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Comment by onion2k | Hacker News Reader

Is that even possible with the current food supply chain though?

On a per-calorie basis, yes. Animal protein requires 10x the input of what you get back: 100 calories of chicken requires 1000 calories of feed. Now what we feed livestock is unlikely what most people would want to consume, but the systems are in place to allow such a transition.

Last time I looked it up, the US produces something like a ~million+~ kilograms of corn for every person in the country.

Edit: it was pointed out my corn estimate was off, and it is order of magnitude 1000kg per person.

I think you have misplaced a unit somewhere, because that would be a truly absurd amount of corn.

A quick trip past wikipedia [1] suggest the figure was 383.6 million tonnes in 2021, which is still approximately a thousand kilograms of corn per person, which is still a lot (more than my annual consumption, that's for sure)

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_production_in_the_United_...

Hmmm, sure enough. What's three orders of magnitude between friends?

> Is that even possible with the current food supply chain though?

Yes. Potatoes, onions and beans have are healthy, cheap and well-supplied staples. And I absolutely notice when I’m on a bean and onion week versus a sandwich or rice week.

what does "notice" mean in this context???

Obviously. But you also need the time to cook and not to have the appetite of a 10 year old. The latter, from what I've observed, is quite common in grown adults.

What do you mean by "appetite of a 10yo” ? 10yo that are 75% vegan are not rare and the appetite comes with habits. Changing is far easier for a 10yo than a 75yo.

Why "cook”? In a hurry I grab a can of bean, a carrot, a branch of celery, some rye bred and a square of tofu. No prep or tooling except a spoon for the beans.

Something hot at the snack? Grab a veggie pad thaï, veggie pizza, veggie burger (with actual veggies), daal with veggies…

I mean people who only eat stuff like nuggets and fries. That kind of thing. You’ll never see them eat a legume stew or roasted vegetables.

If all you eat is junk food, I think the vegan food industry has already pretty much solved that part.

It absolutely is in Australia, and I suspect Europe (from when I went 5 or so years ago). Even mostly possible in Houston when I was there 15 years ago.

The US is even more cooked than I thought if you can get a bunch of fresh veggies from a grocery store.

> The US is even more cooked than I thought if you can get a bunch of fresh veggies from a grocery store.

Depends entirely on where someone is. I'd say the majority of the population can get to fresh veg. But there are people, particularly in rural and poor communities, who are isolated from fresh or frozen veg. We have "dollar stores" which go up in the poorest communities and are usually a sure sign of a food desert.

I'd say that anyone with a car can probably access fresh veg. They might have to travel some distance to do that.

Naturally any overnight change that drastic would collapse the global economy and society would collapse. But given some time and will, I don't see why not.

> Is that even possible with the current food supply chain though?

Given that vegans exist, i'm going to say yes, its entirely possible if you feel like it.

To be fair, plenty of niche diets exist that could not be adopted by the broader population without supply-chain retooling. But practically, yes, this is not a real objection.

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