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

[Anthony Di Franco]

By the way, Lierre Keith famously claimed in her
book<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lierre_Keith#The_Vegetarian_Myth>that
much or greater reliance on vegetable agriculture for food is
undesirable from health, social, economic, and sustainability viewpoints,
and was jalapeño pied in the face for it.
I don't know the facts well enough to have developed my own views, but hers
seem worth considering.


On Wed, May 15, 2013 at 5:31 PM, 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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> >
>
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