Re:Ways to start eating insects
by TeMPOraL on Thursday November 26, 2015 @08:21AM
(#10632839)
Probably because the main argument behind starting to eat insects is that meat production in the West is unsustainable and devastating ecologically; the main reason we even get to enjoy meat is, from what I've heard, heavy subsidizing of meat production. I've read people saying meat is 10x cheaper than it should be, based just on production costs alone.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Ways to start eating insects
by such_a_casual on Thursday November 26, 2015 @08:38AM
(#10632903)
This isn't unique to meat and leaving out that information is misleading. Food in the US is heavily subsidized and overseen by the government for obvious reasons. Just like water is too important to leave to the free market, food is heavily regulated to ensure the health of the nation.
The point isn't about subsidies per se, the point is that vegetables are generally sustainable, while meat at this scale and with this demand is not. Subsidies only hide this fact from the consumer.
Re:Ways to start eating insects
by such_a_casual on Thursday November 26, 2015 @09:32AM
(#10633087)
By that logic the government is hiding the fact that vegetables aren't economically sustainable either. You're just changing your definition of sustainable to fit your argument (from ecologically to economically and then back to ecologically when the economic part was shown to be false). Pick a definition and stick to it.
> Food in the US is heavily subsidized and overseen by the government for obvious reasons
To be fair, you might be fine with some regulations but very little subsidies.
E.g. corn in the US is heavily subsidized, but rarely used for human consumption; or historically, Iceland used to grow their own bananas until 1960 as fruit import was heavily taxed.
Re:Ways to start eating insects
by such_a_casual on Thursday November 26, 2015 @11:31AM
(#10633616)
Well regulation and subsidizing of agriculture in the United States is a direct reaction to the Great Depression. The country was fine without it for over 100 years. It's there in case shit really hits the fan, not because people can't figure it out on their own most of the time.