Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/15/supermarket-chickens-have-a-su.html
…
2 Likes
I’m not a strict vegetarian, i still occasionally eat meat but i’m glad that i’ve been eating less and less meat. Especially when buying groceries i’ve stopped buying meat all together for years. Seeing news about antibiotics, how animals are raised, etc really makes me glad i don’t have to worry.
That being said i am aware that even veggies can have pesticides and bacteria on them but i feel like i have more control over the quality of veggies than i do with meat (unless i wanted to buy meats where the animals were humanely grown and fed well, which is incredibly expensive)
11 Likes
Beat me to it. Well said.
5 Likes
I’m a vegetarian. Eating meat at the rate that westerners consume is simply unsustainable There is not enough space, water, and energy to avoid these systemic failures. I suppose cutting back meat consumption to once a week would be a good start.
5 Likes
The only way this is going to happen (and once a week would be a distant goal rather than a good start) would be if price reflected the impact on the environment.
4 Likes
Can you provide any independently verifiable evidence to support this claim?
2 Likes
Meat in general is unsustainable
And the US eats more meat per person than the majority of other countries. Therefore i think it’s not wrong to say that meat consumption in the US is unsustainable, though really that’s the case for every other nation too.
9 Likes
Let me google that for you. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/meat-and-environment/
4 Likes
I buy the boutique meat when I cook.
The product is much better and I like to support the industry.
Yeah, I recognize my privilege but things do become less expensive and more available when they become more wide-spread.
That’s what I think of myself supporting anyhow.
1 Like
If more people bought meat raised under better conditions and more sustainable i don’t necessarily think it’d drive prices down. It’s intensive as far as time, labor, and materials go. However it’d make it worth the time for a farmer to do so if the economic incentive is there, and if you’re able to afford the expense more power to you.
5 Likes
@Grey_Devil, @lasermike026 , both those links are about current meat production systems (feedlots and the like) which are indeed unsustainable (unless human reproduction and use of antibiotics in livestock are somehow controlled, which isn’t happening any time soon.)
They aren’t proof or evidence that “meat in general is unsustainable”, and they don’t make that claim, either (although the second one makes very dubious and unsupported claims about the health hazards of meat eating).
Perhaps we have a misunderstanding of terms. Except when I’ve lapsed into medieval cant, meat means the flesh of animals, not just cows, right? Fried witchetty grubs are meat. Fish and poultry are meat. Deer are meat; the whitetail deer population in my area is constantly growing.
1 Like
From what I’ve read (and my sources are likely biased) in the U.S. meat agriculture is strongly subsidized by the government to support the industry by encouraging heavier consumption, and raising animals — cattle in particular — uses a great deal of land simply to raise the stuff to feed them. Not particularly environmentally sustainable, and without subsidization, not economical.
3 Likes
That’s protein, not meat 
bugs don’t have flesh. Nitpick but i get your point.
I think that at the current demand meat producers resort to very dubious practices that are highly inefficient and unsustainable. Not just for cattle, but for farm raised fish, pork, chicken, etc. Farmers could indeed adopt practices that are sustainable but meat prices would not be what we see now but frankly i don’t see that as a bad thing.
3 Likes
Cook your chicken people.
Quite right. It’s the consolidated industrialization of meat that’s unsustainable. Small farms providing food to local markets is quite sustainable.
4 Likes
OK, yeah, maybe.
as a meat eater I have to say the “thought” of “lab” grown meat can NOT get HERE SOON ENOUGH
2 Likes
Insects still haven’t reached the economic threshold of being able to produce more protein with the same or less material than traditional livestock.
2 Likes
If grown properly i wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to it on a conceptual basis, though i would have concerns with the same problems as livestock. If its grown adequately or not, it’d still run into problems with diseases so antibiotics, chemicals, etc.
Grown meat might be more ethical than slaughtering animals or mistreating them while being raised so its a thing to consider, but yeah… the chemicals, antibiotics, hormones, etc would be enough to turn me off to it.
1 Like
what are “chicken people”? One tiny little comma–that’s all you needed.
1 Like
Feh on you single meaning people out to destroy our double entendre lifestyle.
