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

Thu May 16 07:23:47 PDT 2013

Excellent!  Plentiful cheap veggie-meat could be just the thing to save
us from having to submit to eating bugs.

Though, never take anything for granted.  The cost of bugs is
rock-bottom: feed them on some kind of waste product with minimal
processing (e.g. cooked sewage), let them multiply, and fry them up.   

-G.

=====

On 13-05-16-Thu 7:04 AM, Romy Ilano wrote:
> 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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