News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho ‘Ag-Gag Law’ by CamperBob2 on Tuesday August 04, 2015 @10:35PM (#10007753)
...where is a workable solution in a capitalist system where the only thing we value out of these animals is the quantity of flesh and milk we get out of them?

The whole debate will be moot as soon as synthetic meat and dairy tech comes online. People will say it's a revolting idea at first, but it will rapidly become socially unacceptable to harvest live animals once there's a viable alternative.

I actually expect this trend to be pushed by the meat industry, not fought by it. Nobody wants to be in the animal-husbandry business less than the factory farms, because animals are expensive and inconvenient to deal with. It's going to make for a fascinating socioeconomic transition.

Re:Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho ‘Ag-Gag Law’ by marricks on Tuesday August 04, 2015 @10:59PM (#10007813)
Yep, that is a great workable solution without animal agriculture. I will be happy the day that "tissue" agriculture blows up, really hope they don't use that name though....

I think farms will see it as too much of a threat, and there isn't really applicable skills for going from a factory farm to vats or whatever the tissue is grown in.

content edit:

Ruminating on it a bit more, I see how you could be right for larger animal ag company. A dairy producer owns "So Delicious" coconut based yogurt and dairy alternatives, they could see it as a good way to diversify.

Re:Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho ‘Ag-Gag Law’ by Jweb_Guru on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @12:36AM (#10008044)
There are rather real questions around whether synthetic meat and dairy are going to be cheaper than the real thing, particularly when you factor in externalities like energy consumption. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you can do it economically, and so far nobody's demonstrated that in this case (unless I missed a very recent development). If it can't be, the meat industry (and consumers) are unlikely to accept such a transition without a serious fight.
Re:Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho ‘Ag-Gag Law’ by CamperBob2 on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:17AM (#10008130)
Have you looked at how much food, water, energy, equipment, and space it takes to raise livestock? It's insane.
Re:Federal Judge Strikes Down Idaho ‘Ag-Gag Law’ by Jweb_Guru on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:13AM (#10008249)
I'm well aware of how insane livestock costs are. Unfortunately, synthetic food costs are even more insane (and last time I checked, most depend on existing animal products anyway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat#Challenges--take a look at the existing culture medium candidates, keeping in mind that fetal bovine serum is made from cattle blood): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_vitro_meat#Economic. Note that the person saying that it will be cost-competitive in ten years has a pretty vested interest in that being the case.

I'd be particularly wary of anyone citing vertical farms as being a cost saver: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_farming#Problems.

To be clear, it's possible that these problems are surmountable. But frankly, it would be a hell of a lot cheaper (both economically and from an environmental standpoint) to change our dietary habits; meat with every meal is going to be costly no matter what.