The Future of Protein?
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People love meat from animals and people will never stop eating meat, however protein from animal meat is grossly inefficient. It has terrible impacts on the climate in relation to emissions, land use, water, antibiotics, welfare etc etc.
What many are unaware of is the enormous investment in alternative protein sources such as cultivated meat (lab grown) and plant-based meat. The biggest animal meat producers are investing huge sums into these alternative sources of protein. The question is why.
Well, it is highly likely once cultivated/plant meat is cheaper and tastes the same consumers will make the transition to this much more environmentally friendly option.
It is entirely possible that in the future much of the planet will no longer consume meat from live animals. The question is what do countries such as AUS/NZ that have huge live animal industries do? Does Govt start investing heavily in alternatives, subsidies etc etc.
Once cultivated meat tastes the same and is cheaper or the same price will you buy it? Do you think this is ever likely to happen? Do you have any issues with the climate impacts of traditional animal agriculture?
P.s - This is not a vegan/vegetarian debate, this is an alternative meat choice.
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if they take away my ability to purchase animals, then i will eat people
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That is super far off, particularly at scale. Even it did take off, it will be direct competition with the healthy organic market.
So will always be a market for real meat IMO.
As far as alternative protein sources go, I’d bet on bugs beating lab grown meat. Lots of progress being made on that front too.
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@chimoaus As you say there will always be a a market for high quality meat. and there is billions of people in the world. MIght be advantageous for nz, farms could scale down the fert and water usage and achieve similar yields.
Pine trees are absorbing up a huge % of NZ land share especially in the low yield marginal sheep and beef space. so in a way the numbers are already heading down. sheep numbers are dropping at quite an alarming rate for the industry, many are worried about the future of kill factories if numbers get too low. It could have major effects on farming towns.
Different topic but the carbon situation is NZ is quite scary, and also not good for the environement. In fact id argue the marginal areas being taken up were carbon negative with little runoff issues.
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and then what happens to sheep/cows/chickens etc if not farmed? Extinct, or need to be kept on a big open grass expanse to roam free?
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@taniwharugby said in The Future of Protein?:
and then what happens to sheep/cows/chickens etc if not farmed? Extinct, or need to be kept on a big open grass expanse to roam free?
Greatest mass cull in the history of animal life, right up PETAs alley killing animals.
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@kirwan I read an article many years ago saying the best way to stop Kiwi from extinction, was to farm them for the table...
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@chimoaus said in The Future of Protein?:
Well, it is highly likely once cultivated/plant meat is cheaper and tastes the same consumers will make the transition to this much more environmentally friendly option.
I eat both enthusiastically.
Smoke brisket, pork and so on, but we are flexitarian during the week. Compared to 10 years ago, I'd say our meat consumption has probably halved.
Sunfed Farms Chicken Free Chicken is fine. Once we're paying for carbon sensibly and the pea production scales, it'll be far cheaper than other meat.
So yeah, I'm with you. The future will be a mix of both.
@mariner4life quality fella, cannibalism is the answer to both feeding the hungry and overpopulation in one fell swoop
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@taniwharugby there will always be a market for live animals, the size of the herd will naturally decrease if demand reduces. Farmers are not going to breed animals if they can't sell them for a profit.
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@nzzp I have never understood the carbon argument with beef and sheep in NZ. There is very low inputs on alot of that land, and it lacks many other use cases apart from forest. There is no other food producable on that land so its either food or carbon sequestering.
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@kirwan Agreed, there will always be a market for live animal meat, perhaps they should include the externalities or environmental costs into the price, this may change demand.
I think once it is at scale and costs the same I would buy cultivated meat.
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@taniwharugby said in The Future of Protein?:
@kirwan I read an article many years ago saying the best way to stop Kiwi from extinction, was to farm them for the table...
I definitely couldn’t eat a Kiwi, not sure why it’s just a chicken type bird.
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@mn5 said in The Future of Protein?:
The other half’s mother made us all a bunch of vegan patties a few weeks back and I for one was astonished how good they tasted. Of course I chucked lots of hot sauce on but still, just delicious.
Well then it's just a sauce delivery platform. Could have been made of cardboard.
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@muddyriver said in The Future of Protein?:
@nzzp I have never understood the carbon argument with beef and sheep in NZ. There is very low inputs on alot of that land, and it lacks many other use cases apart from forest. There is no other food producable on that land so its either food or carbon sequestering.
I think the argument is around methane primarily - the feed is grown and then decomposes in a very short carbon lifecycle.
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@mariner4life said in The Future of Protein?:
if they take away my ability to purchase animals, then i will eat people
There will always be a choice and live animal meat will always be one. The question is once there is a cheaper alternative that is better for the environment will this have an impact on traditional farming.
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@nta said in The Future of Protein?:
@mn5 said in The Future of Protein?:
The other half’s mother made us all a bunch of vegan patties a few weeks back and I for one was astonished how good they tasted. Of course I chucked lots of hot sauce on but still, just delicious.
Well then it's just a sauce delivery platform. Could have been made of cardboard.
If it’s got protein so I can maintain my #gainz then I’m all for it.
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@taniwharugby I'm not sure many farming animals resemble their previous wild ancestors, and as such are unlikely to survive as wild animals. They would exist as farming animals, pets and probably in zoos or some sort of sanctuary.
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Always has been and always will be a human problem not an animal problem.
There are too many of us on the planet.
And there’s too much food waste.
That’s where all these Climate Change discussions should begin and end.
Otherwise we’re just shuffling the deck.
