The end of farming

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JohnRoberts said:
For one perhaps germane observation, a strong market for vegetable based faux-meat is India where some 25-30% of the population is vegetarian...

JR

And even Kim-Jong-un will be able to feed his people if he so chooses.
 
living sounds said:
And even Kim-Jong-un will be able to feed his people if he so chooses.
He should be able to feed them now if he so chose.... 

Vegetable protein is cheaper (less waste) but not free....

JR

PS: Sadly the incidence of metabolic syndrome (like type II diabetes and heart disease) is rising around the world, so instead of starvation, more people are eating too much, just like us.
 
It is certainly viable for replacing factory farming of meats.  That system is bad for the animals, the environment and the people.  Not sure either if the lab soylent green has all of the nutrition of a filet mignon or if it is like a breakfast cereal "fortified" with a partial list of what is in grain.

But there will be no replacement for fresh farmed products.  There is only one dairy on Long Island state licensed to sell raw milk. 
Nothing like raw milk, and products made from it.  Will there be an occasional onion grass flavor to lab milk?  Prolly not.

There is a farm in Lancaster PA that has built a business of Saturday delivery of farm products to LI- everything from free range organically fed animals, raw milk/dairy from everything from a goat to a camel, and farm produce.  There are at least 10 locations where people can come to get their stuff from big coolers.  My location has 10 huge fishing coolers filled every Sat morning.

No lab can create my apple-smoked raw milk swiss cheese.  Total yum.
Mike
 
As populations emerge from poverty and graduate from living off eating fish heads and rice, they develop an appetite for animal flesh like the wealthy nations. Vegetable protein is perhaps a less expensive option, but there is no secret they are mimicking animal flesh. Human's are buying this fake meat, thinking it is more healthy, but to realize the desired flavor profile they add saturated fats (just like real meat, but palm kernel, cocoa butter, et al).

They are marginally healthier than red meat (slightly less) saturated fat, but not remotely like eating a salad. FWIW veggie burgers have been around for decades, the recent change is better marketing/promotion, and improved flavor/texture food engineering. Human food choices are rarely rational, and the sudden popularity of fake meat is no exception.

JR 

 
sodderboy said:
Nothing like raw milk, and products made from it.  Will there be an occasional onion grass flavor to lab milk?  Prolly not.

There is a farm in Lancaster PA that has built a business of Saturday delivery of farm products to LI- everything from free range organically fed animals, raw milk/dairy from everything from a goat to a camel, and farm produce.  There are at least 10 locations where people can come to get their stuff from big coolers.  My location has 10 huge fishing coolers filled every Sat morning.

No lab can create my apple-smoked raw milk swiss cheese.  Total yum.
Mike


This has been in the making for quite some time:

https://www.wired.com/2015/04/diy-biotech-vegan-cheese/

If the process really mimicks what is going on in a cow's stomach we should be able to get raw milk cheese without the risks of bacterial infection posed by the real thing.

The flavor of grass is just a mixture of organic molecules, so it should in theory be possible to synthesize adequately.

It might take quite a bit longer than the time frame projected in the original article until we arrive at synthetic food that tastes as good or better than the higher end of today's food produce, but absent a theoretical limitation I see no reason why we shouldn't eventually get there.
 
Looks like Subway just introduced a 'meat free' meatball sub to help the save the planet :D
There's no way it could possibly taste any worse that the real 'meat' sub , that tastes like a mixture of roadkill ass  thats been in the deep freeze to long.

I think theres strong research now showing a link between environmental bacteria that you get in small amounts in fresh veg and fruit and health , people who only eat processed foods seem to end up with higher rates of obiesity and less bacterial variety in their gut . We might be able to synththesise certain parts of the puzzle ,but nature is much more complex .



