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by Groxx 1646 days ago
It is also just general reading comprehension, as the post begins with what appears to be a fairly accurate summary of the study:

>Experts believe that habitat loss due to agricultural development and intensification is most likely the driving factor.

and then makes recommendations about tinting windows and cats. One does not imply the other.

All of which also mirrors stuff like plastic recycling and water pollution. Individual actions are so incredibly dwarfed by industrial actions that it's almost pointless. We need legislation, not feel-good individual ethics.

1 comments

Seems more complicated - industrial actions, technology, and personal preferences have intertwined roles.

The most effective thing we could do would be to tax beef (and other meats on a sliding scale), because this would decrease the acreage needed per person. People would howl because they like meat, consumers would also just absorb a lot of the tax instead of actually changing behavior. They'll break out arguments about inequality and social justice (but in truth they like the taste).

Vertical factory-like farms seem very promising to me. These will only target certain groups of foods, which tend to be very leafy and healthy. Government policies can play a big role in advancing this tech because economics are challenging and it needs some more scale to drive the cycle to further cost reduction.

I'm sure that direct farm incentives to reduce pesticide use could help. But there's a reason they're used, and there needs to be a game-plan that doesn't assume the farmer will make massive capital investment into the alternatives.