12 ms·

I think the word prematurely is missing

by mongol 7y ago

Melting_Harps 7y ago
> I think the word prematurely is missing If its a the processing plant that's kind of true, even if they could run them through the automated 'harvesting' system its probably really expensive to store until an undisclosed time for it to be processed and then sent to market. At a significant loss in Market price, I imagine. So its best to take the subsidy/insured loss and restart again. This is actually really fucking sad... I hope it encourages more people to focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste and do something about it. I hope we don't have to see the same thing that happened with toilet paper, and paper towels happen with our food before people get the message that we have to re-think our entire infrastructure. > Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the number eaten in a single day. That's a horrible calculus, and quite frankly stereotypical of People so detached from their food system: have you taken into consideration the externalities of hatching, raising, and ultimately getting them to Market size? It's actually incredibly costly. And they were probably factory farmed, which makes it even worse given the cruel practices involved. On a positive note: Spring is finally here, and I saw a bunch of people's Community Garden's today.
- mike_d 7y ago
  > focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste That is an extremely hyperbolic statement. According to the United Nations [https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez] fruits, vegetables, cereals, and roots account for 70% of all food waste. It is unfortunate that due to a global pandemic they had to be put down, but chickens are the most efficient form for preserving and delivering calories from grains to the table. Additionally, industrialized and developing nations waste food at the same rate - just in different stages of the logistics chain. No system is perfectly efficient, and while there are improvements to be made - it is pretty damn amazing that the majority of 7 billion people have a meal a day.
  - skybrian 7y ago
    Well, that raises further questions. How could a chicken farm or chicken meat in a freezer be more efficient forms of calorie storage than a grain silo or a shipment of flour? Do you have a source?
    - sandworm101 7y ago
      Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad. Grain can rot.
      - namibj 7y ago
        Dried grain, when sealed against humidity, is stable in a passive store like an old mine for wau over half a century. So, no, grain storage is incredibly low-maintenance, compared to a freezer.
      - strgcmc 7y ago
        Your comment inspired me to do a little reading, since this is an interesting idea (and maybe represents an opportunity in the supply chain... maybe what we need is better/newer technology for long-term storage of grains/flour/etc.). Apparently, flour can (should?) be frozen for long-term storage, and would keep indefinitely: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay-to-keep-flour-in-the-freezer https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay... (unfortunately that link to University of Nebraska is 404 now). Long-term grain storage concerns: https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-equipment/grain-bins/8-tips-f-longterm-grain-stage_214-ar45622 https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-equ... ; as a non-expert, this begs the question of why more climate control is not done, to create indefinite/permanent storage (probably just not economical to do so, but given disruptions like COVID-19, maybe this will change?).
        bryanlarsen 7y ago
        > just not economical to do so Yup. Grains are so incredibly cheap that's it's not worth preserving them. My favorite stat to pull out at parties: The price of a bushel of wheat (aka 60 pounds) has been approximately one British pound since the mid 1300's. It's currently worth about 4 British pounds, but that says more about how much the British pound has declined against the USD than it says about the price of wheat.
- Aeolun 7y ago
  24 million chickens?! That’s one chicken per person per 10 days or so. That’s a fuckton of chickens.

I think the word prematurely is missing

by mongol 7y ago

I think the word prematurely is missing

> I think the word prematurely is missing If its a the processing plant that's kind of true, even if they could run them through the automated 'harvesting' system its probably really expensive to store until an undisclosed time for it to be processed and then sent to market. At a significant loss in Market price, I imagine. So its best to take the subsidy/insured loss and restart again. This is actually really fucking sad... I hope it encourages more people to focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste and do something about it. I hope we don't have to see the same thing that happened with toilet paper, and paper towels happen with our food before people get the message that we have to re-think our entire infrastructure. > Americans eat 24M chickens per day. So 2M killed is only a fraction of the number eaten in a single day. That's a horrible calculus, and quite frankly stereotypical of People so detached from their food system: have you taken into consideration the externalities of hatching, raising, and ultimately getting them to Market size? It's actually incredibly costly. And they were probably factory farmed, which makes it even worse given the cruel practices involved. On a positive note: Spring is finally here, and I saw a bunch of people's Community Garden's today.

mike_d 7y ago
> focus on the World's broken food supply and its immense waste That is an extremely hyperbolic statement. According to the United Nations [https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez https://tinyurl.com/y9esnjez] fruits, vegetables, cereals, and roots account for 70% of all food waste. It is unfortunate that due to a global pandemic they had to be put down, but chickens are the most efficient form for preserving and delivering calories from grains to the table. Additionally, industrialized and developing nations waste food at the same rate - just in different stages of the logistics chain. No system is perfectly efficient, and while there are improvements to be made - it is pretty damn amazing that the majority of 7 billion people have a meal a day.
- skybrian 7y ago
  Well, that raises further questions. How could a chicken farm or chicken meat in a freezer be more efficient forms of calorie storage than a grain silo or a shipment of flour? Do you have a source?
  - sandworm101 7y ago
    Because frozen meat stays good literally forever. Flour eventually goes bad. Grain can rot.
    - namibj 7y ago
      Dried grain, when sealed against humidity, is stable in a passive store like an old mine for wau over half a century. So, no, grain storage is incredibly low-maintenance, compared to a freezer.
    - strgcmc 7y ago
      Your comment inspired me to do a little reading, since this is an interesting idea (and maybe represents an opportunity in the supply chain... maybe what we need is better/newer technology for long-term storage of grains/flour/etc.). Apparently, flour can (should?) be frozen for long-term storage, and would keep indefinitely: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay-to-keep-flour-in-the-freezer https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/33890/is-it-okay... (unfortunately that link to University of Nebraska is 404 now). Long-term grain storage concerns: https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-equipment/grain-bins/8-tips-f-longterm-grain-stage_214-ar45622 https://www.agriculture.com/machinery/grain-handling-and-equ... ; as a non-expert, this begs the question of why more climate control is not done, to create indefinite/permanent storage (probably just not economical to do so, but given disruptions like COVID-19, maybe this will change?).
      - bryanlarsen 7y ago
        > just not economical to do so Yup. Grains are so incredibly cheap that's it's not worth preserving them. My favorite stat to pull out at parties: The price of a bushel of wheat (aka 60 pounds) has been approximately one British pound since the mid 1300's. It's currently worth about 4 British pounds, but that says more about how much the British pound has declined against the USD than it says about the price of wheat.
Aeolun 7y ago
24 million chickens?! That’s one chicken per person per 10 days or so. That’s a fuckton of chickens.