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Vegan Hummer vs Carnivorous Prius

Discussion in 'Environmental Discussion' started by zenMachine, Oct 31, 2009.

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  1. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    Eating his words: Michael Pollan retracts Hummer-vegan/Prius-meat-eater comment — Autoblog Green

    Want to give your public pronouncement a little zing? Try throwing in the words Hummer and Prius and imply that the SUV is better for the earth than the Prius. CNW sure knows the value of making the false claim. Last week, author Michael Pollan tried a similar trick when he said at the 2009 Poptech conference that, "A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius."
     
    #1 zenMachine, Oct 31, 2009
  2. tripp

    tripp Which it's a 'ybrid, ain't it?

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    I wonder what kind of diet they base the 2 tonnes on. Is based on the average amount meat consumed per capita? What kinda of meat? How much of each? I have to agree with autoblog,
     
    #2 tripp, Nov 1, 2009
  3. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    There Are a lot of variables that go into calculating for such an idea.

    What type of grains and fruits is the vegan eating?

    What kind of livestock and how is it raised?
     
    #3 F8L, Nov 1, 2009
  4. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    I'm a vegan in a Prius - I'm saving the world!! :p
     
    #4 Rae Vynn, Nov 1, 2009
    2 people like this.
  5. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    My wife and I are getting there. We recently finished the book "Skinny Bitch" and have decided that since we're not heavy meat eaters anyway that we would start really watching what we eat. We're using the rest of this year to ease into it and empty out our existing stores in the pantry. Her next car will either be a Fusion Hybrid or a Prius so we'll be two vegetarians in two hybrids.
     
    #5 TonyPSchaefer, Nov 1, 2009
  6. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    Not to mention how much does one actually consume...

    Being as the average American is seriously overweight and none in my family are, nor are our portions ridiculous, I wouldn't be surprised to find the basis was "cooked" from the beginning by a substantial factor.

    I find the concept of vegan diet slightly less appealing than eating cardboard and drinking chalk water for the rest of my life. (And that from a guy who regularly cooks Indian food.) Better to shoot a Hummer driver and continue eating moderately as a carbon footprint compensation. :evil: Should be easy, Hummer drivers think they are bullet proof...ala Arnie and his T-101 Terminator chassis.

    At least being vegetarian has some common sense about it and would have some flavor. Vegan? Not so much.
     
    #6 Celtic Blue, Nov 2, 2009
  7. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    Which merely shows that you have not indulged yourself with truly awesome vegan food.

    Detroit participants - did I appear to lack common sense (the night in the bar does not count)? Do I look like I have no FLAVOR in my life? Hmm? Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?
     
    #7 Rae Vynn, Nov 2, 2009
  8. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    It’s true that food production is an important contributor to climate change. And the claim that meat (especially beef) is closely linked to global warming has received some credible backing, including by the United Nations and University of Chicago. Both institutions have issued reports that have been widely summarized as condemning meat-eating.

    But that’s an overly simplistic conclusion to draw from the research. To a rancher like me, who raises cattle, goats and turkeys the traditional way (on grass), the studies show only that the prevailing methods of producing meat — that is, crowding animals together in factory farms, storing their waste in giant lagoons and cutting down forests to grow crops to feed them — cause substantial greenhouse gases. It could be, in fact, that a conscientious meat eater may have a more environmentally friendly diet than your average vegetarian.

    So what is the real story of meat’s connection to global warming? Answering the question requires examining the individual greenhouse gases involved: carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides...

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31niman.html
     
    #8 zenMachine, Nov 2, 2009
  9. Chuck.

    Chuck. Former Honda Enzyte Driver

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    Even if you are a meat eater, the way livestock animals are treated, raises sustainability and humane issues.
     
    #9 Chuck., Nov 2, 2009
  10. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    And then there's this!

    The Daily News Online > Breaking News > Dog's eco-footprint equals a Hummer, study says

    Thanks for killing the planet, dog owners.

    Well, that’s a rough paraphrase of a New Zealand study that claims a medium-size dog leaves a larger ecological footprint than an SUV.

