[sudo-discuss] DystopiaNews: Veggie-meat: you don't have to eat bugs.

[Romy Ilano]

Investors in veggie meat are not altruistic angels anymore. It's drawing plenty of main stream interest 

---

Romy Ilano
Founder of Snowyla
http://www.snowyla.com
romy at snowyla.com

On May 15, 2013, at 17:31, GtwoG PublicOhOne <g2g-public01 at att.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> 
> For the second day in a row, the BBC runs an article promoting the
> virtues of eating bugs, this time on their Travel blog:
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20130513-is-crawly-cuisine-the-future
> 
> Pictured is a handful of moth larvae grubs found in Australia: plump
> translucent white squirmy things that look like hairless caterpillars or
> overgrown maggots. The caption says that they are "...said to have a
> crispy skin with a yellow 'eggy' centre when roasted."
> 
> Mmm-mmm-good, right?
> 
> The article goes on to say, "According to the UN report, 'consumer
> disgust' remains a large barrier in many Western countries – but for
> some two billion people across the world, eating insects is really no
> big deal."
> 
> Unsaid: five billion people in the world right now don't eat bugs.
> Though, the Beeb does get credit for mentioning "consumer disgust," also
> known as the vomit-reflex, even if only as a "barrier," with the
> implication that it's something to be overcome, like the desire for
> freedom & privacy.
> 
> As I mentioned yesterday, there are plenty of other solutions to feeding
> a world that's overpopulated by a factor of two and overconsuming beyond
> any sustainable limit. One of them is veggie-meat: vegetable matter
> that's cooked up to be almost identical to the meat we already eat.
> 
> For this we turn to another regular source of Dystopian News, namely
> Wired magazine. Yes, "real geeks don't read Wired," but Wired is
> actually a good place to keep your finger on the pulse of the corporate
> oligarchy and the promoters of the computer-as-God religion.
> Occasionally they run something that's actually good news, such as the
> following:
> 
> http://www.wired.com/business/2013/05/future-meat/
> 
> Beyond Meat is a new company that produces veggie-meat that's a drop-in
> replacement for chicken in many recipes. They share the market with
> other companies such as Tofurkey and Boca Burgers. At present most of
> these products are found in the Vegan aisle in supermarkets, but the
> goal of these companies is to put them right next to the meat products
> in the meat section.
> 
> Veggie-meat tastes good and has great potential to stretch the world's
> food supply. Unlike the moth grubs pictured in the Beeb article, it's
> something you'd choose to eat and enjoy eating.
> 
> So far the oligarchy is ignoring veggie-meat. Funding for veggie-meat
> companies typically comes from "angel investors" who consider themselves
> rebels and often have altruistic motives alongside the profit motive.
> 
> The oligarchy's mission, should you choose to acquiesce, is to make you
> submit. Eating bugs is not about preventing hunger, it's about cultural
> shock & awe: getting you to do something that grosses you out and makes
> you want to throw up, the easier to get you to submit to other
> depredations over time.
> 
> But as Beyond Meat shows, you don't have to submit, as long as you're
> willing to think for yourself, and exercise your own free will.
> 
> -G.
> 
> 
> =====
> 
> 
> 
> On 13-05-14-Tue 12:07 AM, GtwoG PublicOhOne wrote:
>> 
>> YOs-
>> 
>> The oligarchy has its own vision of the World of Tomorrow, and the world
>> they're preparing for us to live in whether we like it or not.  I'll be
>> writing occasional pieces about items in the news, to point out what's
>> behind the chirpy spin.  This is the first of many.  Fasten your seat
>> belts and keep a barf bag handy.  
>> 
>> -G.
>> 
>> 
>> Let Them Eat Bugs. 
>> 
>> The United Nations today released a report that touted the benefits of
>> eating insects as a solution to world hunger. 
>> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22508439  
>> 
>> Hint: it's not really about hunger, it's about making you submit.
>> 
>> Humans have four main categories for things they could potentially put
>> in their mouths:  Food, Not-food, Dirt, and People (cannibalism).  (The
>> categories "Medicine," "Drugs," and "Poison" serve a different set of
>> purposes.)
>> 
>> Food is stuff you want to eat: such as a piece of fruit.  Not-Food is
>> stuff you don't want to eat, but the thought of eating it doesn't gross
>> you out: such as a piece of paper.  Dirt is stuff you don't want to eat,
>> and the thought of eating it does gross you out: such as a turd.  And
>> the thought of eating people (cannibalism) also grosses you out: such as
>> roast leg of human. 
>> 
>> Much of this is cultural.  In American culture, cow is Food (beef); in
>> Hindu culture such as in India, cow is People (reincarnation of human
