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Plant-Based Meat Alternatives Have Existed for Centuries
The Soyinfo Center’s extensive bibliographies provide a window into how humans have been eating well without meat for hundreds of years
The money behind current corporate tech meat products has made a mess of the language of many vegan staples: What is “faux meat” if it includes both tempeh and a Beyond burger? It can also be easy to lose track of just how long veganism has been part of the world: When was the first vegan cheese even developed?
Thankfully, the Soyinfo Center has provided in-depth bibliographies of how soy has been used around the world for centuries upon centuries. The Center was started in 1972 by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aoyagi, the writers of The Book of Tofu, The Book of Miso, and The Book of Tempeh, all of which are indispensable, impeccably researched, and historically minded resources. In the free PDF bibliographies on their website, they dig into the history of soyfoods by continent and country, the history of fermented and non-fermented soy products, modern production, and more. With these, it becomes impossible to forget that plant-based protein has existed since long before the term “plant-based.”
History of Meat Alternatives (960 CE to 2014) is my personal favorite of them, and…
