re: #212 Nojay UK

There’s a lot of marginal and unimproved land around the world that provides meat for market at quite low cost, comparatively speaking. Hill farms in Scotland, Mid-Western high prairie in the US, steppe in Asia, the Australian outback, Alpine meadows, the list goes on. The key is cheap land and lots of it providing limited fodder for a low density population of hardy meat animals like, say, bison or mammoths (I wish).

Vat-grown or artificial meats require energy to grow, usually electrical energy of some kind and right now the world is burning way too much fossil carbon to generate electricity as it is. Reindeer farmers in Finland’s northern forests don’t burn a lot of electricity.

The study they quote says that culture production takes about 40% less energy per 1000kg of meat than conventional European farming (here). I’m guessing the hill farms will stay as sustainable premium meat. I like reindeer, by the way. And probably we’ll get at least cultured dodo and mammoth, because why not.