>> souls).  In some regions of Africa, fish is Dirt.  To Muslims and Jews,
>> pork is Dirt, and to Jews, shellfish is also Dirt.  In some parts of the
>> world, insects are Food, but to most of us in America, insects are Dirt. 
>> 
>> The fact that culture plays a role does not change the fact that the
>> thought of eating something you've been raised to regard as Dirt (or
>> People), triggers feelings of disgust and often an involuntary vomit
>> reflex.  Try eating breakfast while looking at the results of a picture
>> search for "feces".
>> 
>> It's not about world hunger.
>> 
>> The wealthy nations presently throw away enough food to feed the hungry
>> of the world.  Beyond that, even a slight reduction in meat consumption
>> would be sufficient to free up enough vegetable calories and protein to
>> do the job. 
>> 
>> In terms of ecological impacts, the root causes of hunger are
>> overpopulation (animals including humans multiply up to the limits of
>> their food supply) and overconsumption (e.g. Americans are about 5% of
>> the world's people, consuming about 28% of the world's resources). 
>> There is no real empirical need to persuade you to eat wormburgers
>> ("would you like flies with that?"). 
>> 
>> However, the oligarchy has no desire to offend Big Church by supporting
>> family planning and birth control.  And the oligarchy has no desire to
>> offend its own major religion, Big Capitalism, by supporting lower
>> consumption levels as a cultural value.  Why piss off your cronies, when
>> you can manipulate the masses and open up a whole new "market" with vast
>> opportunities for profit...?
>> 
>> Notice what wasn't said.
>> 
>> The UN didn't say "encourage family planning."  The UN didn't say "equal
>> rights for women" or even "equal education for women", which are known
>> to reduce birth rates to sustainable levels and increase economic
>> security as women gain choices and power.  The UN didn't say "wealthy
>> nations should reduce waste."  The UN didn't say "eat a little less meat
>> each week." 
>> 
>> Also the UN didn't say "stop growing corn to produce alcohol to put in
>> your gas tanks, and use that land to grow food for humans."  And the UN
>> didn't say "let's find ways to turn algae into food," algae being an
>> abundant source of vegetable matter, usually thought of as Not-Food but
>> rarely thought of as Dirt.  How do you feel about eating a burger made
>> from algae?  How do you feel about eating a burger made from beetles?  
>> 
>> This is a useful technique for analyzing media: looking at what isn't
>> said, the problems that aren't mentioned, the solutions that aren't
>> discussed, the proposals that aren't on the table.  Very often the
>> exclusion zone isn't obvious.  Would you have thought of algae? 
>> 
>> What it's really about: shock & awe.
>> 
>> Envision the headline, "UN urges Muslims to eat pork to fight world
>> hunger!" or "UN urges Jews to eat shellfish to fight world hunger!"  The
>> outrage would be obvious.  Even if you happen to like pork or shellfish,
>> the thought of your Jewish and Muslim friends being somehow obligated
>> (typically by economic pressure) to eat them, would make you want to
>> stand with them and fight for their right to say No.
>> 
>> Eating bugs is part of the cultural "shock and awe" treatment on the
>> American public, along with "no more privacy" and "free speech zones"
>> and mass foreclosures and domestic drones.  If you can be forced (not by
>> threat of prison, but by threat of economic consequences if you don't
>> "choose" to do as you're told) to violate one of your most visceral
>> personal and cultural limits, a limit that's backed up by your vomit
>> reflex, you aren't going to resist when they try to force you to do
>> other things against your will. 
>> 
>> Your will does not matter to the oligarchy.  Only their will matters. 
>> And their goal is to impose their will upon yours by every means
>> possible.  If they get you to "like it" or at least "adapt," it becomes
>> that much easier to get you to "like it" or "adapt" to the next thing
>> and then the next.
>> 
>> It's like getting people to "accept" pervasive domestic surveillance by
>> first getting them to "accept" torture as policy.  If people don't
>> revolt against the biggest outrage of all, they aren't going to revolt
>> against the next smaller one, and the next after that.  Failure to
>> revolt is acceptance by acquiescence.
>> 
>> Ultimately it's not about the bugs, or even the algae.  It's about
>> getting you to submit:  "You are going to do what we tell you.  And you
>> are going to like it.  Because we say so." 
>> 
>> As far as the oligarchy is concerned, it's all about human husbandry: 
>> YOU are Food.
>> 
>> -G.  (creative commons; non-commercial use, with attribution)
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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