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Given that most people want to eat meat, as an axiom, looks like you will have to choose one or the other. In this case, if one is concerned for sentient animal
by satvikpendem 2y ago
Given that most people want to eat meat, as an axiom, looks like you will have to choose one or the other. In this case, if one is concerned for sentient animal welfare, then insects could be a great solution (although they'd be more of a protein source, not actually meat), or better yet, lab-grown meat, since that's ideally identical to animal-cultivated meat.
- candiddevmike 2y ago> Given that most people want to eat meat Nature vs nurture? I think most people want to eat good tasting, ideally nutritious food.
- satvikpendem 2y agoProbably nature, due to the preponderance of evidence for it, and that likely evolved into a cultural phenomenon too. There is a reason all societies eat meat in one form or another.
- SoftTalker 2y agoYes, humans are omnivores. Meat is a natural component of our diet.
- candiddevmike 2y agoThere is evidence of vegetarian communities and tribes too though: Native Americans: https://www.ivu.org/history/native_americans.html https://www.ivu.org/history/native_americans.html Indians: https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_vegetarianism https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Jain_vegetarianism
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y agoThe substantive difference is that we don't need to look for evidence of meat-eating communities and tribes. They're all around.
- NewJazz 2y agoInsects aren't sentient?
- satvikpendem 2y agoProbably not, they don't seem to exhibit the same sorts of signs as higher level species.
- NewJazz 2y agoHigher level species? Your comment seems to have some preconceived biases. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/do-insects-have-consciousness-ego-180958824/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/do-insects-have-co... https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weve-been-looking-at-ant-intelligence-the-wrong-way/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/weve-been-looking... https://www.animal-ethics.org/invertebrate-sentience-a-review-of-the-behavioral-evidence/ https://www.animal-ethics.org/invertebrate-sentience-a-revie...
- satvikpendem 2y agoSure, I don't know the recent research, so I'm not the right person to ask about insect sentience.
- mvdwoord 2y agoI prefer rib-eye though, from a cow, not a lab.
- ceejayoz 2y agoEven if they were otherwise indistinguishable at some point in the future?
- dh2022 2y agoEven if they are indistinguishable at some point the OP gets to make his/her own choice.
- ceejayoz 2y agoSure, and we're allowed to consider such a choice - to explicitly prioritize suffering - to be psychopathic.
- mvdwoord 2y agoIf it makes you feel better, you can label my preference however you see fit dear internet stranger. I merely pointed out that not everyone who eats meat does it strictly to ingest a specific combination of proteins. Some of the replies seem to imply that life is some abstract combination of chemicals. Just do a double blind test, and be "unable to believe it's butter". Once neuralink is up to spec, plug in, be happy, and "free of suffering". I believe there is much to be done to reduce suffering, and it's a worthy goal, primarily for humans, and also for animals. One animal killing another for food is not on that list of you ask me. The problem is that we do treat animals very poorly, at tremendous scale, but that is not the only way. In my opinion there is nothing ethically or morally wrong to kill an animal for consumption. We're still (barely) free enough to disagree ;)
- ceejayoz 2y agoYou've entirely skipped answering the actual question, though. If the taste, appearance, etc. of a lab-grown ribeye - perhaps they grow an entire headless, brainless cow and ensure it manages to get exercise - is identical, would your preference still be the one that required a thinking creature to die? Is it the death that matters, or the taste?
- bashmelek 2y agoI’ve been wondering how snails fit into this. I know they have some higher calcium needs, but their carbon footprint per gram of protein is a fraction of chicken. Granted, I know most of their flavor comes from the butter and garlic they are cooked with, but speaking as someone who likes escargot, why is the focus always on crickets? What is the missing piece?
- HeyLaughingBoy 2y ago> why is the focus always on crickets Virtue signaling by eating something gross? Dunno.
- satvikpendem 2y agoHigher protein content per carb, easier to grow than other small animals.
- bashmelek 2y agoIn terms of protein and CO2 eq, the snails seem comparable if not better than crickets, if I’m reading the data correctly, with .7 kg CO2 eq per kg for the snails (edible meat) vs 1.3 for crickets, and 16g protein vs the crickets 14-20g. Granted, there may be other factors in play, such as how easy they are the farm as you mention.
- satvikpendem 2y agoThen we should eat snails, at least they have that meaty texture compared to crickets. Perhaps other forms of bugs could work though, the ones in The Lion King sure looked tasty.
- bashmelek 2y agoFurther research is yielding that, in the USA, they are considered pests, and so somewhat highly regulated: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-snails-raised https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-snails-raised