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> Animals are extremely efficient at converting inedible food to edible nutrition. And survive in a very complex and hostile environment, adapt to changing con
by dividedbyzero 5y ago
> Animals are extremely efficient at converting inedible food to edible nutrition.
And survive in a very complex and hostile environment, adapt to changing conditions, procreate, and build all the structure and tissues and organs that requires. That's a lot of energy that bioreactor-grown steak doesn't have to expend. At scale, and with some genetic optimization thrown in, can we do better? I don't know for sure, but I don't think it's an impossibility, given that most of the current meat supply is already grown in factories.
- iammisc 5y agoOrgans are edible. You should try it sometimes. They are not waste products. No wonder Americans find these things wasteful. In my experience, even something as simple as chicken. People do not actually eat the whole thing. Half of it is thrown away, just like everything else. It's very strange to me, because growing up, we'd eat everything. But I married into an American family, and I'm often picking stuff off the bones they throw out. We were raised to eat everything, even the marrow. > That's a lot of energy that bioreactor-grown steak doesn't have to expend Sure, but the bioreactor is (1) heavily affected by supply chain issues, (2) dependent on an external source of energy, (3) requires complex chemical inputs that have to be synthesized themselves oftentimes. No one takes into account the whole thing. Also, monoculture is always going to be less resilient than an actual population of cattle, or pigs, or chickens. But, I guess this is a problem that affects the whole industry.