Walking Dead/Zombie Discussions

Can we not just eat the zombies? The zombie virus in their blood and body fluids surely will not survive the cooking process---if thoroughly cooked. I am sure the flesh will not be that much different to the 28 day matured beef etc currently sold in the supermarkets. Anything not edible can be made into fertilisers I suppose, and that fat and oil produced from them can be used as fuel.

As soon as we see them as a food source they will cease to become viewed as a threat, but rather be treated just like herds of animals ready to be hunted down and be fought over for their economical value. Given the relative lack of intelligence and survival instinct of these zombies, it is actually not that hard to set up traps and start harvesting them on an industrial scale.

Given that they are pretty unpopular, and that everyone wishes them to become extinct, and that conventional resources becomes scarce, I see plenty of business opportunities.

wtlh said:

Can we not just eat the zombies? The zombie virus in their blood and body fluids surely will not survive the cooking process---if thoroughly cooked. I am sure the flesh will not be that much different to the 28 day matured beef etc currently sold in the supermarkets. Anything not edible can be made into fertilisers I suppose, and that fat and oil produced from them can be used as fuel.

As soon as we see them as a food source they will cease to become viewed as a threat, but rather be treated just like herds of animals ready to be hunted down and be fought over for their economical value. Given the relative lack of intelligence and survival instinct of these zombies, it is actually not that hard to set up traps and start harvesting them on an industrial scale.

Given that they are pretty unpopular, and that everyone wishes them to become extinct, and that conventional resources becomes scarce, I see plenty of business opportunities.

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Zombie soylent green, makes sense to me. Could probably find a vaccination for whatever causes zombie-ism while you're at it, just don't find a cure since that'll kill (or would that be resurrect) the business. Actually a vaccination would do the same, forget I said that.

PanAsian said:

Zombie soylent green, makes sense to me. Could probably find a vaccination for whatever causes zombie-ism while you're at it, just don't find a cure since that'll kill (or would that be resurrect) the business. Actually a vaccination would do the same, forget I said that.

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I guess eating the flesh may still amounts to cannibalism, which I think may not be that popular. Only if clever marketing could rebrand the zombies not as ex-humans, but as something "nutritionally really good for you". But other products may be popular without needing creative marketing.

I think the idea is that given the drastic reduction in man power, and the neglect of current infrastructures of human civilisation, there must be a decade or more time of buffer period for rebuilding. During this time, traditional resources will be more difficult to obtain, and zombies may offer a good temporary solution since they are everywhere and readily available.

Since the zombies do not reproduce (or do they?), it is hard to keep their populations from declining due to industrial harvesting. Intentionally creating zombies from humans will lead to all sorts of ethical and legal issues, obviously.

The aim is thus to harvest them until civilisation returns to normal and while the stock lasts. It is never intended to be a long term business, just as long as it is sustainable. The industrialist involved can always move on from the business and invest their profits elsewhere once stocks dwindle.

wtlh said:

Can we not just eat the zombies?

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And the most Disturbing post of the Day goes to...Seriously taking the moto of "If you can't Beat'em Join'em" beyond any level ever though of before.
lets take the zombie thing and roll with it for a second.

wtlh said:

Can we not just eat the zombies? The zombie virus in their blood and body fluids surely will not survive the cooking process---if thoroughly cooked.

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Not if the condition is caused by a prion, like the mad cow disease is.

wtlh said:

Can we not just eat the zombies?

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This would be cannibalism, like eating a dead human. Actually, this is exactly eating a dead human. This is like the Donner party multiplied by 100 since the zombie would still be moving around and making sounds and etc when you begin (at least the Donner party waited until their "food" died to begin)... You simply don't do that. Serious taboo...

Like I mentioned earlier a few episodes ago on the Walking Dead the group was starving and thirsty where they killed and ate some feral dogs. Apparently there were people who complained about that depiction. I know in the comfort of their homes with a refrigerator full of food, they can be snobby about food. Some like animal rights activists would probably eat humans or zombies before they eat dogs but generally if people aren't going to eat dogs, they certainly aren't going to eat a zombie.

Here's maybe a mistake I see in the Walking Dead and their logic. This maybe why creator Robert Kirkman said if they were to do it again he would not allow the whole part about the CDC in the first season. The guy at the CDC in Atlanta says everyone is infected. Advance to the first part of this season where the group encounters the Terminus cannibals where they unsuspectingly ate tainted meat from a person who was bitten before to which when they found out panicked and tried to debate if it was all right or not. Now all these cannibals that ate tainted meat died due to human causes before we could see what would happen in the natural course of things from eating tainted meat. If everyone is infected, what causes people to die when bitten? It could be something like how lizards' mouths are full of bacteria and if they bite you, you can get sick. But on the companion talk show after each new episode airs, the showrunner, Scott Gimple, said it was all right to eat tainted meat because everyone was already infected. If it's all right to eat tainted meat then why do people get sick and die after being bitten? These cannibals certainly would've gotten sick from eating tainted meat. Inconsistent logic.

Exactly. even being exposed to zombie tissues heating is not always a answer as depending on the nature of the Outbreak heating might not do anything to stop the spread.
Prions are a form of proteins nearly indestructible. It would have to be cooked beyond the heat of the sun to effect them

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Exactly. even being exposed to zombie tissues heating is not always a answer as depending on the nature of the Outbreak heating might not do anything to stop the spread.
Prions are a form of proteins nearly indestructible. It would have to be cooked beyond the heat of the sun to effect them

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Prions are mis-folded proteins. They can be any protein in your body. It is infectious because normally properly folded protein begin to mis-fold in the presence of a prion. Then everything goes crazy after that. Although it is difficult to destroy a prion, it is not impossible. All you need to do is to denature it. Normally proteins (composed of along sequence amino acids) need to fold into a proper 3 dimensional structure to function. Of course, a prion can change that conformation, which then leads to changes in function of the protein. All you need to do is to completely destroy the 3-dimensional structure of the protein, then you have a linear long sequence of amino acids, which is completely harmless. We do this in the lab on a daily basis. To accurate measure size of a protein, we need to first denature the proteins and let them run in a gel. Smaller proteins go faster and larger ones go slower. So you can do it easily. All you need to do is to put the tainted meat in some kind of acid and a little high heat. The proteins along with prions will be denatured.