Horseshoe crab blood to remain big pharma's standard as group rejects substitute

Re:Horseshoe crab blood to remain big pharma's standard as g... by mikepurvis on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @01:02PM (#25279222)

My town has a Guernsey farm [1] just outside it, so that milk is available at our local food markets. It's wild how expensive it is. Like, the regular cheapo milk at the grocery store is $4-5 for 4L, and the Eby Manor milk is $5 for 1L, basically four times the cost.

Now, they're a small time operation doing a specialty product, so I'm sure that contributes a lot to this cost bump— they justify this mostly by touting health benefits rather than talking about the sustainability of their operation, but I suspect that getting many animal-based food products to a more sustainable place would require a similarly eye-watering bump up in price. Which is, of course, part of the argument for going part-time vegetarian/vegan— get used to the idea of meat and animal products being something we enjoy once or twice a week or a few times a month, rather than multiple times per day.

[1]: https://ebymanor.ca/our-family-farm/

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Re:Horseshoe crab blood to remain big pharma's standard as g... by ThrowawayIP on Wednesday December 02, 2020 @01:29PM (#25279585)

Most of that page is dedicated to how "nicely" that farmer treats his herd. But, there are a few omissions. How do they care for cows that are no longer capable of becoming pregnant? [0] How do they control the size of the herd when each cow is giving birth about 3-4 times over a 4-5 year "lifespan?"

Even at four times the cost, the industry doesn't look any better.

[0]: https://www.agweb.com/article/deciding-when-dairy-cow-starts...

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