r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/James_Fortis • Sep 08 '26

Video This is the largest single-building pig farm in the world. At 26 storeys high, it can slaughter 1.2 million pigs per year. It was built in Ezhou, China, to help the country's exploding demand for pork. Pork is China's most popular meat, with the country consuming nearly half of global pork demand.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Sep 08 '26

When I was lifting weights a lot, naturally I ate a lot of chicken breast. Obviously chickens have two breasts. It was eye-opening to realize how many chickens I personally was consuming. Multiply that by the whole population, it's not hard to imagine why factory farming is a thing, as horrendous as it is.

Nowadays I am mostly responsible for the deaths of millions of beans and grains of rice and soybeans lol.

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u/thisisaskew Sep 08 '26

The fun part is how they've been bread to produce breast meat so large that it would kill them if they lived a natural lifespan.

But I like meat, and modern problems require modern solutions, so I'm not even throwing shade. I do think we should teach in school what mass scale agriculture looks like, though.

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u/Dconnolly69 Sep 08 '26

Modern solution - lab grown meat! Never tried it, don’t know much about it but it seems much more ethical and sustainable. I would happily pay more if I knew it meant animals weren’t born, raised and killed in inhumane conditions like the vid or mass butchered.

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u/DroidOnPC Sep 08 '26

I think lab grown meat will be the future. Not like 5 or 10 years, but maybe 50 years from now.

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u/Longjumping_Youth281 Sep 08 '26

Yeah I mean I guess it's probably going to depend on what they can do cheaper. If they can sell lab meat cheaper than that will probably be the most popular. If making a 30 storey Factory of death is cheaper than that's what we'll get

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u/DroidOnPC Sep 08 '26

lab meat will start out more expensive, but I think with time it will become the cheaper option. Especially if the demand rises.

Being able to eat perfect meat without any worry of illness is gonna be huge.

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u/ask_about_poop_book Sep 08 '26

Man, I long for lab grown bluefin tuna..

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u/crownofbread Sep 08 '26

This reminds me of something I read, can't remember it entirely but basically we need more stringent animal welfare laws because the boot of capitalism finds itself on a lot of necks

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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 Sep 08 '26

the real question is whether lab grown meat would count as vegan friendly.

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u/DroidOnPC Sep 09 '26

By why do people go vegan? Is it animal cruelty? Well that’s taken care of, the full animal isn’t grown, just the meat. So nothing is suffering.

Is it for the environment? Well that’s taken care of too.

Is it for health? Well most health concerns with meat come from our practices in obtaining that meat. If it’s more than that, you can make different versions for different health concerns.

There will be resistance at first, but 50 years from now? I can’t see anyone justifying needing the real thing besides their own stubbornness. If it tastes the same and costs less, and is healthier? Why wouldn’t you eat it?

Who knows what we can accomplish with food in the future. We might be able to eat whatever we want and it will be healthy because we grew it healthy. Obesity might be a thing of the past along with all the health conditions that come with it.

50 years is a long time for technological advancement in food. And how we see food as a culture

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u/SmoothDiscussion7763 Sep 09 '26

the health reasons may not be directly addressed with lab grown meat. your cholesterol isn't going to go down just because you swapped to lab grown over A5 wagyu.

until we get into the far future where we basically have biomancy and can just edit our body at will lol. at that point, why not go all in and start eating all the exotic foods? or even things that aren't foods? try out some arsenic just for fun but get zapped in the medi-tron before you die so you can experience it!

pretty sure this is how the eldar fell

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u/DroidOnPC Sep 09 '26

At some point I am sure we can make meat that lowers your cholesterol.

All of this sounds like fantasy today, but I am talking about 50 years in the future. We can do a lot in that time.

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u/Mother_Harlot Sep 08 '26

Lol we aren't reaching that far

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u/DroidOnPC Sep 08 '26

Yes we will.

Not sure what cult you follow but people been "predicting" the end of the world for thousands of years.

You may be getting scammed by the person you follow, they can't actually predict the future. Don't send them any more of your money.

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u/Latespoon Sep 08 '26

I think lab grown meat will only see adoption when the population is forced to adopt it due to pestilence/worsening climate change destroying feedstock on a large scale.

So maybe 20 years.

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u/thesoulfield Sep 08 '26

well, if you live in the US, you'll have a great opportunity to try it this year and the next. and maybe a few after that. what with the toxic waste beef being imported under the table from Argentina, i imagine many will be looking for suitable alternatives. i hope it increases demand for lab-grown meat and normalizes the consumption, subsequently leading to an increased output of lab-meat and more and more people making a permanent switch.

one can dream, anyway.

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u/Dconnolly69 Sep 08 '26

We all know the only way it will happen if there is more money to be made

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u/thesoulfield Sep 08 '26

that's the real kicker. costs about twice as much to produce lab-grown meat compared to livestock, pound for pound.

but, give it time. the industry is in its infancy still.

