Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting solution to plastic pollution

Re:Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting soluti... by mirimir on Monday April 24, 2017 @07:18PM (#14189334)

Well, if "all life should fall on the safe side of the line", what would you eat? Perhaps only organisms that have died without human intervention. Scavenging, I mean. But that wouldn't support very large populations.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting soluti... by harperlee on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @02:10AM (#14191171)

> But that wouldn't support very large populations.

Well I don't agree at all! Apart from the fact that large populations can live without meat, I can easily envision a "scavenging farm" where animals are liked after until they die, and only then processed. It wouldn't be as efficient as our farms, but completely possible.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting soluti... by mirimir on Tuesday April 25, 2017 @06:10AM (#14192134)

I suspect that you're pushing plants over the line.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting soluti... by chongli on Monday April 24, 2017 @10:07PM (#14190190)

Dead bodies, unless mummified or otherwise desiccated into jerky, are teeming with bacterial life.

There's simply no way to survive without destroying other life. Even plants kill other living things in self defense (and many plants prey on animals).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Caterpillar found to eat shopping bags, suggesting soluti... by mirimir on Monday April 24, 2017 @11:16PM (#14190479)

Yeah, pretty much. Especially if you're an animal.

Eventually, maybe we'll become effectively plants, creating our food from sunlight, CO2 and minerals. But what about our microbiota?

[ Parent | on HN ]