111–120 of 263 posts
It's crazy to see people denying that (meat) factory farming is a problem. You'd expect most of the public of this website to be rationalists in one way or another. Of course factory farming is an aggravating factor for the spread of diseases. Of course we can thrive with less meat consumption or none. How is that even a question?
It's crazy to see people denying that (meat) factory farming is a problem. You'd expect most of the public of this website to be rationalists in one way or another. Of course factory farming is an aggravating factor for the spread of diseases. Of course we can thrive with less meat consumption or none. How is that even a question?
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The antibiotics permit the shitty unsanitary conditions that make viral spread also more likely.
Most antibiotics fed to cattle are used to bias the population in their digestive system to optimize feed conversion, not for infection control. Milk is discarded if the cow is being treated for an infection, so it's not like they just do nothing else to keep them healthy.
The incidence of bronchopneumonia in feed lots is 14% of the animals. Infection is very common.
It's crazy to see people denying that (meat) factory farming is a problem. You'd expect most of the public of this website to be rationalists in one way or another. Of course factory farming is an aggravating factor for the spread of diseases. Of course we can thrive with less meat consumption or none. How is that even a question?
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The distribution of resources of the world is grossly unfair. Two things need to happen: fewer people and a cap on how much one person has.
How does that happen? Any recommendations?
This likely wont happen in my lifetime. It will only change when the change is forced. When we’ve made too much of the planet a toxic waste dump then people will be forced to change.
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One of the most consistent technological innovations throughout humanity's existence has been in improving how we eat, because eating is by far one of the biggest pleasures a person can have in life. The invention of fire revolutionized eating, the invention of agriculture revolutionized access to food at a fundamental level, the invention of refrigeration and freezing vastly expanded the reach and safety of food fro…
> eating is by far one of the biggest pleasures a person can have in life. With 70% of the west being obese or overweight I think the pendulum swung way too far. > This notion of sacrificing Quality of Eating(tm) is therefore a non-starter When did factory farms meat become quality ?? I think you're mistaking quantity and low price for quality. You'd have to be blind to not see how the quality of food decreased in th…
The computers we have at home and in our pockets are inferior in quality to enterprise servers and mainframes, but everyone has computers and nobody is willing to go back to simple Casio calculators and slide rules.
The meats we have at home are inferior in quality to artisan meats, but everyone has meats and nobody is willing to go back to eating other people's refuse (I'm aware organ meats are perfectly fine food, but let's be real for a moment) and porridge every day.
Our access to food today is nothing short of utterly insane to people just a century ago, and rightfully noone is willing to let it go.
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Are antibiotics suddenly a factor in viral infections?
Antibiotics are enabling unhygienic conditions. Places with poor governance in animal agriculture have a vicious cycle of poor regulation permitting unhygienic conditions which permits unhygienic infrastructure and practices which causes disease which is papered over by antibiotics which allows terrible conditions to continue.
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Well that make poor folks harder to fulfill nutrition requirements. Especially for kids that'd be devastating.
A plant-based diet is cheaper than a regular diet: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2021-11-11-sustainable-eating-chea...
Out of the 5 vegan and 8 vegetarian options, only the soy protein is cheaper than meat.
I might replace one meal a week with the soy protein, but I'd be concerned about long term effects of phytoestrogen, especially on growing children? Mind you many foods have some hidden soy 'bulk' nowadays.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/soy/ relates to understanding of health benefits/detriments of soy.
Maybe, just maybe, we should ease off on the factory farming...
Let's start with treating animals with respect, don't feed them (literal in some cases) trash and take hygiene way more seriously. We have a pretty good idea how disease spreads, and still there is a large fraction of farms, feed and livestock processing facilities that are absolutely disgusting by any standard.
It's not just gross, it greatly facilitates the spread and crossings of disease. We simply can no longer allow these facilities to exist: too dangerous for consumers, and food security as a whole. And the animals themselves of course.