JCC Antibiotic Resistance Hysteria Thread / Meat Is Murder Thunderdome

oh, I got 90%+ back at tax return time.
but still: an education.

my boss had been auditted by the IRS the year before ... he was being very careful with his books.

 

educational.

 

Out of interest, what are people's thoughts on eating insects? They're a great source of protein and omega 3 fatty acids and could potentially be produced on a massive scale with a relatively light environmental impact.

I've tried locust flour and found it to be pretty innocuous stuff. It's too expensive for me to eat often at the moment but I could envisage swapping out some animal meats/products for insect products if demand led to cheaper supply. I already do that to some extent with beans and pulses.

 

As long as I don't know that it's insects, sure. I mean, I can't snack on fried crickets if that's what you're asking. But if it was mixed in with minced meat, I would reluctantly tolerate it.

 

There's plenty of powdered options. The stuff I tried was locust flour, pictured below. I tried pancake mix (odd, very odd) mixing with wheat flour to make sourdough bread (edible but not great) and to make oat, cinnamon and locust flour flapjacks (surprisingly good) and in smoothies (also good).

I could see it as a good alternative to whey protein, but whey is a by product of cheesemaking that would otherwise be thrown away, so I'm not sure that helps much! Can't help thinking it's part of the solution for a hopelessly overpopulated planet, though.

 

Yep, that's why I'm willing to get on board. Otherwise, I would never seek it out.

 

there's a start up venture making protein bars from cricket flour. Murder!

 

Me either.

Another thing to sort out is food waste. It's a huge problem in Europe - there's a petition out on change.org and a friend of mine at Friends of the Earth is campaigning hard to address the issue. The EU common agricultural policy is not helpful in this regard... one of the elements of the EU about whose benefits I'm deeply sceptical. Interestingly, if you stop by the UK Politics Discussion thread, you'll see that concern about food waste makes me both a moron and a rabid nazi.

 

I guess I am, and so are hundreds of millions of Buddhists, Hindus, Jains, and other vegetarians all over the world who live long healthy lives. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Really? That was the point of this post? The one I quoted?

The one that said nothing about differences between humans an animals and instead constructed a bizarre elaborate strawman about people who supposedly let rats run rampant in their house because they're vegetarian? Instead of acknowledging the existence of humane mousetraps?

That wasn't the point of your post? The example that made up the bulk of it?

 

Got a Facebook invite to Like a company that sells insects as food. I think Ken announced that this would be the new reality years ago already.
Ken, I don't like your predictions anymore.

 

sorry bud. I can't help it that I'm prescient about everything except the box office potential of movies and the results of presidential elections.

 

SuperWatto don't knock it 'til you try it! Whole locusts are not bad; a little crunchy and slightly sweet. The flour is... well, you wouldn't guess it was made of insects if you didn't know. Their nutritional value is excellent.

 

Here in Norway, they're debating whether to make it illegal for businesses to throw out food, meaning that they will be obligated to donate any expired food to good uses, which probably means homeless shelters and the like. At present, it goes straight to the dump, although there are some grocers that voluntarily donate.

 

have you been following all my posts in this thread, or have you just latched onto this particular one?

 

I've been following them all, but I only responded to that one because that was the only one I really disagreed with and found dumb. The fact that you said a bunch of other stuff that wasn't dumb doesn't make pretending that people either have to kill rats or set a tiny little rat plate for them at the dinner table and tuck them into their little rat beds in their own little rat bedrooms every night less dumb.

 

Cool. The French are moving in the right direction, too, with a similar scheme.

My big concern is the macro-scale food waste due to the crazy system of farming subsidies, but I know you're not signed up to the CAP in Norway so I guess you don't have that problem.

 

Vowing never to buy food from your stall

 

dumpster diving for groceries is a recognized lifestyle choice in the U.S.

 

No, it only applies to animals. And sometimes people.

 

Are.... are you under the impression that crickets are, like, plants or protists or something?