Hacker News Reader

Comment by DougN7 | Hacker News Reader

Just pointing out an unintended consequence I saw in a cartoon:

As soon as nobody farms cows for meat, milk, and leather, cows will become an endangered species/extinct because nobody will pay to keep them alive. And there's not much space where they could survive on their own in the wild.

View on HN

Given how many megafauna we've already wiped from the face of the earth (most of them), and the utterly ridiculous idea that cows would ever become extinct if we didn't eat them, that argument seems completely disingenuous.

I won't believe for a second that people are seriously concerned about the fate of the Bos Taurus species in a discussion about factory farming, or eating meat in general

I don't think the main issue is with farming in general, but with factory farming. Raising farm animals in a humane way is a huge improvement.

Right, I'd expect the same thing as with horses and other work animals: once the tech makes them obsolete and the current generation dies out, they'll still be around, but for more niche, boutique uses (racing, riding around the ranch, visiting schoolchildren), not the dystopia they had been put through before.

Who is going to be pay for the raised cost then. Government tax?

Many people (/me included) already buy sustainably-raised meat direct from farmers. It's better tasting and often cheaper than meat in the supermarket.

Ending factory farming does not end farming. People still have horses despite them not being as useful as they once were.

Ending factory farming would likely actually increase the variety of cows and other animals, which will generally help their health.

There were 21M horses in the US in 1900. In 1960 there were 3M.

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/12516/how-common...

The GP said increased variety, not increased numbers.

Yes. However, the magnitude of the decrease is significant and it seemed that it would interest people, as it has, to see the numbers involved in the decline for horses.

For bovines it's likely to be even larger.

There's projects to breed cattle into something closer to the Aurochs, with the eventual goal of having herds in the wild.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurochs#Breeding_of_aurochs-li...

Interesting, didn't know that!

I found myself reading this list several times. Intriguing how we have "no wilds" left for soo many of our "favorite" animals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domesticated_animals

Zoos would likely be collectors of last resort. A lot of people think milk cows in particular are cute.

And they love trombone music.

The location and the sexuality.

When Sweden voted to outlaw the latter, a Swedish friend of mine revealed he had lost his virginity that way years earlier. Without passing absolute moral judgement (pro or con) on either type of human-bovine interaction, I cannot see how the latter is relatively worse than the former, which is why his revelation caused me to attempt veganism for a bit (I failed, vegan cheese is no substitute for the real thing).

As a thought experiment, would it be OK to breed human slaves because at least they got to exist?

If the current alternative was growing in a box until ready to be eaten, then sure. It does look like a great short term improvement. Provided we're not planning to stop there.

People will still use them for riding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KayizT3NWF8

Interesting fact: the Aurochs (the ancestor of the domestic cow) is actually extinct already.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com