Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Sep 5 2006, 01:49 AM) [snapback]314421[/snapback]</div>

Didnt care to address the wheels, the power robbing stereo, or the effect the drag racing has on the efficiency of the Prius' components I noticed.

This is beside the point though, I have no problem with you having toys or making modifications to your Prius that increase your enjoyment of it, just don't act like a martyr who lives only for the earth while doing it thats all. You may care about the earth, but everyone else does too. I think if you spent a little more time conversing with people and respecting their points of view instead of trying to jam your lifestyle down their throats you'd make a lot more friends for yourself and for your cause.

What you need to do is re-evaluate the purpose for your knowledge. You had a real opportunity to have a discussion here tonight in these two threads about ideas and courses of action we can take to try and solve some of these issues and you squandered it because you felt I was not informed enough to be worthy of such an exchange. That was an error on your part because thats not the case. You can effect more change just by talking with people than you can by volunteering or selling off your cars, provided you go about it the right way.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Sep 5 2006, 01:58 AM) [snapback]314421[/snapback]</div>

You haven't debated with me at all, but if you want to stop this exchange just stop. You have to have the last word though, I understand that. So you just go ahead and post something after this and I'll ignore it so you can have it.

I have no interest in searching your information, I did have an interest in discussing these topics with you, but since you don't share that interest I'll have to just go eat more filet mignon from the death farting cows I guess and wallow in my own ignorance.

 

Right. And the US Government (and our tax dollars) subsidize agriculture in general, and meat production in particular.

Personally, I think that the real plan here is to make meat as cheap as possible so we can feed ourselves as cheaply as possible (though not with a very balanced diet) so we can work as hard as possible and keep the economy going.

Meat is easy to prepare, activates that 'fat=yummy' thing that we all seem to have built into our bodies (which makes its consumption self-perpetuating), and keeps the workforce in full production mode by keeping us feeling full (of animal fats).

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Etel Rose @ Aug 28 2006, 03:21 PM) [snapback]310667[/snapback]</div>

Let me ignore the methane issue because I completely understand it. Methane rates about 20x as potent as C02 for greenhouse effect, combining the effects of longevity in the atmosphere and warming effect while in circulation. So, clearly, shifting the convertion of biomass significantly from C02 to methane should increase the rate of global warming. The cattle methane issue is not a fossil fuel issue, it's about the shifting the mix of gaseous byproducts of metabolizing the current biomass.

Instead, let me focus on the fossil fuel required to grow grain-fed beef, and mention one painless, relatively costless, and probably healthful thing I've done in this area to reduce my family's fossil fuel consumption.

I contracted with a local farmer to buy a side of grass-fed beef this fall, which my family will eat instead of grocery-store grain-fed meat. As far as I can tell, this simple move saves the fossil-fuel equivalent of roughly 300 gallons of gasoline, per year, though the figure might be anywhere in the range of 110 to 400 gallons of gasoline-equivalent saved, depending on which statistics I use on the fossil fuel calories required to produce an edible (k)calorie of grain-fed versus grass-fed beef.

At any rate, even the minimal savings estimate (110 gallons of gasoline-equivalent) is far larger than any other energy saving changes I am contemplating for the coming year. And, as far as I can tell, it costs me nothing and is good for me. Having studied the facts, and now putting my money where my mouth is, I conclude that:

a) I don't have to change my diet, at all, zero sacrifice on my part. (I competely acknowledge that a vegetarian or vegan diet would be better still, in about as many ways as you'd care to name, but the point is that this doesn't require any change on my part.)
b) The meat tastes better. (I can now tell when a dish contains traditional (grocery-store grain-fed) beef by the lack of flavor. )
c) It's certainly leaner meat, and research suggests that the fatty acid mix in grass-fed beef is healther for human consumption, both of which suggest that, if you're going to eat meat this is a more healthful choice.
d) The cost per pound, purchased by the side, seems roughly comparable to store-bought beef, or if not, the cost difference seems small to me.
e) Its more somewhat humane, in that the cows actually get to walk around their entire lives, rather than being confined to a feedlot for the majority of their lives.
f) As noted above, the estimated fossil-fuel savings absolutely dwarf all the other energy-saving changes I was considering this year.

So, I liken this to deciding to use compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent. Why not, when all is said and done? By my estimate, the annual fossil-fuel savings from converting to grass-fed beef are larger than the savings I incurred when I converted my house to fluorescent lighting. As with fluorescent, once I had the facts in hand, I couldn't see not doing this.

 

Excellent post Chogin.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pinto Girl @ Sep 20 2006, 07:42 PM) [snapback]322578[/snapback]</div>

Everything is a cheap as possible thing. America not only thrives on cheap, it's expected as a birthright.

We have a right to cheap gas.

We have a right to cheap food.

We have a right to cheap goods.

Not low quality. Nope. We want excellent quality at a cheap price. We want more and more for less and less. We *are* Walmart.

That's why Unions are the Anti-Christ. That's why illegal immigration thrives. It's not jobs Americans are unwilling to do. It's wages employers are unwilling to pay. Because it's prices Americans are unwilling to pay.

We *are* cheap.

And wasteful.

(I like a good steak or piece of prime rib as well as the next person. But I don't eat meat three times a week. Not even once a week. I'm lucky to have a nice piece of meat a few times a month.)

I will say I don't believe cows and pigs are contributing as much to Global Warming as manufacturing and transportation. Cut the manufacturing and transportation contributions and the animal issue is controllable. But I do believe we should get off the corn and back to grasses. (And forget ethanol. It's like hydrogen. A misdirection pipe dream. Not the solution.)