[extropy-chat] From soy & lentils to Soylent specials

[Dan Clemmensen]

nvitamore at austin.rr.com wrote:

>From: kevinfreels.com 
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>>This brings back memories from a year or so ago when people were laughing
>>me off the board for suggesting we should be growing meat in slabs instead
>>of farming it.
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>I would not laugh at your suggestion. I am ardently opposed to farming
>cattle for food.
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Natasha, I agree with you emotionally and philosophically. However, on a 
practical level raising meat cattle has been a part of the only 
cost-effective solar energy economy for centuries. until our technology 
improves, raising cattle will remain economically attractive.

(Definition: a "sundowner" is a cattle farmer who has a full-time 
non-farm job, but still operates a  cattle farm.)

In the US, most cattle are raised on land that is otherwise difficult to 
use for farming. The cows eat solar-collecting grass. The labor costs 
are very low by comparison to other types of farming. a sundowner  can 
generally maintain a herd of about 150 cows, The herd will produce 75 
two-year-old cattle per year, to be sold to feedlots. Capital costs are 
minimal, and marginal land is cheap.

With the right technology, there will be much more efficient ways to 
collect the solar energy that is intercepted by this marginal land. This 
will make cattle farming less attractive. To make the work, the capital 
costs must be low, and the initial entry cost must be low. On the demand 
side, if vat-produced beef can be produced cheaply enough, then  
sundowner cattle farming will cease.

Anticipating your objections:
    Yes, some cattle are raised on prime farmland, even in he US.
    Yes, in some cases the feedlot is inefficient. For the case I am 
describing, the feedlot is used to increase the value of range-fed 
cattle, where the bulk of the meat is the result of the two years on the 
range, not the two months in the feedlot.
    Yes, cows are complex entities that should not be slaughtered, in 
some philosophical sense.

 From my perspective, the most effective way to end the slaughter of 
innocent cows is to find more profitable uses for marginal land, and to 
find a way to produce beef that is cheaper than raising cows.

Vat production will affect different cattle producers differently. I 
think the producers using prime land will drop out first (i.e. at a 
higher price point) than will the sundowners. As the cost of vat 
production goes down, eventually even the sundowners will be unable to 
make a profit.