I could be reading it wrong. The government invested 100m+ yuan into the company CellX last year so I wouldnt be surprised if it were subsidized. I can't find any up to date information of other types of cultured meat, seems pork is the cash cow right now. Comments on similar articles says the meat is only available in restaurants right now.
:some-controversy:
Its a long ass article, to be fair, but I did see it a long time ago when it was first posted.
I'd like to make a point that the website is funded by a (likely) billionaire finance ghoul named Donald SUSSMAN (I can't fucking make this up) who got his fortune by speculating on Cuban agricultural prices during the revolution.
The site itself for the article is defunct and the author cannot update the article anymore for new data. Whether or not a batch fails or not is irrelevant, pigs and crops die all the time, it matters what the rate of failure is. I also find it amusing that profit is a central notion to this excerpt, outside of us being socialists. Agriculture isn't exactly profitable, it is heavily subsidized and would have brutal shocks, shortages, and deficits otherwise. But we need it to survive, so... :shrug-outta-hecks:
If you listen to some interviews with the author and his source, the source actually talks a lot about how the fracturing of the industry into a lot of companies with low IP sharing plus a poor regulatory environment is hindering development. Thats less of an issue in China due to how IP and regulation is there. The reporter gives a kinda liberal spiel about how the industry hasn't matured and doesn't deserve government funding, when in reality R&D is one of the most important things the government does. They both frame the idea in terms of profit but again, that completely misses the point. Agriculture isn't profitable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-yZpFvzvAc This was nearly a year ago but its more of an update
Yeah I saw that page. In fairness the Cuban agriculture thing was how he got his very first success, making a few grand or something on $300; he wasn't exactly a baron of industry at the time. I didn't check into the guy's current assets, as he's a hedge fund guy now (so it could be almost anything, really). But yeah, the source is potentially suspect, to be sure.
That said, I am not going to watch a 1 hour video on this subject. If there's a text source I can read, I will look at that, but I frankly fucking hate video sources of information (this is just a weird curmudgeonly quirk of mine; nothing to do with you or this discussion). If there is a section of the video specifically relevant to the issue of bioreactor sterility, I'll watch up to say 10 or 15 minutes of it (but I won't like it lol).
And yeah, agriculture gets subsidies and is cut breaks and whatnot, but it can't realistically be subsidized to the tune of several hundred percent of the cost of the product, even in a socialist system, so major production issues are a real concern, which is the whole point I've been driving at. If we need to replace animal-produced meat in the diets of ordinary people, it needs to be cost-effective, which means lab-grown meat has to compete with plant-based alternatives as well. (The goal here, after all, is to get to a point where animal-produced meat can be banned without massively negative social and political effects.)
Believe me, though, if the issues identified can be addressed, I'll be more excited about it than basically anyone else, seeing as there are a lot of really cool biological systems that could be put to work in massive, cheaply sterile bioreactors, and to do much more interesting stuff than growing meat.
It definitely isn't several hundred percent? Its estimated that a pound of hamburger meat is 30 USD without subsidies. Its about 5.19 right now near me. So the subsidy removes about 75% of the cost. If subsidies and regulations for cultured meat were in line with agriculture, cultured meat would be somewhat competitive, and that is what we are starting to see in China.
I meant several hundred percent of the cost to the consumer, by which math that subsidy is 478% of the cost. Which means I'm both totally wrong about how much of a subsidy is manageable, lol, and also appalled at how much fucking money is being wasted so guys like that asshole (the one whose tweet started this whole conversation) can have their BEEF :frothingfash:
Yeah its pretty absurd how much beef is subsidized. But hey at least soy is heavily subsidized... to feed the cows! But you get some of those benefits too! :soy-chill:
It would be a lie for me to say that :im-vegan: but that figure is nonetheless appalling.
Yeah I'm a pseudovegan by convenience except on days we go out to eat at a restaurant which is maybe like once every 2 months or something. I fucking love eating fish. I will never stop eating fish. I also eat grilled locusts cause theyre the shrimp of the land. Sometimes the bf makes me a fancy meal or something and its usually fish too I guess.
I used to drink a ton of milk cause it was cheaper and more convenient than vegan shakes (which also tasted awful at the time). Vegan shakes came a long way, taste good, and are cheaper than milk (in the long run, if you buy in bulk and store it), nutritionally complete, and have decent protein. I got really really bad stress issues so I can't make food easily, has to be in a shake.
Interesting. What shake brands do you recommend? Milk is a huge component of my diet, so I would welcome a replacement (those plant milks all have too little protein to work for me).
Theres a lot of brands, I recommend trying them all out before buying in bulk. Each person will have a different taste. I like Soylent (lmao) the most but Huel is good too. Orgain tasted a little weird to me. So did Katefarms. Most are reasonably priced in bulk.
Cool, thanks! I'll give those all a try. (Side note: how in the hell did those guys get away with naming it "soylent"? Did they seriously not realize what they were referencing? Did no one else? Like, wtf?)
Hell of a piece of furniture, those ones :shrug-outta-hecks:
I was like 13 or something when I watched that movie and that term was a truly astonishing level of (purely casual) misogyny for me. I still don't think I've seen anything that tops that.
me n the bf say that to each other whenever we notice one of us is lookin fine af that day
it was pretty funny to me how callous it was