>How about we require ranchers to decrease their animal density so they don't need to use so many antibiotics?
That would massively drive up meat prices and anger voting consumers who won't be able to afford meant anymore, and also anger voting meat producers who will go bankrupt from slumping sales and have to lay off workers, all of which who will direct their anger at the politicians who restricted the use of antibiotics in animal farms. So not gonna happen politically.
Consumers have to either accept higher meat prices (not gonna happen), or accept that we're too many consumers on the planet for everyone to be fed with organically grown meat (also not gonna happen), so we just kick the can down the road and sweep the dirt under the rug until the titanic hits the iceberg and there's no way forward anymore.
Here in the rich EU countries we have some rules and regulations on meat production, but enforcement is very lax and it's an open secret that those certification seals of approval are basically worthless as animals are still caged together crowded in their own filth, with massively infected open wounds full of puss, and pumped full of antibiotics just to stay alive long enough to become burgers. You should Google those images if you want to become vegan but lack the motivation.
It's a political tragedy of the commons that's found in a lot of other areas in our lives/society which we know for a fact are wrong and are harming us (or others from less fortunate parts of the world), but we still stick to them because they're very profitable industries generating $$$ and jobs, and they're such a tight part of our daily lives, they're nearly impossible to undo today, like all the pollution from car dependence, microplastics, the cheap cocoa and coffee industries driven by slave labor, etc.
See the dead body spaghetti episode from Rick and Morty, it's pretty good satire on our collective hypocrisy on this topic.
We know those are all bad, but we choose to look the other way and not do anything about it because we love our lifestyles with cheap car traveling, cheap shipping, cheap meat, cheap coffee, cheap clothing, etc. and all the associated profits.
I’d rather pay a bit more for meat than be forced down the path of questionable meat-substitutes. Maybe meat has been unsustainably cheap for a long time?
I am quite far from the vegan ideology, but still willing to recognize that there is something untenable about our current relationship with livestock.
Fake meat has a higher chance IMO because appear to be starting to approach regular meat levels. I fairly frequently see beyond/impossible meat on sale for $3-4/lb which is roughly the price of 85% ground beef around me.
It would be great if fake meat would be able to drop demand for real meat, leading to less need for factory farming. But if that happens, it's very far in the future.
This post is the perfect example of what (former US President) Obama calls a "false choice": Either cheap meat stuffed with antibiotics, or expensive meat with few-to-no antibiotics. There are other choices we can make in our society that are not 100% driven by economics.
Recall that the US (and many other highly industrialised, wealthy countries) had filthy environments in the 1960s. Then, the world awoke to environmentalism and a huge number of regulations were passed to clean-up. Few people are asking to go back to the pre-1960s environment. And, yes, following these new environmental rules is not cheap. It would be much cheaper to produce chemicals (and whatever else) if manufacturers could pollute like the 1950s.
>There are other choices we can make in our society that are not 100% driven by economics Then, the world awoke to environmentalism and a huge number of regulations were passed to clean-up
You're forgetting the massive off-shoring of dirty environmentally damaging manufacturing and mining that has moved from the wealthy countries to Asia and Africa, and allowed said rich countries to become 'clean' while still having access to cheap stuff and not be economically affected by the move to green.
It's a trick that doesn't work as well with organic farming.
That would massively drive up meat prices and anger voting consumers who won't be able to afford meant anymore, and also anger voting meat producers who will go bankrupt from slumping sales and have to lay off workers, all of which who will direct their anger at the politicians who restricted the use of antibiotics in animal farms. So not gonna happen politically.
Consumers have to either accept higher meat prices (not gonna happen), or accept that we're too many consumers on the planet for everyone to be fed with organically grown meat (also not gonna happen), so we just kick the can down the road and sweep the dirt under the rug until the titanic hits the iceberg and there's no way forward anymore.
Here in the rich EU countries we have some rules and regulations on meat production, but enforcement is very lax and it's an open secret that those certification seals of approval are basically worthless as animals are still caged together crowded in their own filth, with massively infected open wounds full of puss, and pumped full of antibiotics just to stay alive long enough to become burgers. You should Google those images if you want to become vegan but lack the motivation.
It's a political tragedy of the commons that's found in a lot of other areas in our lives/society which we know for a fact are wrong and are harming us (or others from less fortunate parts of the world), but we still stick to them because they're very profitable industries generating $$$ and jobs, and they're such a tight part of our daily lives, they're nearly impossible to undo today, like all the pollution from car dependence, microplastics, the cheap cocoa and coffee industries driven by slave labor, etc.
See the dead body spaghetti episode from Rick and Morty, it's pretty good satire on our collective hypocrisy on this topic.
We know those are all bad, but we choose to look the other way and not do anything about it because we love our lifestyles with cheap car traveling, cheap shipping, cheap meat, cheap coffee, cheap clothing, etc. and all the associated profits.