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> Removing crops as a part of animal feed would mean something like reducing our meat consumption by 90%. You correctly reference that raising vegetable protei
by DoctorOetker 4y ago
> Removing crops as a part of animal feed would mean something like reducing our meat consumption by 90%.
You correctly reference that raising vegetable protein is about 10x more efficient than raising animal protein.
Assuming
* it is ~ 20x more efficient to raise single cell protein than it is to raise vegetable protein
* it is too impractical or inefficient to feed single-cell protein to plants
Then it would follow that it would be 2x more efficient to raise single-cell-protein-fed animal protein than it is to raise vegetable protein. This can happen in closed facilities to capture any methane gas.
We observe it is very hard to convince people to switch from carnivore habits to vegetarian habits. Presumably it will be similarily difficult to convince carnivore population to voluntarily switch to eating single cell protein.
It will obviously still be 10x more efficient to eat the single cell protein directly than to eat single-cell-protein fed animal protein, which would in turn be about 2x as efficient as eating vegetable protein.
I don't think meat eating humans care much if the animal ate plant protein or single cell protein. It's not like meat products specify what the livestock ate throughout its short life.
Even if you have (perfectly valid!) ethical questions about raising creatures as fast as possible only to kill them and harvest their meat; faced with a fellow vegetarian human who cannot be convinced to eat single cell protein, would you convince them to eat SCP-fed animal protein? (better for the environment); or would you convince them to eat vegetable protein? (better for compassion with the livestock creatures)
Assume for a minute you were vegetarian up to this day yourself: you welcome the lower footprint of single-cell proteins, and don't mind eating it most of the time, ... but sometimes you want to treat yourself, just a small treat, would you have the discipline to eat SCP-fed animal protein, or would you insist on eating less efficiently produced vegetable protein?
Le morale: if one is abhorred by the concept of raising creatures for the sole purpouse of eating them, one should stick to the point and not defer to efficiency arguments. Every cover reason backfires... eventually.
- bjoli 4y agoIt is not just the protein that is a limiting factor in meat production. Especially not for grazing animals. And 20x less seems like a very high estimate compared to the current protein king, the soybean. What I am saying is: a.sustainable protein will make the largest impact in chicken, but very little impact for the kind of feed and land use we are discussing. Vall and slåtter (I have no idea about the English terms) are almost exclusively used as feed for grazing animals. And even with chickens I must ask: Is SCP competitive with insects? I have been betting on insects becoming the next big thing in animal feed for some time. 20x less land use per gram of protein compared to soy is no problem for something like the black soldier fly larvae. They are well above 50x.
- DoctorOetker 4y agothe costs of grazing land and fence maintenance etc fall away if you can just raise the animals in a cubicle... you are not explaining where your larvae are getting their proteins... I don't believe they can essentially thrive on CO2 and hydrogen...
- bjoli 4y agoWhen I ate insects I fed them compost. I tried one kind that I could feed rest products from forrestry, but I didn't care much for the taste. The discussion of SCP in feed is the same as soy beans: we can eat it ourselves. Why accept a 3-10x efficiency loss by feeding it to chicken and pigs? We are already eating SCP, and we are bound to eat more of it in the coming decades.
- DoctorOetker 4y agoI said so much myself: > It will obviously still be 10x more efficient to eat the single cell protein directly than to eat single-cell-protein fed animal protein, which would in turn be about 2x as efficient as eating vegetable protein. (so you merely reiterate what I wrote) and the paragraph right before it > We observe it is very hard to convince people to switch from carnivore habits to vegetarian habits. Presumably it will be similarily difficult to convince carnivore population to voluntarily switch to eating single cell protein. which answers your question: > Why accept a 3-10x efficiency loss by feeding it to chicken and pigs? Because citizens enjoy autonomy and the state doesn't force people to eat SCP directly. In the knowledge (not in their defense) that a large group of people eating meat refuse to switch to vegetable protein today, it is naive to think they would however switch to eating SCP directly.