I've probably posted this, but maybe not so I'll have a go. The problem with meat, I think, is that illustratively speaking, it takes 10 kilos of grass to make 1 kilo cow. If you could eat grass, you would get 10 times more food. So then by eating meat, you have to utilize 10 times more "agricultural space" to feed the same amount of people compared to if people were eating grass.
Basically, it takes a whole lot more resources when people are on a meat diet. I think that's a bigger issue than animal cruelty in a way because it's easier to do something with animal cruelty.
We don't have to eat grass, but a way for people to use less resources on our planet would be if we ate more from the lower trophic levels. That means the lower levels of the food chain, like corn, artichokes and perhaps krill.
Anyways, I'm a hypocrite because I do like meat and I eat a lot of it. I'm a bit too cynical and I think that it doesn't make a difference what I do. Me eating corn and salad is not gonna dent what the free market meat industry does today. However, I applaud those who are idealistic and think that's a good thing. In my dark mind, I believe that in order to really make a difference, you would need government regulation. In most democratic societies today and also the future I believe, such intervention would not be popular so I don't see it happening.
I sorta posted the stemcell stuff as a joke, but it's not that far fetched. Stemcell technology can of course help with many important medical problems, but it could also let us grow beef. One of the uses for stemcell research that is being worked on is growing new organs in labs .. The step to growing steaks is not really that big. That should eliminate the animal rights problem, but it might still take a lot more resources "from the earth" than eating corn .. But you never know, I'm sure it could get pretty energy efficient compared to living cows today.
Funny as it may sound, I'm sure we'll grow meat from stemcells in the future.
|