 
Tubetec said:
Looks like Subway just introduced a 'meat free' meatball sub to help the save the planet :D
There's no way it could possibly taste any worse that the real 'meat' sub , that tastes like a mixture of roadkill ass  thats been in the deep freeze to long.
because the customer is always right, even when motivated by popular culture (save the planet).
I think theres strong research now showing a link between environmental bacteria that you get in small amounts in fresh veg and fruit and health , people who only eat processed foods seem to end up with higher rates of obiesity and less bacterial variety in their gut . We might be able to synththesise certain parts of the puzzle ,but nature is much more complex .
There have been associations make with immune system health and exposure to environmental stresses...

There is a lot of magical thinking around dietary choices (the never ending search for easy weight loss solutions).  The food industry selling processed food after reaching a market share saturation, has to sell their consumers even more processed food to make more money. More food means more weight gain.  This is simple math, not calculus...

JR
 
Food science has been thoroughly corrupted by the industry.

The leading US dietary specialist was paid 40.000 $ by the sugar industry in the fifties to point to fat and salt as being unhealthy, not sugar. His UK colleague, who couldn't "produce" the same results, ended up in the insane asylum, being completely discredited by his US peer and his powerful friends.

In 1987 someone in Holland did a lot of research about salt and found no evidence at all in any of the studies that coupled salt to heart disease. In a follow-up study, it was shown about 6% of the population needs to worry about salt consumption because of a genetic pre-disposition. 94% doesn't need to worry at all.

Saturated fats aren't bad at all. Unfortunately, the EU was pressured by the industry into releasing a spec for fats that could be labeled healthy. That spec is almost the spec for olive oil. The industry promptly built the largest refinery in the world, refining palm and cocos fat. That way, the cheapest fats on Earth could be labeled "healthy".

The UN health organisation has released a warning about processed fats (aka margarine), calling them unhealthy. Moderate butter consumption is far more healthy.

Having worked for the sugar industry, I can understand how theirs and other propaganda machines keep working. You have no idea about the cynicism of these people.

Wanna eat healthy? Stay away from the industrial, processed food. Buy fresh, cook yourself. Look at traditional recipes. There's a good reason spinach is usually served with cream...
 
cyrano said:
Wanna eat healthy? Stay away from the industrial, processed food. Buy fresh, cook yourself.

Been doing exactly that for decades....

I slow cook one weeks worth of dinner meals once a week and freeze one serving portions.

I have been slow cooking meals for decades but recently discovered advantages from cooking at slightly lower temps. Since I do the primary cooking on the roast overnight, cooking time is not an issue. I changed from 4 hours at 200' to 7 hours at 185' and don't notice a huge difference on the beef tenderness, but then the second cook of the added vegetables enjoyed a huge improvement from the lower temp... at 185' the vegetables seem to retain more flavor with better texture.

I use a fat separator to decant out most of the liquid fat from the juices after the primary cooking session.

There is a whole cooking discipline (sous vide) of long and low temp, but that is not what I'm doing...  185' is still hot enough to kill most bacteria but doesn't trash the vegetables as much as 200'. 

JR 

PS: Oddly the hot peppers were hotter after the low temperature cooking. The capsaicin does not evaporate or break down but I suspect some capsaicin (oil based) was carried away with water evaporation during 200' cooking.. or not, just a WAG. 
 
Its more than 20 years now since I used a deep fat fryer ,  proper potatoes peeled and hand cut ,par boiled then freshly oiled and roasted off in the oven ,  no industrial grade axel grease on my chips TVM .

There was a paid campaign here years ago to promote Kraft hydrogenated fat(margarine) , it was highly sucessfull in stopping people from eating butter , then we ended up with a butter mountain we couldnt get rid of .

Ireland currently charges people on average around 3 times the European average to buy tobacco products , on one hand it might discourage some , on the other it encourages the  'Anti-state'  to get into smuggling bootleg tobacco , again the actual damage smoking does is hard to quantify exactly ,where the damage sugary drinks is doing  is all fine and dandy, thanks Coksuka-cola.  Its sugar makes you fat ,not fat . The human gut is a bit like a very fine sieve , large molecules need to be broken down before they can be absorbed , on the other hand if everything is out of shape and bloated the mesh size is increased and stuff that is normally excreted in your do-do can make it through to the bloods . Again like you say Cyrano , this idea of saturated fats being automatically bad is complete toss ,broken and denatured fat molecules  are the real issue .

