On: The Struggle to Make Lab-Grown Meat

[XorNot]

This is untrue for the meat packing industry today. One cow going into a modern slaughterhouse is more efficiently processed then even the most meticulous native American tribemember could ever have achieved.

Efficiency is all that matters if resource utilisation is your metric.

[Gordonjcp → XorNot]

Right, but even your hypothetical tribe member is going to be many orders of magnitude more efficient than a billion dollar factory trying to grow a postage-stamp-sized piece of fake meat.

[esafak → Gordonjcp]

Are you counting the resources it takes to raise the animal?

[Gordonjcp → esafak]

Yes, because they are literally just lying around on the ground.

[esafak → Gordonjcp]

The ground they stand on has an opportunity cost. The feed, vet, and butcher all cost money. And it takes years to raise one. So all told, there is a cost, which is why the supermarket does not give away meat for free.

[Gordonjcp → esafak]

What else are you going to use the ground for?

Supermarkets effectively give the meat away for free because quite often farmers are locked into contracts that end up paying less than cost.

Don't buy any of your food from supermarkets.