• Brekky@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This sounds like good news but what I don’t want is one big corporation replacing hundreds/thousands of worldwide farmers and having total control over the cost of selling this to consumers.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Most of the production in the us already comes from 2-3 giant corporate farms. It is simply more effeciant.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        Those farms receive immense subsidies as well. No, it’s not efficient, it’s just what the US economic system produces.

        • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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          7 months ago

          Production at big scale is always much more efficient than small scale production. The subsidies are there to keep the american food industry on top internationally because it is a very important industry for national security.

        • Zerthax@reddthat.com
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          7 months ago

          Regardless, we really shouldn’t be preventing progress for the sake of protecting jobs. Especially when the status quo is so wantonly destructive. And even as this would replace some jobs, it would create new ones.

          All that said, I’m very skeptical of this tech.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          The fields used to feed livestock would be used to grow stuff to feed humans

          The buildings… Should we really stop progress to save some buildings used to raise animals in order to kill them?

          There’s a labor crisis in the farming industry already (and in general really) so it’s not as if they had no option in front of them

          • bluewing@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            You do realize that not all farmland is suitable for growing onions or melons. A pretty good chunk of it is pretty much suitable for grass only. Where I live, half of all the farmland is growing grasses for grazing and hay, (no, its not alfalfa). What are those farmers supposed to switch to make a living? The rest is used for wheat, rye, and barley and some green chop corn silage. And yields can be quite limited depending on the year.

            Unless you are fine with massively more use of fertilizers and pumping ground water to irrigate those food crops on marginal land. And even then the growing season overrides all.

            • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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              7 months ago

              Then you stop using that land to grow feed and let nature do its thing and the people working that land can just go work somewhere where there’s demand.

              Should we have stopped telecommunication progress to keep the switchboard operators working?

              • bluewing@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                “the people working that land can just go work somewhere where there’s demand.”

                So easy to say when it’s not your job isn’t it.

                Now, I don’t know what you do to make a living, but with AI, your job as a programmer should just go away and you should find a different job where there is demand - maybe you could be a servant or stock shelves. It’s so easy to do so, just go somewhere else.

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  7 months ago

                  Again, should we stop all progress so as not to eliminate jobs that would otherwise become unnecessary?

        • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
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          7 months ago

          The industrialized meat industry in Europe has very little to do with farming. An industrial stable with tens of thousands of pigs who never see daylight or breath fresh air is a factory, where bought animal feed is input, and manure and pigs are output.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            The industrialized meat industry in Europe has very little to do with farming. An industrial stanle with thens of thousands of pigs who never see daylight or breath fresh air is a factory, where bought animal feed is input, and manure and pigs are output.

            sounds like the US system, without the child labor.

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Yes we definitely don’t want one corp owning this entire type of tech.

      I think some kind of cultured meat is “obvious” at this point in history.

      I don’t think this company would be able to maintain its monopoly as other companies develop their own processes. Maybe some vegans will open source the basics or something.

      I doubt the legal system would allow one company to control this market, and tech being the barrier won’t do it either, so I don’t predict a monopoly for long on this kind of thing.

      • maynarkh@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        I doubt the legal system would allow one company to control this market

        Yeah, it will be like two-three, owned by the same shareholders on the stock market.

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Or as many choose to enter the market, unless you think there will be some artificial constraint placed on entry?

        • mojo_raisin@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          And since all shares are actually owned by the DTCC, they are the actual masters manipulating the stock as needed to enrich themselves. We’ll get cultured meat at their grace when it’s profitable for them.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      7 months ago

      We do have a number of excellent meat alternatives now, which use relatively simple processing steps and legumes, wheat etc. as base material.

      As such, I imagine, they will remain cheaper than lab-grown meat and if we can get past people’s reservations with them, I feel like they would offer a much more direct path for farmers to get paid, as well as the opportunity for various smaller companies to compete in doing that processing.