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PM_ME_SPICY_DECKS t1_itmkne6 wrote

Reply to comment by AllanfromWales1 in Lab-grown meat could let humanity ignore a serious moral failing by phileconomicus

Because we are omnivores, we are able to decide what to eat and develop ideas about what is moral or immoral to eat.

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After_Kick_4543 t1_itmsewu wrote

Being an omnivore doesn’t give you the option to completely shift from carnivore to herbivore. It allows you to broaden then kinds of foods you can eat so as not to become over reliant on a particular food source

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PM_ME_SPICY_DECKS t1_itmsx20 wrote

Actually humans are perfectly capable of getting all the nutrients we need from non-animal sources.

Though we cannot be healthy on meat alone, so you are partially correct to a small extent

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After_Kick_4543 t1_itmttlw wrote

Ok you’re right, but there are still a number of nutrients that are easier to obtain by eating meat and more easily digestible in meat. In addition the whole concept of not eating meat ignores the fact that today approximately 50% of the worlds fertilizer come from farm animals. This allows you to eat plants without relying on synthetic fertilizers that have a larger carbon footprint then cows.

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PM_ME_SPICY_DECKS t1_itmuh51 wrote

The animals still make manure if you don't kill them.

In fact you receive a constant supply of manure from live animals.

A lot of fertilizer use can also be avoided by no longer practicing monoculture, and cultivating many types of plants that have symbiotic relationships.

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SuperSirVexSmasher t1_itppwqa wrote

If a cow was simply grazing a field a leaving dung piles then there would be a net loss of resources, no? They're just eating the grass, stealing half of it's nutrients and pooping half of it back. You need to kill the cow to get 100% again, right?

I'm just curious

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After_Kick_4543 t1_itmuy4j wrote

But then I can preform a calculation based on the amount of manure they will produce plus the nutritional yields I will get from using it as fertilizer versus the nutrition received by just eating it as meat. Avoided also doesn’t mean gotten rid of, and as long as we need fertilizer it’ll be better for the environment to get it from cows and pigs then a factory, at which point the previous calculation I mentioned would come into effect in deciding when killing the animal for food would be efficient for us and the environment.

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AllanfromWales1 t1_itmkvq7 wrote

So if we decide to become vegetarian, we risk losing that ability?

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PM_ME_SPICY_DECKS t1_itmkx9o wrote

No.

Edit: well, maybe after many, many generations of a population eating an exclusively vegan diet we could lose the enzymes that allow us to eat meat.

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