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[martinuzz]

vegetarians are cruel animal killers 

EDIT: ok ok it's almost noon, I'll stop being silly now
 

[andrea]

oh, I misread your post. You meant pets who can't eat vegetables such as cats?
in that case, even if all humans went vegan, the meat industry won't go entirely belly up, because there will still be demand in the form of cats. Prices will likely increase, but in the ends cats should be fed and the number of cows still drastically reduced.

[wierd]

like dogfood, a significant portion of the matter in dry cat kibble is of vegetable origin.  It is of inferior nutritional quality to canned meat based cat food, but is the predominant form of sustenance for our feline friends.

Additionally, cats are significantly less picky in the sources of their protein intake. Insect based canned catfood would be suitable.

The REAL issue with veganism (as a mainstream thing) is that it places a heavy burden on the requirement for mono-culture. See the recent issues with Banana plants and panama disease. Similar issues could happen to the human food supply under aggressively mono-cultured crops. Historical examples: Irish potato famine, previous mass banana species extinction due to last round of panama disease.

There are measures that help to prevent this kind of problem, but most of them are not capable of producing crop yields necessary to feed a population of 7bn.

While a significant fraction of cattle fodder is human-grade consumable in nature, the fraction that is not is not inconsiderable. Cattle can eat things that would literally kill humans who tried it. (Fermented silage being a noteworthy example.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silage

Cattle represent an inefficient means of converting completely inedible (to humans) biomatter into a form that humans can eat. Insects could theoretically be cultivated on silage as well, possibly more efficiently-- however, I very much doubt that the "Yuck factor" would ever be completely eradicated short of there being a major global catastrophe.

 

[Sheb]

Some meat ain't an issue. Some ecosystems (dry grassland for exemple) cannot produce much food otherwise, and if left to nature who be inhabited by wild ruminant herbivores who have the same climate impact. It's just the current level of meat comsumption which is entirely unsustainable.

[penguinofhonor]

I'm pretty sure it would be a fuckton easier to sustainably feed pets instead of feeding pets and humans. Also, the protein for pet food can be sourced entirely from chicken since they don't have this "I'd rather burn the world down than give up steak and bacon" thing humans seem to have.

[scriver]

Switching to goats for milk production, over cows, only mitigates the greenhouse gas emission problem. It does not solve it. (less IS better, but is not the ideal, of none. See how expensive Lamb is in the chart. Goat would be similar.)

The issue as to WHY those animals have such a high footprint, is because they are ruminants. Ruminants have those funky stomachs with all those crazy chambers in them. This allows some very complex symbiotic chemistry with microbes to break down the cellulose and other indigestible starches/sugars present in things like... Grass.

In addition, iirc goats take a very heavy toll on the direct environment they feed off of (presuming we're talking grazing here), damaging plantlife in a very destructive way compared to other grazers.

[Askot Bokbondeler]

ptw

also, those cowfart baloons seem like a good way to minimize methane release and harvesting biofuel

[wierd]

Places the animal at significantly higher risk of internal infections, which increases the external costs of meat and dairy production.

Not a good solution to the problem. Elimination of the root cause of the emissions (Biproduct of anaerobic decay inside the rumen of the animal) through applied science (replace microbes with those that produce alcohols instead of methane and co2) would actually combat the problem.

[martinuzz]

ptw

also, those cowfart baloons seem like a good way to minimize methane release and harvesting biofuel

People did try to get that going a few years ago here in the Netherlands, but they got killed, revived, tortured a bit, killed again, revived and put on the scaffold by our national PETA and justice department, because to harvest the gas, the cows would need to get surgical implants (the collection tube is inserted through the cow's flanks straight into the appropriate stomach, like some kind of colostomy, which is considered animal cruelty).

[Culise]

however, I very much doubt that the "Yuck factor" would ever be completely eradicated short of there being a major global catastrophe.

I would not doubt it quite as much, for my own part, as cuisine is sometimes quick to change.  For example, lobsters are basically sea cockroaches (insofar as both are arthropodal scavengers), were once considered so pestiferous that they were only eaten by the indigent and desperate, and servants and workers fed by their employers would negotiate contracts specifying that they would not be forced to eat the vile creatures too often.  Lobster meat only became a delicacy among delicacies in the last 150 years, only an eye-blink as far as change in societies is concerned.

[Orange Wizard]

Spoiler: Obligatory xkcd (click to show/hide)

[smjjames]

however, I very much doubt that the "Yuck factor" would ever be completely eradicated short of there being a major global catastrophe.

I would not doubt it quite as much, for my own part, as cuisine is sometimes quick to change.  For example, lobsters are basically sea cockroaches (insofar as both are arthropodal scavengers), were once considered so pestiferous that they were only eaten by the indigent and desperate, and servants and workers fed by their employers would negotiate contracts specifying that they would not be forced to eat the vile creatures too often.  Lobster meat only became a delicacy among delicacies in the last 150 years, only an eye-blink as far as change in societies is concerned.

Insects are already eaten in many parts of the world, it's us Westerners that have the 'ick factor' when it comes to eating bugs.

[martinuzz]

A Dutch supermarket chain, Jumbo, started selling mealworms, black fungus beetle larvae and honeycomb moth larvae based products about a year ago.
The mealworms and beetle larvae are processed into hamburgers, the moth larvae can be bought as crispy snacks.

I would try them, were it not that they are ridiculously priced. I am not rich enough to eat insects apparently.

[Loud Whispers]

I thought insects were cheaper? I suppose it's how it goes. Today's poor food is the luxury of tomorrow

[redwallzyl]

that's probably just trying to make up for terrible sales.

anyway good news! its a start at least.

http://www.npr.org/2015/12/07/458543432/small-surprising-dip-in-worlds-carbon-emissions-traced-to-china

funny how seemingly the only people in the world denying climate change are the American right.