>>24958

That this question(s) come up now is amazing to me, because I had thoughts about it some time ago while reading Edward's and especially Symbri's stories.

It may be helpful to do some maths:

* How many humans are fed by a cow, a pig, a sheep, a goat, a deer, a chicken, a fish?
* How many humans are fed by a converted Animal?

* It takes months to raise a cow, a sheep, a goat, a deer and only weeks for a chicken.
* It takes years to raise an Animal (even with theoretical acceleration drugs).

* Experts calculated that to raise RL-livestock needed to feed a certain amount of people takes mutiple times the resources of feeding the same people directly with the resources.

Although the problems with more than 8 billion humans are obvious there is no perfect answer. Cloning for sure wouldn't help, it would make everything worse, given the results of the maths above. For the same reasons cannibalism as a solution to feeding people ‒ like shown in the 1973 science fiction film "Soylent Green"[1] (loosly adapted from "Make Room! Make Room!", a 1966 science fiction novel by Harry Harrison) ‒ is also not sufficient.

While the "Great Famine"[2] could slow down the growth of the European population by killing "only" more than 10%, the "Black Death"[3] had a greater impact and is estimated to have killed 30% to 60% of the population in Europe and round about 30% worldwide ‒ more or less depending on various sources. As successful they were in medieval times they wouldn't have the same outcome in ours. Even AIDS and Covid had no chance against the modern medicine.
I suggest we are seven and a half billion too much today. If we don't radically reduce meat consume there will have drastic measures to be taken. As cruel as it sounds: purges, cullings[5] or a World War III (remember what Einstein said about World War IV [4]) might be the consequences.

Until then, I agree with Edward that "it's best when human meat is treated as a luxury or treat rather than a staple foodsource" (>>24962).


[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_of_1315%E2%80%931317
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Death
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_III#Hypothetical_scenarios
[5] This is the subject matter of the episode "Luck of the Draw" of the show "Sliders" (Season One).
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Fun Fact:
​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Compare the episode description at https://www.earthprime.com/episode/luck-of-the-draw/ with the universe of one of our hard-working authors, the King of Lottery Worlds:
< There is a lottery in California which dispenses whatever amount of money the person requesting desires. Based on the amount chosen, those entrants face random selection to win the lottery, which provides the winner with White Card privileges and $5 million. The White Card allows you to purchase whatever you want, and the merchant will not deny you. It’s the economy’s way of saying thanks for “making way.”
< Making way? Well, if you win the lottery, it’s just another form of population control. After a gala ball, the weekly winners are taken up to their hotel suites where they are administered a powerful drug that kills them. Barbaric? Well, the people here are heavily into the next life, so they cherish being able to make way, as the money they win from the lottery goes to their next of kin.
< The penalty for subverting the Lottery system is called “the Process,” and they’ll make you pay in pain before they kill you. That takes place at the Municipal Processing Center. If you subvert the lottery, you will be arrested by the Lottery Commission Police (LCP).

Hi, Symbri, do you see also some similarities? Of course there is no cannibalism ‒ the show has to be family-friendly. :D
BTW, the title was awarded by our other zealous writer Edward Hyde (Sidneyvers), not by me, although I second it. ;)