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According to most sources I can get to with my amateur knowledge, a giant portion of proteins is "wasted" by "producing meat". Another large portion is wasted b

by berkes 3y ago

According to most sources I can get to with my amateur knowledge, a giant portion of proteins is "wasted" by "producing meat". Another large portion is wasted because of poor logistics and wasteful behavior. If everyone stops eating meat, and starts eating the proteins themselves, we win some 1000% to 25000% (sources range from 10 to 25x the proteins in/output when producing meat). Meat is just a terribly inefficient way to produce proteins. (Edit: to be clear, "meat" differs a lot: chicken apparently being rather efficient, more even than cheese, beef being amongst the worst). And if then the resulting food sources are grown efficient, and all, or a lot of waste can be eliminated by shortening supply chains, sourcing JIT (no avocado's in winter in Europe, no tomatoes in snow), I'm pretty sure we'll get a long way. But, sure. If some rich countries keep demanding giant portions of global protein in e.g. soybeans and corn to feed cattle to make burgers for 7 meals a week, then certainly: people in countries who cannot afford to compete with the soy-prices will starve.

junofan 3y ago
> If everyone stops eating meat, and starts eating the proteins themselves, we win some 1000% to 25000% We’ve settled on a system of markets to deal with scarcity. I believe the 1,000% to 25,000% win might have some losers you’re not telling me about.
- berkes 3y ago
  Market is about supply and demand. People demand meat. Regardless of how inefficiënt it is produced. And, no surprise, this isn't a free market at all. At least in Europe, meat, dairy (and on lesser extent crops) are heavily subsidised. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/feed-required-to-produce-one-kilogram-of-meat-or-dairy-product https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/feed-required-to-produce-... has a quick overview. My numbers aren't wrong, but, as always, they do need context (i.e. not all input is currently human consumable. Oos, many input is grass, which is rather ineffective land-use, i.e. the same km² could produce a multitude of human edible foods)

by berkes 3y ago

junofan 3y ago

> If everyone stops eating meat, and starts eating the proteins themselves, we win some 1000% to 25000% We’ve settled on a system of markets to deal with scarcity. I believe the 1,000% to 25,000% win might have some losers you’re not telling me about.

berkes 3y ago
Market is about supply and demand. People demand meat. Regardless of how inefficiënt it is produced. And, no surprise, this isn't a free market at all. At least in Europe, meat, dairy (and on lesser extent crops) are heavily subsidised. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/feed-required-to-produce-one-kilogram-of-meat-or-dairy-product https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/feed-required-to-produce-... has a quick overview. My numbers aren't wrong, but, as always, they do need context (i.e. not all input is currently human consumable. Oos, many input is grass, which is rather ineffective land-use, i.e. the same km² could produce a multitude of human edible foods)