• Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 days ago

    Im having a hard time understanding why there’s so much time and effort being put into finding new sustainable protein sources when we already have legumes

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 day ago

      Especially when the people who generally refuse to eat plant-based proteins are very often also the ones who think any sort of “alternative protein sources” like insects are some sort of woke UN feminist Jewish nazi plot to sap and impurify their precious bodily fluids. Is the average “carnivore” going to be any more interested in eating sea squirt than they are in eating crickets, broad beans, blue lupin, soy beans etc?

      • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 day ago

        Politely disagree. I think we’re kidding ourselves if right wing conspiracy theorists are the only anti plant based crowd. There’s plenty of otherwise leftist people that would never question this one unjustified hierarchy. The meat and dairy industries have done a stellar job with advertising over many decades. Most people still believe we NEED meat or dairy to thrive. And even those that don’t very often wouldn’t give up the sensory pleasure of the taste and texture of meat or other animal products.

        • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          1 day ago

          Politely disagree. I think we’re kidding ourselves if right wing conspiracy theorists are the only anti plant based crowd. There’s plenty of otherwise leftist people that would never question this one unjustified hierarchy.

          More often than not those people aren’t rabidly against plant-based or other such alternative protein sources, it seems like they just don’t think to consume them.

          • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 day ago

            That is an important distinction, true! But that just means they’re the target group of all those resource-intensive innovations towards animal based proteins that are more sustainable. So I felt it important to consider them.

      • drosophila@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        I feel like we should be trying to engineer fusarium venenatum to express various animal proteins.

        It already does a really good job as a meat substitute, and (unlike lab grown meat) the process for culturing it is very well understood and mature.

        I don’t know if trying to genetically engineer a fungus would present any special challenges vs a plant or bacteria though.