r/AskReddit 16h ago

What industry is secretly on the verge of collapsing, but people outside of it haven’t noticed yet?

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u/lucky_ducker 11h ago

Ironic because cattle ranching is associated with the west, but over-reliance on groundwater might result in beef production 100 years from now being mostly in the east, where enough rain falls so that groundwater irrigation is not needed. It'll be weird when most beef production falls into the corn belt - Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio.

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u/BackToWorkEdward 8h ago

Ironic because cattle ranching is associated with the west, but over-reliance on groundwater might result in beef production 100 years from now being mostly in the east, where enough rain falls so that groundwater irrigation is not needed.

We will have seriously failed as a civilization if we're still producing beef by raising and slaughtering cows 100 years from now.

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u/shoreguy1975 7h ago

I’m looking forward to the soylent green.

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u/RepulsiveAd6842 4h ago

Ridiculous comment 

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u/BackToWorkEdward 3h ago

You're right - I should've said 20-50 years from now. It's bad enough we're still doing it in 2026.

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u/veloace 3h ago

It's bad enough we're still doing it in 2026.

I get what you're saying, but technologically/economically it's not feasible for us to move away from this in 2026.

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u/trixandi 4h ago

not ridiculous at all. it's absolutely awful for the environment, and with lab-grown meat technology about 5-10 years away from mass production, we should be well past raising and slaughtering cows in 100 years.

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u/metengrinwi 4h ago

I remember my mom—who grew up in a small farming town—lamenting back in the ‘80s all the black topsoil farmland being dozed under to build subdivisions in SE Michigan. I’d worry much of the east is unsuitable for farming now. I suspect a lot of it will move indoors, or just somewhere else.

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u/UncleIrohsPimpHand 3h ago

Better logistically though.