Yes. Thats another good point as cows are fed large amounts of soy, corn, grains etc. I suppose the argument goes with many vegetarians in a sense of direct kill for our direct food product. Essentially the argument that beats all and ends all on a numbers basis is: invertebrates or lab meats will outweigh any current typical meat production method, even now as is.
The discussion is never decided because people argue killing animals is either ok or not. Is it a moral issue of taking a life? If so, what kind of life is your line between ok or not? If they think its not ok, they then say killing ticks and mosquitoes (as per above example) is ok. This makes literally no sense. The issue is with people pretending and being bullshit artists or just ignoring the point. If someone wants to be a buddhist vegan and then kills bugs in the house, fine. But dont preach the save all animals message it wont be practiced at home. Often this is just simple ignorance in understanding what words mean. Like how so many people think eating seafood is vegetarian or eating eggs is vegan. They just arent. Its not a judgment, rather a definition. And misunderstanding of definitions cause a lot of wadted time and effort that could be spent other places.
So for my own personal morals being vegetarian, i feel the treatment of the animal is the main point. I can kill an animal. I can raise an animal. I have done so probably millions of times on both fronts. Now i probably would have a hard time killing an animal i raised. If its cute. That means bigger, fuzzy, 2 eyes etc. Its a connection not so unlike eating your pet dog. It isnt wrong to say i wont kill a fish but i will kill a fly. Just be honest about it. But after breeding flies, roaches, leaches etc i now also have a harder time killing them just simply due to studying their behaviour and life. This is human nature and we should always be true about. We just sound like douchebags if we try to deny it.
So in the end. Many people have no issues with killing insects. Lets say crickets. They eat nearly anything, even more than pigs, they can live in low light, highdensity amd are more environmental in waste management. They can be reared happily in tall indoor spaces making the footprint tiny and their food conversion ratio is pretty respectable. Just that one thing trumps mammals, foul and fish.
It is very very true that growing plant crops (and dredging the oceans) for animal feedstocks is retarded on the highest level.
But using plant crop wastes as a byproduct for feeding things like fungi and insects is a very sustainable way. Like the old style animal integrated farms. Growing a few plant crops on rotation, mushrooms and crickets could feed the world, be sustainable, efficient and supply it all.
Question is, who innovates first? Do customers stop being such picky princesses? Or do companies force upon the consumer something they are not ready for? The end of global warming and all the worlds problems simply rely on the will of the consumer…thats the inconvenient truth!
That all said ive been on a field study with 4 hours sleep these 3 days so appologies if a bit incoherent haha.