Alicorn comments on Essay-Question Poll: Dietary Choices - Less Wrong

12 Post author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 03:27PM

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Comment author: JulianMorrison 03 May 2009 07:57:04PM 0 points [-]

Here's an ethical issue: what happens to all the cows, pigs, chickens, etc? (Consider what happened to the horses.)

Comment author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 08:08:07PM 3 points [-]

Why, what happened to the horses? We still have horses.

Comment author: JulianMorrison 03 May 2009 08:12:19PM 0 points [-]

Now think how many horses there were in 1900.

Hint: at roughly the same time, canned dog food was invented.

Comment author: gwern 06 August 2009 06:59:41PM *  2 points [-]

I found this page really interesting: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=144565

How many people would've guessed that there are ~twice more horses in Europe as of a few years ago than in 1900? Or that current US horse population is ~30% of its historical peak?

Comment author: Alicorn 03 May 2009 08:46:52PM 1 point [-]

I think vat meat would take long enough to catch on that the decline in the meat animal population could be accounted for by slowing the breeding rate.

Comment author: JulianMorrison 03 May 2009 09:07:34PM -1 points [-]

I agree, that is a possibility.

Comment author: MichaelBishop 04 May 2009 01:01:46PM 1 point [-]

Regardless, the current population of livestock accounts for a tiny share of the total over time so what happens to the animals currently alive is less important than the long-term effects of a change in people's diets.