https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/19/climate/florence-hog-farms.html I had a thought. What if... Chinese pork demand never recovers? What if... the economics of our meat production shifted from environmentally-apocalyptic "staple" to luxury good? What if... like fracking when oil drops below a certain price, industrial meat production is no longer cost-effective? I mean, the agriculture industry didn't rally around organic farming because they wanted to achieve enlightenment. They rallied around organic farming because the fucking margins are higher. I am not a vegetarian. I doubt I ever will be. But much like my wife and daughter's choices for food have increased exponentially as the yuppies decide they're "gluten intolerant" I can easily see a better future in which meat is more optional, less essential. Would I eat gardenburgers if they cost less than normal burgers? I mean, I eat gardenburgers now and generally, if I'm making a burger for myself I start with a decent cut of meat and grind it myself. My deepest, sincerest hope is that this crisis renders any number of our externalities uneconomical. What if we subsidized solar and wind instead of coal and oil? What if we subsidized specialty crops instead of corn, wheat, soy and potatoes? What if fucking Michigan decided that every Kroger worker in 2020 deserves a free associate's degree? Sure, we're swapping externalities but we'd be giving the many a leg up instead of the few.