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Potential Protein Source
Tue, 05/20/2008 - 17:28 — AMW
I'd like to recommend a research project looking into the viability of raising Guinea Pigs as a source of protein.
Potential Pros
- It's essentially an established technology. South Americans already raise and eat Guinea Pigs, and there are some efforts to export this practice.
- It's potentially space efficient. As small animals, guinea pigs wouldn't require much deck space, and it would be easy to stack cages , getting more use out of the existing square footage.
- Short growth cycle. My informal research indicates that they generally take about 29 weeks to reach full size (2 - 3 lbs).
- Relatively short breeding cycle. Females go into heat about every 15 - 17 days, and gestation takes around 60 - 70 days. Average litter size is 3. (Apparently it's unhealthy for a female to have back-to-back gestation periods, though)
- Use of local resources. Seaweed and spirulina algae might be able to make up a large part of their diet (this would require some experimentation).
Potential Cons
- Back-to-back breeding sessions are dangerous to the females, so it may not be efficient to have a set of breeder pigs and feeder pigs. Care would have to be taken to avoid inbreeding.
- Guinea pigs eat pretty much throughout the day, so it could be that they're not an efficient way to turn vegetable mass into meat (again with the experimentation).
- Yuck factor. A lot of people think of guinea pigs as pets.
Rabbits?
I recall that Jesrad - with typical French culinary insight - suggested in response to exactly this proposal that rabbits might have the same qualities with less of the "yuck" factor.
Squirrels (YUM!!!!)
while yes rabbits are veeeerrrrrryyyy taaaassssstttttyyy, they are not the only small, furry, tasty and easily bred creature out there, you could also consider squirrels as an option. of course they would have to be supplimented with veggies and stuff they are incredibly tasty. as for the rabbits (i dont believe this holds true for those raised in captivity but i am not sure) i know that if you are trying to live off the land in a survival situation you only want to eat rabbits at certain times of the year so as to not risk certain diseases. BUY hey, they ARE TAAAASSSSSTTTTTYYYY.
Tularemia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia
Seals, Sea lions, Sea otters- people have eaten all of them. They also have useful pelts, and while we don't tend to eat blubber much in our modern techno-society, it can still be rendered for bio-diesel. Organ meat is rich in vitamins and can be rendered more palatable as sausage.
Wasteful ?
Don't spirulina algae already provide suitable proteins ? Seems to me it would be wasteful to feed it to animals that you then eat yourself. Also, someone said cultivating algae had a lot of technical shortcomings because they don't grow in salt water and are very susceptible to becoming infested with other undesireable algae and seaweed or zooplankton. In any case, the most practical source of protein when you live at sea is... fish and seashell. And they're tasty too !
I'd rather eat the seaweed
I'm vegetarian and I can't imagine having to live on spirulina algae for my main source of protein. Have you ever actually tasted that sh1t?
You may get what you want, but will you want what you get?
absolutely
"In any case, the most practical source of protein when you live at sea is... fish "
Open ocean aquaculture
attracting unwanted
attracting unwanted attention is a large, looming fact on the seastead horizon, whether it is lawyers, militaries, or ocean predators. the seastead is likely to put out some might tempting and tasty smells inthe water, not to mention aquaculture just raising the level of prey species available to feed on.
Food Production
Do guinea pigs provide enough protein? From what i understand a person can die from eating only rabbit meat for extended periods of time because they are so lean and don't have the type of protein to sustain the human body. Why not just eat vegetables directly? I thought that vegetarians always spread propaganda about how inefficient meat production is in terms of the opportunity cost of potential calories had the land been used for growing veggies and not using the land to grow animal food.
In my opinion this project only needs to put enough effort into the food problem to show that more sustainable options will grow out of the market. Ultimately a free market might result in floating greenhouse towers that are vertical farms and the owners of these seasteads would sell perpetually fresh fruits, vegetables, and spices to other seasteaders just like a land farm. I've never seen anybody try to make dual use of a piece of land by building an office building while simultaneously trying farming it hoping to make it a self sustaining micro-society why should a seastead cluster be any different?
I've never seen anybody try
Really? You don't know anyone with a garden in their backyard? My understanding of the seasteads is that everyone would provide the majority of their own food. Granted, some things like trees require a lot of space that maybe only one or two platforms would have, and so some items could be bought/sold/bartered. Or those sorts of trees could be grown as dwarf varieties.
Also, by knowing alot about companion planting techniques, it would be possible to grow a large variety of crops in a small space. See http://www.eap.mcgill.ca/Publications/EAP55.htm
Not to mention growing mushrooms for many, many reasons: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/258
There are some principles of
There are some principles of companion planting techniques in a great many books about permaculture. There are a great many people interested in creating sustainable micro-communities, on land. For various reasons: individualist concerns, political concerns, millenaialist, fundamentalists, paranoids, environmentalists, and other people who just think it's a neat idea.
Of course, you are free to
Of course, you are free to eat whatever you want but I doubt many people would like to eat guinea pigs. I wouldn't mind eating algae (if it wasn't all there was to eat). Guinea pigs...no way. Besides. algae already provides the protein requirements. So the only reason to consider guinea pigs is taste.
Entomophagy is something
Entomophagy is something else to consider. Its common in many parts of the world and has a rather ancient history. Insects produce more poundage per square meter and their nutritional benefits are comprable to meat sources more common in Europe and the Americas. I've included a portion of entomophagy in my own diet since aquiring a taste of it in SA and you'd be surprised how good some of it actually tastes. I personally tend to suppliment traditional meat sources with it (stirfries with rabbit, cricket, and pork, for example, or tacos with beef and ant brood).
Interesting, where do you get cricket and ant brood?
In Anguilla we only have 4 real grocery stores and none of them have "cricket" or "ant brood". Where do you get yours?
In China I had these giant
In China I had these giant water beetles sauteed in a butter and garlic sauce. They were very tasty. You pull the heads and legs off and then eat them whole like cherries.
Silkworm larvae, either
Silkworm larvae, either candied or boiled/steamed, are a delicacy in Korea. I didn't care for it much. But it IS a dual-use scenario.
I have no problem with
I have no problem with guinea pigs, but any proposal for doing something on a seastead needs to answer the question: why is this better done here than on land?
For protein sources like "fish" or "algae", the ocean has obvious benefits. But for land animals? Not so much.