I bet if everybody who was prescribed with high cholesterol put the 'statins'  in the bin and ate a bowl of porridge oats and walked a few miles a day they be much better off .
 
Besides sugar, there are polysaccharides in everything. Especially "light" stuff. The industry still can label those as "zero calories" fibers, despite we've known for a few decades that some people do digest those fibers and get lots of calories out of them. The long chains aren't supposed to pass the guts' membrane. Unfortunately, some people's gut bacteria break down the long chains.

Use animal fat in a deep-fryer. Cheap enough to throw away after one or two uses. A friend pours it into his Merc' 300D after use :D

Mind you, his car smells like a chips (fries) shop...
 
living sounds said:
It might take quite a bit longer than the time frame projected in the original article until we arrive at synthetic food that tastes as good or better than the higher end of today's food produce, but absent a theoretical limitation I see no reason why we shouldn't eventually get there.

Let me know when they get a good Käse Krainerwurst synthesizing and I promise I'll burn a couple for us to try with some petrie Pils to wash it down.

Mike
 
During a spike in diesel prices here a few years back the government had to call for an increase in the price of cooking oil to try and prevent people bulking out the fuel in their cars with 79cent per liter sunflower or vegetable oil . If your found to be using fuel here that hasnt duty paid, like Agri diesel in your car you'll get a very hefty fine , I think radioactive markers are used for the various kinds of fuel here as well as coloured dies,that makes its easy for customs and excise to indentify bogeymen . Washing of home heating oil and agri diesel is also big business here ,happens a lot in the border counties , bulk fuel bought in the republic and washed often ends up north of the border in the petrol pumps. 

Courtesy of Lidl we get tons of continental specialities, my latest fav was an Italian wild boar and pork sausage , makes a great acompanyment to beer or wine .
 
cyrano said:
Besides sugar, there are polysaccharides in everything. Especially "light" stuff. The industry still can label those as "zero calories" fibers, despite we've known for a few decades that some people do digest those fibers and get lots of calories out of them. The long chains aren't supposed to pass the guts' membrane. Unfortunately, some people's gut bacteria break down the long chains.

I only get diarrhea from those. Urgh.
 
Tubetec said:
Its more than 20 years now since I used a deep fat fryer ,  proper potatoes peeled and hand cut ,par boiled then freshly oiled and roasted off in the oven ,  no industrial grade axel grease on my chips TVM .

Do you dry them off after the par boil?  Ima try that with my air fryer.

Mike
 
I'm never that fastidious about drying off completely after a parboil, just drain the potatoes well. I then add olive oil to them while they are still in the sauce pan, give them a swirl and toss them on the oven tray. Adding garlic and rosemary is a well established option. The parboil is a key step though.

I've never been a big deep fryer but I do a couple of things. I make beer battered fish occasionally (with home made tartar sauce). I use light olive oil for that. I also make karaage (Japanese fried chicken), I use peanut oil for that.

PS. Use goose or duck fat on those oven potatoes, sensational.
 
No need to dry them off or cool them ,  just like Squeaky said , 
the par boil with chips or fries might only be a couple of minutes , it just helps the oil to stick
go to far and it ends up mush , I've found an atomiser spray bottle to be great for  applying  the oil sparingly ,
you  really only need them coated to begin , then as they cook you can hit them with more misted oil as required ,

Theres all kinds variations on the theme , if the potatoes are new , skinz on wedges are great, onion powder , thyme sprigs  and a veg/sea salt seasoning powder(A,Vogel) , from there you could add chilli and extra herbs also . 

Of course the big variable in all this is the quality of spud , here in Ireland we have plenty of old world variety potatoes , slightly smaller ,more irregularly shaped and dimpled than for instance Roosters ,but flavour and texture are hard to beat .
 

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