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u/StagedC0mbustion Sep 08 '26

Twice as much compared to today’s meat costs or last years?

At this rate real meat will cost more in a year or two. Lab grown meat isn’t experiencing inflation the same way livestock is.

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u/Arcyguana Sep 08 '26

It doesn't exist commercially because the cost doesn't make for a viable business.

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u/GonzoKata Sep 08 '26

this is from like a decade ago but the current lab grown meat tastes like "soggy wet pork" so, it IS possible, but I don't think people are going to want it any time soon.

I agree with you though, I would pay more if I knew that an animal didn't have to be raised in horrible conditions.

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u/Longjumping_Ad_424 Sep 08 '26

I want lab grown meat yesterday :(

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u/DoritoSteroid Sep 08 '26

"lab grown meat" sounds very healthy /s

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u/KarmaticEvolution Sep 08 '26

I now buy Rosie's organic chicken in bulk from Sam's Club. Normal size, taste way better, and from the research I did, have a much better quality of life.

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u/RawardHoikes91 Sep 08 '26

Nah, the less we teach it - the stronger the shock when young people learn of it, and the stronger their drive to do something about it.

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u/thisisaskew Sep 08 '26

Yeah, not educating people makes sense.

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u/Dungeon_Daddy_ Sep 08 '26

As someoen 20+ years plant based, it’s important not to forget that harvesting those beans and rice etc. has a sizeable body count in insects and other “pests.”

Not to mention the economic impact of western demand on global markets, inflating the prices of goods and pricing them out of traditional local diets.

Not saying I know a better way, but it’s worth being mindful. Unfortunately there’s no clean hands in a dirty system, but at the very least we can acknowledge our part in it.

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u/askingmachine Sep 08 '26

Yeah but we gotta eat something. Of course we should always strive for the best solution possible!

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Sep 08 '26

Exactly. I even switched my protein powder to be pea-based. You've gotta find a happy medium. Frankly I don't have an issue with eating bugs either, the Mexicans cook grasshoppers very well.

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u/DecantsForAll Sep 08 '26

Shell fish are probably the least sentient animals you can eat. Sea urchins. Sea cucumbers. I think they're all simpler than bugs.

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u/Dungeon_Daddy_ Sep 08 '26

Agree 100%, I only mentioned it because I think a lot of plant based folks get up on their high horse about these sorts of issues while ignoring the impact of their own dietary choices. Not insinuating anyone here was doing that here either 👍🏽

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u/Magnon Sep 08 '26

I'm pretty sure one of the better solutions to protein requirements is insects but I don't think the west is really ready to eat insect produced tofu-like blocks.

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u/cizzlebot Sep 10 '26

Plant-based gains, let's goooo!! 💪 🫘🥦

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Sep 10 '26

My protein powder is pea-protein based, too! I drank milk whey protein for years, the pea one is way easier on the stomach.

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u/cizzlebot Sep 10 '26

Nuzest, by chance? I found an awesome affordable peanut butter & Dutch chocolate one on Amazon. It tastes so good that it feels like cheating.. X)

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Sep 10 '26

No, I subscribe to Huel Black, the high protein one. I had a stressful job (still do, just a different one lol) and was skipping breakfast and often skipping lunch, no bueno. The nutrition shakes give me at least some baseline every day. I like Huel because it has vitamins and stuff in it too. Nowadays I'm adding chia seeds and often some espresso I make at home. If you try it, my protip is to make it at night and stick it in the fridge. Much better texture in the AM.

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u/cizzlebot Sep 10 '26

Hell yeah! I add chia seeds to mine too.. We're doing it right! lol :)

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u/Schar83 Sep 08 '26

Don’t forget to add in the amount of eggs consumed (if you’re doing eggs). Had a roommate one time that was talking about the amount of chickens he was responsible for each week.

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u/PiccoloAwkward465 Sep 08 '26

Don’t forget

I didn't forget, mate. It's a reddit comment, not my magnum opus.

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u/karebearjedi Sep 08 '26

Eggs aren't fertilized so they would have never been chickens and the eggs would have rotted in the coop had it been left alone. 

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u/Loggersalienplants Sep 08 '26

Chicken breast filets are usually split once it's halved, so you can reduce the number of total chickens you have ate by half. Still a lot of chickens but not as much as you thought 😅 I used to work at a chicken house so I've had the thought of how many dead chickens have passed through my hands 😅

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u/Dudewheresmycard5 Sep 08 '26

Thank god for that last sentence!

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u/Radiant_Attitude3388 Sep 08 '26

I love you for this 🫶

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u/ReplacementBorn6424 Sep 09 '26

And the methane you shit out is contributing to global destruction. Awesome.