    In “Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living,†authors Robert and Brenda Vale argue that resources required to feed a dog -- including the amount of land needed to feed the animals that go into its food -- give it about twice the eco-footprint of, say, building and fueling a Toyota Land Cruiser. Noting that a cat’s pawprint was roughly equivalent to a Volkswagen Golf’s, “New Scientist†(Science news and science jobs from New Scientist - New Scientist) asked an environmentalist at the Stockholm Environment Institute in York, U.K., to independently calculate animals’ environmental impact, and reported that “his figures tallied almost exactly.†The study apparently didn’t take into account the emissions of either the SUV or the dogs.
     
    #10 zenMachine, Nov 2, 2009
  11. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    Didn't I propose this very thing in a recent thread on this same subject?

    EDIT: Well, I typed it, but can't find the post now, so perhaps I thought better of it and deleted it rather than offend the dog owners. Ask Michael Vick what that will get you...
     
    #11 Celtic Blue, Nov 2, 2009
  12. Celtic Blue

    Celtic Blue New Member

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    If I come across them I'll give them a try. I am omnivorous. However, it is hard for me to see any point to a diet that eliminates 90% of the foods I presently eat. And vegan would do that: salad (dressing and toppings), corn on the cob, breakfast cereal, toast, baked potato, stir fry, etc. would all be off the menu.

    Any time I see fat free, sugar free, sodium free, low fat, skim, etc. I walk away. Most of it tastes like tin, not very natural. My son, shortly after he began talking, referred to skim milk as "water milk" and would recognize it by the cap. He would reject it. We didn't drink it, but others did so he had figured out how to identify it.
     
    #12 Celtic Blue, Nov 2, 2009
  13. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    What, you can't be serious? Oh, wait a minute, I missed the disclaimer about the bar. :p

    Tom
     
    #13 qbee42, Nov 2, 2009
  14. jayman

    jayman Senior Member

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    Did somebody mention a bar?
     
    #14 jayman, Nov 2, 2009
  15. zenMachine

    zenMachine Just another Onionhead

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    Harrington drives a Hummer H1, an honest-to-goodness military-style vehicle.

    But the Northwest Portland resident has a message for all those eco-snobs who give him grief. He’s a vegan, and he figures all those people who drive hybrids or ride bikes to work – but who eat meat – leave a larger carbon footprint than he does.

    “I believe if you truly care about the environment, you’re vegan. If you’re not, you’re a hypocrite.â€

    Harrington may have a point, but is he right?

    Which is worse?
     
    #15 zenMachine, Nov 12, 2009
  16. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    Don't know about going Vegan ... but the cholesterol's gettin' too close to the unsave margin ... so I've stopped heaping shrimp on the spinich salids. I think they count as meat ... right?

    .
     
    #16 hill, Nov 12, 2009
  17. Rae Vynn

    Rae Vynn Artist In Residence

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    Hill, when I went Vegan, my cholesterol dropped so much that my doctor tested it twice.
    Dairy is the worst.. and drink more water. That's how I did it.
     
    #17 Rae Vynn, Nov 13, 2009
  18. MJFrog

    MJFrog Active Member

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    I'm a member of PETA and proud of it:

    People
    Eating
    Tasty
    Animals

    :p
     
    #18 MJFrog, Nov 13, 2009
  19. TonyPSchaefer

    TonyPSchaefer Your Friendly Moderator
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    Giving up dairy is my biggest struggle. I grew up drinking milk. My brothers and I would go through a couple or a few gallons per week when we were younger. Some kids grow up drinking soft drinks; I grew up drinking milk. But I'm starting to get a taste for soy milk, almond milk and rice milk.
     
    #19 TonyPSchaefer, Nov 13, 2009
  20. F8L

    F8L Protecting Habitat & AG Lands

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    Total crap. One would have to asses where the vegan food originated from and all of the inputs required to grow it, process it, ship it, market iut etc.. Then they would have to do the same for meat. There is a hell of a difference between a CAFO slab of beef and one raised on one of my grasslands...
     
    #20 F8L, Nov 13, 2009
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