Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Dutchling]

what would we do with the millions of animals that we grow for food?

Eat them and gradually decrease the number of offspring?

[Toady One]

(I've banned LibidoMax for repeated trolling, so I clipped a portion of the argument where he was going off a bit.)

[Realmfighter]

i understand where vegetarians come from and agree that is a terrible thing that things suffer to feed me, but... what's the alternative?
imagine a world where meat is grown in vitro, or we all suddently become vegetarians... what would we do with the millions of animals that we grow for food? release them into the wild and let them die of disease, hunger and old age? what about predators? is it as immoral to let them eat other animals? should we also feed them in vitro meat? imagine that's feasible, what would we do with the uncontrolably growing fauna?

The first one is solved by the simple fact that there's basically no chance in hell the EVERY SINGLE PERSON becomes a vegetarian at once, even if everyone becoming a vegetarian is plausible. Even the most optimistic outlooks have meat consumption slowly decreasing until it hits zero, so if it happened the most likely outcome is just that less and less new animals would be brought in to replace slaughtered lifestock. And animal suffering still existing if everyone becomes a vegetarian doesn't mean that reducing it greatly is null. Just because we can't make it perfect doesn't mean we shouldn't try to make it better.

[Xantalos]

Ah. We can't really give him a farewell salute since he got banned, but okay.

[SethCreiyd]

_{n/m, no sense in arguing with banned person.}

I eat meat nearly every day, so I don't think it's wrong in itself.  And if you want to eat meat, then an animal has to die (at least until we start that printing and growing of flesh in marketable quantities), but that doesn't mean the animal should be forced through a tormented life in horrid conditions before getting slaughtered.

I'm looking forward to that in vitro meat though.  It seems like something that, if perfected, could go a way toward solving that whole world hunger issue.

[kaijyuu]

I'm looking forward to that in vitro meat though.  It seems like something that, if perfected, could go a way toward solving that whole world hunger issue.

Not really. Plants are still by far the most efficient at feeding people (and remember to get the nutrients necessary to grow your vat meat, you'll probably have to harvest plants).

It just lets us get meat without (directly) killing animals.

[SethCreiyd]

That's true, to fully address a problem like that we need better farming techniques, better ways of managing economic trouble, new energy sources, a shift in human nature and probably much more.

Cheap in vitro meat can't hurt, though.  New meat can be grown from only a few cells, and if we find a way to recycle organic trash into the necessary nutrient baths we could end up with an efficient way to produce it.  It's expected to eventually become comparatively cheap, and cheap food is always good.  Problem is, right now it costs about a hundred thousand dollars to grow two ounces of beef.

[DJ]

I'll still be raising pigs. They're a really good way to recycle leftovers from our meals and inedible parts of plants from our garden. We have to dedicate some of the garden for turnips just for pigs, sure, but when you add it all up pork still comes pretty cheap. And it'd feel kinda wasteful to just send those recycable materials to the landfill. Sure, some of it could be composted, but not all, and we only have use for so much compost.

[Vattic]

I'll still be raising pigs. They're a really good way to recycle leftovers from our meals and inedible parts of plants from our garden. We have to dedicate some of the garden for turnips just for pigs, sure, but when you add it all up pork still comes pretty cheap. And it'd feel kinda wasteful to just send those recycable materials to the landfill. Sure, some of it could be composted, but not all, and we only have use for so much compost.

Here in the UK it is illegal to feed food waste to pigs. This law stems from the whole BSE epidemic if what I was told is true. Not completely on topic but almost.

[Flying Dice]

A related point that should probably be raised is the level of meat consumption in the U.S./the industrialized West. The concept of a meal as being centered around a portion of meat rather than a grain accompanied by a smaller amount of meat is a relatively new one, at least as far as mass-consumption goes. Even if you don't adhere to any sort of restricted diet, you don't need to be (and would probably be much healthier without) eating a plateful of poultry, pork, beef, etc. at every meal in order to meet your nutritional needs.

[penguinofhonor]

.

[10ebbor10]

I'm looking forward to that in vitro meat though.  It seems like something that, if perfected, could go a way toward solving that whole world hunger issue.

Not really. Plants are still by far the most efficient at feeding people (and remember to get the nutrients necessary to grow your vat meat, you'll probably have to harvest plants).

It just lets us get meat without (directly) killing animals.

Depends on the technology. In vitro meat can get very high efficiency rates, and the human body isn't that efficient at digesting plant matter. (Can't digest most of several plants). Seeing as the in vitro can do this, it could be more efficient.

Or we could just switch to algae for primary nutrient production.