[level87]

I'm pleased to hear that something like this is being developed, anything that will help stop or reduce the unnecessary mistreatment of animals.

[10u152]

I think more people should keep chickens in back yards. They’re good pets, they recycle scrap foods and they keep insects off your veggies. Nobody should be buying cage eggs in the shops.

[eigenket]

Theres still some kinda difficult ethical problems with those. People generally want female chickens, since that's where the eggs come from (and I think there are problems with having multiple males in a flock). Unfortunately naturally you get a 50:50 ratio of males and females in the eggs. The males are usually killed shortly after hatching.

Its worth pointing out that there are methods for avoiding this, by detecting the male chicks when they're still essentially a foetus in the egg. These work so well that France, Germany and Italy banned culling chicks a few years back. Unfortunately they're more expensive than determining the chick's sex after they are hatched so other places don't do it.

[goda90]

My 3 big hold-ups are not wanting to annoy my neighbors, since I live on a corner and behind my house would be next to their back yard. Then not being sure how my dogs would handle the chickens. One has a lot of herding instinct and the other has guardian instincts, but they both react to wild animals strongly. And finally the current bird flu going around bird populations worries me.

[jnsie]

I live in a 30 story apartment building. Tell me more about this back yard

[latentcall]

I’ve been doing this for a year and it’s been great. 3 currently laying hens, which means about 3 eggs a day. 4 younger hens also. Getting an automatic coop door is helpful.

[ZekeSulastin]

What back yard?

[Findecanor]

There exists quite a few of vegan egg replacement products already. I've found egg replacement based on lupinus seed flour to be perfectly adequate for baking sponge cake and frying crepes.

The problem is that a replacement product that doesn't contain the identical substance can replace the original only in some recipes. With "vegan products" in general, you'd have to pay more attention when cooking because it will often not cook exactly the same way as the product it imitates.

[kevsamuel]

Eggs are so versatile any replacement is bound to be very context specific.

But nutritionally speaking, I don't think we can find anything that compare. It's quite an amazing food.

[rsynnott]

Well, this is still just albumen, so you won't be making custard with it. Actual albumen would be a lot more versatile than existing substitutes, tho.

[anoncow]

The future utopian Food Synthesizer from Star Trek seems a very tiny % more achievable now.

[wannacboatmovie]

Eggs are extremely nutritious. We should not be excited to replace them with Soylent Green.

Humans are omnivores. Without eating animal products society would collapse.

[HelloMcFly]

> Without eating animal products society would collapse.

I'm not a vegetarian (I eat an egg every day!), but wow, what a confident assertion. I'm open to your evidence behind this, but it seems absolutely preposterous to me.

[slfnflctd]

If everyone stopped drinking alcohol, society would also collapse.

By monetary valuation, the global alcohol market is over 30x the size of the global meat market. Does this mean we should discourage people from replacing getting drunk with healthier alternatives?

[rsynnott]

> Without eating animal products society would collapse.

... Wait, how does that follow? Like, if everyone stopped tomorrow, sure, maybe; it would at the very least be a massive economic shock, and would likely lead to critical shortages as well. But phased out over time, it's not clear why this would be the case.

[ant6n]

Wait, Onego eggs are people?!

[90d]

I'm never eating the JUST EGG

[wezdog1]

Or... probably not