2065 Food, What is with Soy? Options

[Omer Joel]

With all the fat rats running around the Barrens, I'm surprised that squatter tribes don't learn how to hunt - sure, rats are a risky prey, but they have meat, real meat, and no one says that that package of NutriSoy™ has less poisoneus chemicals in it than the flesh of a Devil-rat who grew up in the sewers of Redmond...

Hunting isn't only for the rich, you see - viva la Ratburger!

[Witness]

[Platinum]

Real meat, but so many toxins and probably tumours from living in the sewers.

[Tziluthi]

Yeah. You hear people kicking up a stink about preservatives in foods. If you think that stuff is bad, try living off something that is exposed to toxic or carcenogenic chemicals, or heavy metals frequently. In some ways you might be better off starving to death.

[Shrike30]

Read Stephenson's Zodiac sometime if you want to get some ideas about what kind of problems people can get into eating meat that, in it's lifetime, ate all sorts of bizarre crap. There's a reason I stick as much to organic foods as I can.

Probably one of my favorite images of a well-fed underclass came from Transmetropolitan. Nano-assemblers are so cheap that EVERYONE has a "maker," but asides from some really basic patterns (read, kibble) you've got to buy the blueprints for more complex things (read, good food, stylish clothing, etc). What you end up with is people who may be squatting in an alley, but if they can steal a little power and collect enough trash, they can get enough raw matter into the maker to eat that night.

[Omer Joel]

[SL James]

Reminds me of a story I read about an Australian locked away in a Thailand prison. The other prisoners would feed the roaches some of their rice. Then after they got nice and plump, they'd stick a bunch in a baggie and smash the shit out of them. Then they'd eat the paste - because that was the only source of protein that they had.

Good times.

[Jrayjoker]

[SL James]

Or the bookmobile driver on South Park who actually DID fuck chickens.

[Jrayjoker]

Hmm, I need to up my South Park dosage apparently. Haven't seen that yet.

[Demon_Bob]

[nezumi]

I wouldn't feed them my tasty soy. I'd feed them stuff I can't eat, like other hobos.

[El_Machinae]

Then you get toxin accumulation all over again.

Eventually in the real world, enough people will become aware of the ecological inefficiencies of eating meat, and hopefully the price of meat will reflect it's true cost soon.

[NightmareX]

[El_Machinae]

Ah, I was referring to the practice of feeding billions of a species off of a diminishing ecological base.

The simple fact is that you need less water, fuel, and farm land to eat grains and vegetables than to feed the grains and vegetables to livestock. You get your calories and nutrition more cheaply (resource-wise) by skipping livestock. A lot more cheaply. I'm not saying we should become vegetarians, but that I'd like to see the ecological costs of meat incorporated into the pricing.

[Snow_Fox]

In the British navy in the age of sail they would get weevils in their bread. The weevils would then be fed to the livestock on board like chickens.

As for the rest of this thread, I've been htinking about this for a while.
WHY is soy a big part of the Shadowrun universe? I know in cyberpunk it's a major element and the idea is that the world population has grown so large it cannot be supproted by regular farming BUT there are issues in the SR world
1) There has been a massive depolulation of the world due to VITAS and wars.
2) even if the masses in asia and Africa are starving, doesn't the US and Japan grow enough food to feed their own populations? Even with toxic zones in europe there should be enough farm land. The reclamation of Amazonia by vegitation should make farming there easier. not the big aggrarian stuff but today they are successful at orchids, coffee, fruits and coca without doing that big time. So shouldn't 'real' food be common at least in Europe, who ever has argentina and north america?

the wheat/corn fields and catlte ranges of the current USA and Canada are styill in place and suffered no melt downs. so that cattle ranch is now in the PPC and the grain is from Souix nation as often as CAS or UCAS but still....

[El_Machinae]

You're very right. It was likely thrown in since it's a sci-fi stapel.

[NightmareX]

[The ubbergeek]

There is probably regional differences...

[Snow_Fox]

overpopulation was taken care of by VITAS. Also it is not a problem in the currnet USA/Canada region and will be less of an issue after VITAS. and we can feed ourselves now.

polution could take out some luxeries like shellfish(more agro-farming there) salmon, caviar but meat, grain, dairy and chicken should be ok.

[TonkaTuff]

Actually, the VITAS plagues could be the reason for the shortages of "regular" food.

The hardest depopulated areas were large cities (where people were crammed together and supplies ran out) or semi-rural areas where the medical services just weren't there. Cities are no good for farming anyhow (other than large-scale hydroponics and similar operations - thus, the soy/krill explosion). And the agrarian population would have taken a sizable hit because the large tracts of land and constant supervision required for profitable farming puts them out in the middle of nowhere.

As farmer-flight is already a concern now, wiping out those who chose the profession wouldn't help at all. And most of the plague survivors would probably have flocked to the cities because that's where they'd find jobs and security from the roaming bandit-types who inevitably spring up after apocalypse-level disasters. Most of the regular agriculture is probably taken on by a few heavily-secured corporate factory farms. And the higher operating costs (and, probably, manufactured scarcity) would be passed-on to the consumer.

[bigdrewp]

[PBTHHHHT]

[Snow_Fox]

I have fully developed fangs. upper and lower set. that is they come to points that porject beyond the level of the flat teeth around them. It is called a 'ferral jaw.' A freind of mine if a wiccan, vegan and veternarian. She is one of those agressive vegans but after she saw my teeth she declared- "Yup that's a carnivore's jaw line" and she never gave me any grief over meat since.

by that trolls nadp orbably orks will be ok for meat.

[SL James]