this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2024
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the soybean meal is literally the byproduct of pressing soybeans for oil.
Byproduct does not equal waste product. Plastic is a byproduct, so is gasoline. Your conflating the ideas.
it would be waste if we didn't have a use for it
The use predates the creation of it. There had already been a use for it the moment it was made. It has never once been considered a waste product except in the style of argument you are making right now.
the use can't predate it's creation. that's not how linear time works.
Yes, although I suspect we'd actually make less soy oil without the demand for feed. I'm honestly not even sure what it's used for; most of the vegetable oils on sale where I live are different.
The corn case is pretty unambiguous. DDGS is a byproduct, white grease is probably a byproduct (maybe of pigs, which is "fun"), the rest looks purpose-made but isn't relevant here.
i don't know how we could prove this.
It's the perpetual problem in economics, right? That's fine though, I think I've made a reasonable case, and this isn't a court trial with an explicit standard of proof.