Pirate's Cove

You know what could solve this? A tax!

Your burger habit could be threatened by weather chaos — but gene editing could help us save cows and avoid ‘mass famine’

Making meat is wasteful work.

An ounce of beef — one-sixth of a standard burger patty — requires over 100 gallons of water. Dairy cattle, chickens, and pigs also belch out methane, a key greenhouse gas, and the factories and farms that house them add carbon dioxide to the mix. Livestock are also prone to disease. An estimated 20% of the world’s animal protein is lost to bacterial infections and illness.

A new technology may help solve these issues. CRISPR, which allows for tiny, precise tweaks to DNA that were previously considered impossible, is being used to make crops that are cheaper, more reliable, and more immune to environmental challenges like drought and pests. Experts say the first CRISPR corn and mushrooms could be on grocery shelves within two-to-eight years.

Of course, the anti-GMO crowd will freak out about this.

Climate change is projected to drive down crop yields by up to a quarter in some parts of the world, with important food sources like corn and wheat seeing dramatic losses. A study published by researchers at Michigan State University suggests that high temperatures not only weaken plants’ natural defenses but strengthen bacterial attacks, a sort of double whammy for crop productivity.

Except for the part where CO2 is plant food and food production has continued to go up up up. But, hey, doom is totally going to come soon!!!!!!

“Agriculture must transform over the next 30 years in order for us to avoid mass famine,” Charlotte Lusty, who helps manage agricultural gene banks for an international nonprofit called the Crop Trust, said at the UN Climate Change Conference in November.

By change, they mean put it under the control of the Central Government.