today.

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today’s Big Story

Where’s the Beef?

Plant-based fast food is popping up everywhere, but it’s not exactly better for you

In November, McDonald’s announced plant-based versions of its signature items, including a burger, chicken sandwich, and breakfast sandwich made with plant-based sausage. The new menu, called the McPlant, started rolling out in test markets this week. But they’re late to the party.

White Castle debuted the Impossible Slider in April 2018. Shortly after, Del Taco and Burger King added Beyond and Impossible products to their menus. Then Dunkin’ released a breakfast sandwich made with plant-based sausage, so did Starbucks. And KFC and Jack in the Box have begun rolling out meatless chicken in select markets as well.

It's clear there's a massive innovation boom in alternative meat for anyone who wants an animal-free bite at a reasonable price. And according to Vox, the fake meat duopoly of Impossible and Beyond Meat will likely only get stronger now that Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat just got closer to the price of regular meat. The 20% price cut is part of a strategy to take plant-based meat mainstream.

HuffPost just rounded up all the plant-based and vegan options available at most major fast food spots. It’s helpful to those looking to steer clear of meat, but not necessarily for those looking to eat healthier.

The term “plant-based” often gets an automatic health halo, writes nutritionist Christine Byrne in Outside. But these processed alternative meats are almost too close to the real thing: they tend to contain the same (or more) saturated fat as regular meat, and almost always have more sodium. And all the toppings and sauces remain the same.

But experts agree that plant-based foods have a smaller environmental impact than animal products, processed or not. And that’s something, right? After all, easing up on meat is a simple way combat climate change. And in a 2020 Yale University survey, over 55% of respondents said they’re willing to eat less meat as a way to boost planetary health.

↦ Further Reading: Famed food writer Mark Bittman's latest book, Animal, Vegetable, Junk, tackles our history with food, from hunting and gathering to GMOs and ultraprocessed junk.

IKEA Is Buying Land ... To Protect It

Purchasing woodlands has been a trend for the furniture company in the last several years

IKEA's investment group recently acquired nearly 11,000 acres of land in southeast Georgia, taking it under its wing to protect it from development, and to keep its hundreds of plant and wildlife species safe.

The area is home to more than 350 plant and wildlife species that will now be protected from harm, including the endangered longleaf pine and gopher tortoise, report CNN. The longleaf pine can live for over 300 years, but currently covers less than 3% of its original range after most of it disappeared by the 1920s, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

The new acquisition brings Ingka Investment's ownership to 136,000 acres across Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma, the company said in a statement.

IKEA began buying plots of forestland around 2015 at a time when timber prices were expected to rise worldwide. The intention has been to develop a sustainable source of wood for its furniture for years to come. And while it’s run into some controversy with conservationists in other countries, IKEA has touted its practices as part of its effort to become self-sustaining and carbon neutral by 2030.

↦ FYI: The Ingka Group—which also owns forestland in four different European countries—planted 600,000 seedlings in the U.S. between September 2019 and August 2020.

A Potent Polar Vortex Blast Is Coming

The U.S. will face the coldest air of the season

It turns out, that little groundhog was right. Because the infamous polar vortex is on its way again.

By early next week, much of the lower 48 states will see below-freezing temperatures due to a blast of Arctic air. Jeff Weber, a research meteorologist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, told Mashable: “This is air coming straight out of the pole.”

The epicenter of the extreme weather event, Minnesota, will see lows of around -25 degrees Fahrenheit, said Weber. Monday is predicted to be the coldest day. According to the Washington Post, there are signs that the pattern could dominate most of February, with mixed signals about what lies beyond in March.

The polar vortex has been wandering more often in recent years, reports USA Today. Some scientists said there may be a connection between global warming and the wandering vortex: The theory is that when weird warmth invades the Arctic, some of the cold that's supposed to stay up there–including the vortex–instead sloshes down south into North America and Europe.

Golden Globes Snubs and Surprises

The second-most prominent award show has delivered a baffling slate of nominees

The weirdest awards season ever got even weirder Wednesday as the Hollywood Foreign Press association announced its 2021 Golden Globe nominations in a strange livestream that somehow managed to leave out a major category.

As for the nominations themselves? Well, according to Vulture, they were perfectly Globe-ular, which means they are the usual mix of assumed Oscar heavyweights, A-listers in mediocre movies and a couple of nominations for projects nobody has ever heard of.

And a lot of great work was left entirely by the wayside. How many Golden Globe nominations do you think I May Destroy You, a series on many critics' best-of-the-year-in-TV lists, received? At least two, right, for Best Series and Michaela Coel's performance? Nope. None. And that's just one example of the lack of diversity in the nominees.

On the other hand, the polarizing Netflix guilty pleasure, Emily in Paris, scored several. And even the show's own writers think that I May Destroy You deserved a nom. But as GQ puts it, the Globes are always bad: “Arts awards might be inherently silly and driven more by hype than a serious assessment of artistic merit, but the Globes have a way of stripping off the veneer of respectability.”

↦ FYI: Esquire explains why every man should watch I May Destroy You.

In Other News

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T.J. Osborne

Is Apple Back in the Car Business?

The tech company is reportedly nearing a deal to build its autonomous electric car with Hyundai

After years of speculation that it will eventually get into the auto business with its own vehicle Apple is close to finalizing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture an autonomous electric vehicle at a Georgia Kia assembly plant, reports CNBC.

The so-called "Apple Car," which is being developed by a team at Apple, is tentatively scheduled to go into production in 2024, though people familiar with the talks between Apple and Hyundai-Kia say the eventual rollout could be pushed back—especially with pandemic production delays.

Sources Business Insider the deal wasn't done yet and that Apple may decide to partner with another automaker, either instead of or in addition to Hyundai.

As for specifics about the car itself, one source told CNBC Apple's cars wouldn't be built to have a driver and that they'd be geared toward "the last mile," indicating that the vehicles may be more commercial in nature. In any case, I better start saving now. I've never not bought a new Apple product, and I'm not about to quit now.