
Get ready to eat bugs if you want to live beyond 2050 - afshinmeh
https://www.engadget.com/2020/01/28/crickets-algae-lab-grown-meat-future-of-protein/
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digitalsushi
The title of this is incendiary, to make the reader emotional about being
force fed insects.

Everyone eats trace amounts of bugs all the time without giving it a second
thought. Bugs get in our food before we buy it, and after we buy it. For every
critter we accidentally discover, there are others that go right through our
digestive system.

I have no issues buying a slab of steak or bacon - part of the product is the
abstraction from animal to dinner. I'm probably a vegetarian in denial because
the process of turning an animal into dinner stresses me out but I am happy to
have a bacon cheeseburger.

So it seems fair to me that if we can mask the process of trillions of
crickets turning into protein powder for making 2050 meatloaf, that someone
like me will have no issue eating that either.

I have a feeling my opinion on this will be controversial because talking
about food is controversial. I'm not trying to antagonize anyone reading this.

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palae
Clickbait title. The article is about alternative protein sources such as
crickets or seaweed. The conclusion is a fairer description of the content:

"So whether it comes from a cricket or a lab or off the coast of Indonesia,
tomorrow's protein alternatives will be a win for both consumers and the
environment, though likely neither are as excited about those prospects as the
cows."

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nybble41
> though likely neither are as excited about those prospects as the cows

This is somewhat ironic, since cows will most likely undergo a population
collapse if they are no longer being raised domestically for the meat. The
remainder would probably be kept mainly for milking. Do you suppose dairy cows
have a better overall quality-of-life than other cows?

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svrtknst
Or, y'know, I'll stick to beans, lentils, and veggies.

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Melting_Harps
> Or, y'know, I'll stick to beans, lentils, and veggies.

I'd do that too, on top of making use of those insect proteins to feed my
chickens and eat eggs, roosters and the hen when it gets too old to lay eggs.

There are a lot of efforts to shift aqua-culture feed to mainly insect larvae
based pellets in several countries. Which makes total sense, but I have
limited experience with that; but I do know chickens will devour a bowl full
of maggots in seconds, which have an amazing fat/protein ratio as way
healthier than the typical corn based feed they are often given.

I'm very skeptical when it comes to these headlines, the World produces more
than enough food (be it fruit/meat/veg) to feed all of the World's population,
its the logistics of a broken food supply chain--obfuscated by subsidies--that
make it impossible for it to reach every person at a profit.

Its amazing that it works at all when you think that less than 2% of the
World's population works in Ag and this broken system feeds the other 98%, but
its also alarming when you think of the vulnerabilities and untenable
practices baked into the system.

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pipogld
Please stop scaring me. In 1975, at 4 billions we were not going to be able to
feed 8 billions. Now we do. I want to respect the food chain. Let the birds
eat the bugs. Let us eat the birds.

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jmpman
Can I just buy long term soybean commodity contracts which follow the price of
beef/pork, then sell some each year? I’d prefer that to eating crickets.

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abstractbarista
Pompous title. I'll happily do it, but not because you made me. Rather, it
sounds quite tasty and nutritious! The 'capacity' concept is a lie. Don't
forget to look at the drastically slowing worldwide population growth. I'll
continue to kill and eat venison and grow my garden.

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jyounker
Bugs are delicious.

