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The imminent insects-as-food transition has been "just around the corner" at least since I was reading Popular Science magazine in middle school. Always with t

The imminent insects-as-food transition has been "just around the corner" at least since I was reading Popular Science magazine in middle school. Always with the same scare-pretext of "whelp, we'll have no choice! get ready to knock back some crickets whether you like it or not ;)". Then it plots out how much meat Americans eat and shows how it's unsustainable. It just doesn't follow logically to me. What seems more likely is that we will ween off of the idea that we need meat in every single meal. And once you also factor in the possibility of pricing in externalities, meat will become – at least – a dinner treat. Meat is already subsidized by animal neglect, sketchy tactics, and mass pollution. I wouldn't mind if we were paying the honest price of meat at the market today. We'd get this cultural change on the roll, and we'd probably have something better already. And it won't be bugs.

foolfoolz 8y ago
i think even more likely: we will find a way to make our consumption of meat more sustainable
- izzydata 8y ago
  Like all that "just around the corner" lab grown meat?
  - codefined 8y ago
    We seem to have seen a massive, measurable improvement in lab grown meat in the past 2-3 years. Going down from hundreds of thousands of dollars to single digit prices[0]. I don't know how the market is going to respond, but if we get a similar decrease in price it should get a large market share, having no noticeable negative attributes. [0] https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-gets-made-will-be-more-complicated-in-2020 https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-gets-m... [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-gr...
    - azernik 8y ago
      I'm looking for the source for that number; it seems to come from Mark Post (head of a company in the space), and the closest I can find to an original quote is him saying last year that "it's possible" to grow at $80/kilo (i.e. single-digits per hamburger patty). I would be very skeptical of that specific number while there are no market transactions going on.
- toomanybeersies 8y ago
  Or meat will become more expensive and people will move towards vegetable based diets. I've mostly cut meat out of my diet and it's saving me probably $50 per week. I don't eat those expensive meat replacements like quorn though. I didn't cut meat out specifically for financial reasons, or any particular reason really, I just stopped wanting to eat meat. The financial benefits are just a bonus.

foolfoolz 8y ago

i think even more likely: we will find a way to make our consumption of meat more sustainable

izzydata 8y ago
Like all that "just around the corner" lab grown meat?
- codefined 8y ago
  We seem to have seen a massive, measurable improvement in lab grown meat in the past 2-3 years. Going down from hundreds of thousands of dollars to single digit prices[0]. I don't know how the market is going to respond, but if we get a similar decrease in price it should get a large market share, having no noticeable negative attributes. [0] https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-gets-made-will-be-more-complicated-in-2020 https://bigthink.com/ideafeed/answering-how-a-sausage-gets-m... [1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-grown-available-restaurants-2018-global-warming-greenhouse-emissions-a8236676.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/clean-meat-lab-gr...
  - azernik 8y ago
    I'm looking for the source for that number; it seems to come from Mark Post (head of a company in the space), and the closest I can find to an original quote is him saying last year that "it's possible" to grow at $80/kilo (i.e. single-digits per hamburger patty). I would be very skeptical of that specific number while there are no market transactions going on.
toomanybeersies 8y ago
Or meat will become more expensive and people will move towards vegetable based diets. I've mostly cut meat out of my diet and it's saving me probably $50 per week. I don't eat those expensive meat replacements like quorn though. I didn't cut meat out specifically for financial reasons, or any particular reason really, I just stopped wanting to eat meat. The financial benefits are just a bonus.