4 ms·

‘Gigantic’ power of meat industry blocking green alternatives, study finds

9 points by myshpa 3y ago

Bostonian 3y ago
It is a common tactic to blame industries for climate change rather underlying consumer preferences. Only a small minority of people are willing to give up meat to reduce climate change, but instead let's talk about the "gigantic power of the meat industry".
- version_five 3y ago
  People love conspiracy theories when they support their world view. It's more comfortable to blame some shadowy cabal and so reconcile your beliefs with not wanting to do anything yourself.
  - NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
    There's nothing conspiracy about it. The power of heavy industry is self-evident. Take, for example, fishing. Was it individual choice that gave rise to today's fishing industry? Fishing has long been a rather individual and solo project, where people can subsist on food they catch for themselves. Then people banded together to operate fishing boats and maintain nets and collectively feed themselves. Then they could feed others. Then it grew and grew. Did the industry grow by "convincing individuals to choose fish"? Or did the ease of fishing and the low barrier of entry give rise to ever larger operations? Mechanization and industrialization ultimately begat a fishing industry that overfishes, kills the oceans, destroys ecosystems, and is ruining the planet. What individual choice can reverse this sort of thing? What shadowy conspiracy cabal has dared to ruin it for us? It's simply the almighty buck and human nature. There is nothing mysterious or lunatic about it.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  Au contraire, trying to galvanize and urge individual action is the most futile strategy ever for such a global problem that is a result of systemic and gigantic processes far beyond any individual's control. Meat will not be given up, meat will be taken away from us against our wills. Meat has become mildly unpopular for now. Beef prices skyrocketing. The industries will be shamed and sued and attacked until they shrink and shut down. Prices will increase further and the shelves will thin out. Consumers will hardly choose anything. I think more and more people will just accidentally buy vegan products that are imitating the real thing, or they may be incentivized in other ways such as price, but eventually it won't be consumer choice that removes meat from the market, it'll be industrial pressure. Yes, the green industry hates the meat industry because of its sheer size and power. This is inter-corporate infighting at its finest. All the green power companies and the carbon offsetters and the food industries are gearing up to fight off veritable Goliaths on every corner. The misinformation and disinformation wars are epic. There's no way of knowing who's really right, and I can assure you of one thing, the world won't be any greener once the "green" industries have their iron grip on the economy, it'll be the same clowns in charge with different facepaint. I have to be very careful. The shelves are already flooded with imitation vegan crap that is not real. Any given section of my farmers market will have fake cheese, fake milk, fake meat, fake whatever, and it's just up to me to read the label and possibly even ingredients to see if it's bona fide or some highly-processed additive-laden lab-grown "green hippie tree hugger" mimicry. You know, for every time I've heard "don't force your morality on us" and "my body my choice" and "give us individual freedom" it really wears thin when I then see vegans, dog worshippers, and climate alarmists preaching "Repent Or The End Is Near, Sinners."
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

9 points by myshpa 3y ago

It is a common tactic to blame industries for climate change rather underlying consumer preferences. Only a small minority of people are willing to give up meat to reduce climate change, but instead let's talk about the "gigantic power of the meat industry".

version_five 3y ago
People love conspiracy theories when they support their world view. It's more comfortable to blame some shadowy cabal and so reconcile your beliefs with not wanting to do anything yourself.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
  There's nothing conspiracy about it. The power of heavy industry is self-evident. Take, for example, fishing. Was it individual choice that gave rise to today's fishing industry? Fishing has long been a rather individual and solo project, where people can subsist on food they catch for themselves. Then people banded together to operate fishing boats and maintain nets and collectively feed themselves. Then they could feed others. Then it grew and grew. Did the industry grow by "convincing individuals to choose fish"? Or did the ease of fishing and the low barrier of entry give rise to ever larger operations? Mechanization and industrialization ultimately begat a fishing industry that overfishes, kills the oceans, destroys ecosystems, and is ruining the planet. What individual choice can reverse this sort of thing? What shadowy conspiracy cabal has dared to ruin it for us? It's simply the almighty buck and human nature. There is nothing mysterious or lunatic about it.
NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Au contraire, trying to galvanize and urge individual action is the most futile strategy ever for such a global problem that is a result of systemic and gigantic processes far beyond any individual's control. Meat will not be given up, meat will be taken away from us against our wills. Meat has become mildly unpopular for now. Beef prices skyrocketing. The industries will be shamed and sued and attacked until they shrink and shut down. Prices will increase further and the shelves will thin out. Consumers will hardly choose anything. I think more and more people will just accidentally buy vegan products that are imitating the real thing, or they may be incentivized in other ways such as price, but eventually it won't be consumer choice that removes meat from the market, it'll be industrial pressure. Yes, the green industry hates the meat industry because of its sheer size and power. This is inter-corporate infighting at its finest. All the green power companies and the carbon offsetters and the food industries are gearing up to fight off veritable Goliaths on every corner. The misinformation and disinformation wars are epic. There's no way of knowing who's really right, and I can assure you of one thing, the world won't be any greener once the "green" industries have their iron grip on the economy, it'll be the same clowns in charge with different facepaint. I have to be very careful. The shelves are already flooded with imitation vegan crap that is not real. Any given section of my farmers market will have fake cheese, fake milk, fake meat, fake whatever, and it's just up to me to read the label and possibly even ingredients to see if it's bona fide or some highly-processed additive-laden lab-grown "green hippie tree hugger" mimicry. You know, for every time I've heard "don't force your morality on us" and "my body my choice" and "give us individual freedom" it really wears thin when I then see vegans, dog worshippers, and climate alarmists preaching "Repent Or The End Is Near, Sinners."
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]