thank you for the thoughtful reply! I think what you say about insect farming makes sense, I also like this cause area a lot. Although it looks like I am more worried than you about the indirect effects on other farming practices, like fish farming or factory farming of land animals.
And thank you for the link to the Tomasik post, he makes good points! Do you think I should change the original wording?
I think it’s unlikely that limiting insect farming increases fish farming or factory farming very significantly, since it’s mostly meant to be feed for animals in these situations. I’d be more worried if insect meal marketed itself as a substitute for human-consumed animals or fishes. And even in the case of pet food, since it’s much more expensive for now than other pet food ingredients (to my understanding), it’s not clear that letting insect farming spread would significantly reduce the number of factory farmed animals.
You could update the wording in the post if you like, though if you find it time-consuming, you don’t have to spend time on that. Most readers probably find the distinction as you frame it quite intuitive.
Hi JoA,
thank you for the thoughtful reply! I think what you say about insect farming makes sense, I also like this cause area a lot. Although it looks like I am more worried than you about the indirect effects on other farming practices, like fish farming or factory farming of land animals.
And thank you for the link to the Tomasik post, he makes good points! Do you think I should change the original wording?
I think it’s unlikely that limiting insect farming increases fish farming or factory farming very significantly, since it’s mostly meant to be feed for animals in these situations. I’d be more worried if insect meal marketed itself as a substitute for human-consumed animals or fishes. And even in the case of pet food, since it’s much more expensive for now than other pet food ingredients (to my understanding), it’s not clear that letting insect farming spread would significantly reduce the number of factory farmed animals.
You could update the wording in the post if you like, though if you find it time-consuming, you don’t have to spend time on that. Most readers probably find the distinction as you frame it quite intuitive.
Thank you, those are good points! I am now more optimistic about reducing insect farming and might even donate to that cause :)