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In the EU, commercial pork production is almost exclusively done in large-scale indoor operations with hundreds to thousands of animals in one facility. These a

by tfourb 3y ago

In the EU, commercial pork production is almost exclusively done in large-scale indoor operations with hundreds to thousands of animals in one facility. These animals represent hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of investment for their owners and there are stringent laws and regulations in place that require everything that enters these facilities to be effectively sterilized. *Still* we get huge outbreaks of some disease or other every few years that can cripple pork production in entire regions. If pork producers can't keep pathogens out of their operations, just assume no one can do so effectively.

PretzelPirate 3y ago
Pigs can contract viruses from humans, which I don't think plants can. Pigs and the horrific conditions they're kept in also creates a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Things are a bit cleaner in vertical plant farms as long as they dont use animal biproducts in their process.
- tfourb 3y ago
  Ingress of pathogens into pig farms almost always come through contaminated clothing, tools or fodder, not some fancy human to pig contraction. Vertical/indoor farms will need a lot of human supervision and interaction, as well as water and other inputs from the outside. Making sure that all of this does not lead to contamination (which includes sterilizing the entire facility on a regular basis) is prohibitively expensive in all but the most edgiest of edge cases. And again: why bother? Market gardens are highly space efficient and can feed hundreds of people from the space normally occupied by a suburban house plot. Locating a market garden outside an agglomeration and transporting the produce an hour or so into the city is also very practical. And of course actual staple crops are shelf stable and can thus be transported anywhere at leisure. This fancy "vertical farming" stuff makes sense on a space station and desert cities flush with petro dollars but that's about it.
- biorach 3y ago
  It's still a highly intensive monoculture in an enclosed space - it's still going to be very prone to devastating disease outbreaks.

by tfourb 3y ago

PretzelPirate 3y ago

Pigs can contract viruses from humans, which I don't think plants can. Pigs and the horrific conditions they're kept in also creates a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Things are a bit cleaner in vertical plant farms as long as they dont use animal biproducts in their process.

tfourb 3y ago
Ingress of pathogens into pig farms almost always come through contaminated clothing, tools or fodder, not some fancy human to pig contraction. Vertical/indoor farms will need a lot of human supervision and interaction, as well as water and other inputs from the outside. Making sure that all of this does not lead to contamination (which includes sterilizing the entire facility on a regular basis) is prohibitively expensive in all but the most edgiest of edge cases. And again: why bother? Market gardens are highly space efficient and can feed hundreds of people from the space normally occupied by a suburban house plot. Locating a market garden outside an agglomeration and transporting the produce an hour or so into the city is also very practical. And of course actual staple crops are shelf stable and can thus be transported anywhere at leisure. This fancy "vertical farming" stuff makes sense on a space station and desert cities flush with petro dollars but that's about it.
biorach 3y ago
It's still a highly intensive monoculture in an enclosed space - it's still going to be very prone to devastating disease outbreaks.