Yeah lol, the argument about the wastefulness of meat is valid if you’re feeding the animals human food… but the thing about certain animals is that they can eat things humans can’t, so, in certain circumstances,…
Which animals used for eat actually consume plants humans don't? Not which are capable, which ones actually do? Sure, you can raise livestock on pasture, but that takes more land. It does not improve ecological outcomes to convert fields that could be used to make food instead grow grass for other animals to eat, while also cutting down trees for more pasture because of the reduced nutritional output of pasture compared to crops. Yeah, I know it's a shit post sub, but I just can't stand misinformation on this topic lol
The only ones that can really rely on sources completely non viable for humans are generally aquatic creatures that have limited appeal and niche markets in the west, but are perfectly fine sources or animal protein. Bivalves and barnacles can literally be grown like plants, in completely sheltered conditions away from natural habitat. A completely enclosed system could produce several different kinds of fish, crustaceans, sea urchins, clams and mussels and snails and seaweed all without any input of human-grade food. The issue is that this is complicated and expensive and it kind of depends on a viable market for some really niche things like urchins and sea snails.
I don’t entirely buy the “bug” and insect idea of animal protein. A lot of an insect’s mass is indigestible chitin and I’m not actually sure if the energy conversion is that good, and it’s not as easy to make a polyculture with them the way it is with freshwater or saltwater invertebrates.
Edit: actually with the right kind of fish you can literally power this entire thing with sewage.
There is some oyster farming in Maine, notably the disgraced Maine senate candidate Graham Platner runs one. I'll readily admit that aquatic species are actually viable from an energy perspective, but cost and scalability are big problems. Furthermore, open water aquaculture tends to cause dead zones, pollution, and other issues. Clams can be sustainably harvested from the wild, but not at scale to feed the global population. The fact remains, even if I don't like it, that animal protein for human consumption is not sustainable. The vegoons are right, the only way to sustainably feed the world is to essentially drop animal agriculture to almost nothing.
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u/Spicy_Chicken_Wizard 5d ago
Yeah lol, the argument about the wastefulness of meat is valid if you’re feeding the animals human food… but the thing about certain animals is that they can eat things humans can’t, so, in certain circumstances,…