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I'm not trying to be glib or intentionally controversial, but: is this a "market correction" for beef not really being as sustainable at recent consumption leve
by HelloMcFly 4y ago
I'm not trying to be glib or intentionally controversial, but: is this a "market correction" for beef not really being as sustainable at recent consumption levels? Is it a bad thing if beef becomes significantly more expensive?
- shortstuffsushi 4y agoIf your industry isn't able to sustain a 6x increase on production cost, is that a market correction?
- chaorace 4y agoNot to pull the "facts don't care about feelings" card... but markets don't care about long-term sustainability so long as medium-term growth can be expected. Such a correction for unsustainable markets will eventually come, but not on a timescale relevant to current events. I don't personally think rising beef prices are an issue, though. Nobody is going to starve because they're being priced out of a steak. I will be more concerned if we eventually begin to run short of beef-alternatives, though.
- HelloMcFly 4y agoI was more thinking about how subsidized beef consumption is, at least in America. I was thinking less about sustainability from an environmental standpoint, though I think the environmental cost of beef is one of the things that is hidden by the way we subsidize the industry.
- propogandist 4y agoThey’re pushing all kind of narratives to make cattle seem like they’re terrible for the world, and linking everything to climate change. No one wants to accept the push to start eating bugs. Don’t give into the WEF propaganda https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/18/cows-seaweed-methane-emissions-scientists https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/mar/18/cows-sea...
- manimino 4y agoWho exactly is "they"? The... Big Bug industry?
- propogandist 4y agoInsects are being promoted as a way to hit UN’s sustainable development goals [1] There’s also an industry emerging, with big pushes from organizations like WEF, to normalize eating bugs [2]. Investors are getting in on this trend too [3] 1. https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/6/557 https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/6/557 2. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-insects-the-role-they-deserve-in-our-food-systems/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/why-we-need-to-give-i... 3. https://fortune.com/2022/05/24/war-ukraine-big-ag-insect-feed-protix-fao/ https://fortune.com/2022/05/24/war-ukraine-big-ag-insect-fee...
- silksowed 4y agoin what world will people eat bugs instead of beef, do bugs taste anywhere as good as beef? all the push from the supply side doesn't fix the demand problem.
- kombucha13 4y agoHonestly they are really delicious and satiate in a similar way to meat. Try some grasshoppers next chance you get.
- silksowed 4y agoill try anything !
- Dylan16807 4y agoIs there actually anything wrong with normalizing eating bugs? Like, get meat if you want but don't be a baby about insects?
- lettergram 4y agoProduction of beef is at sustainable levels, provided cheap energy. But increase fertilizer 3-10x and fuel 3-5x and you’re going to adjust in prices. And you’re going to get a new sustainable level. Btw when I say “sustainable” I mean market conditions, not environment. The environment can likely handle far more cattle, but it requires input (fuel, fertilizer, etc) for us to produce said cattle. Recall, there used to be millions (probably tens of millions) of bison roaming the Americas. We basically replaced them with cattle. Cattle are constrained to a region and fed food from farms. Environmental wise, I don’t see much issue with cattle (when comparing to other pollutants)
- fleddr 4y agoMy father has worked in the meat industry his entire life and said that over the decades, he was shocked how unnaturally cheap meat has become. I'm in no way anti-meat, but a lot of people have normalized eating a huge amount of meat per day at ultra low cost, and internalized this as some basic right. Natural consumption of meat is to eat meat sporadically, not 3 times per day. I'm not questioning whether one likes meat, I do too. I'm saying you don't need it in these amounts nor should you expect it to be this cheap forever.
- Dylan16807 4y agoWhat's a natural amount? I'm imagining a farm household hundreds of years ago, growing their own crops and having a herd of 4 cows, killing one or two a year for lots and lots of meat. Google says hunter-gatherers got most of their food from meat. And are crops not unnaturally cheap with modern mechanized farms?
- nephanth 4y agoI'd say a good definition for a "natural amount" is the average amount you get in a hunter-gatherer setting. That's what most of our evolution has prepared us for. Not judging on the value of thaat diet though. "Natural" doesn't necessarily mean "good"
- kortilla 4y ago> Natural consumption of meat is to eat meat sporadically, not 3 times per day. This is just an appeal to the way things were 70 years ago in the US. Much further back you had Native Americans absolutely eating tons of bison meat in the western US. Other tribes easily got fish for every meal. Others have been heavily vegetarian. There is no “natural consumption of meat”.
- ww-picard-do 4y ago> There is no “natural consumption of meat”. Yes. As you point out the consumption of meat varies greatly across cultures.