Being vegetarian better for planet then driving a Prius.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ May 8 2006, 03:42 PM) [snapback]251641[/snapback]</div>

It seems to me that if you ate people it would be better on the environment.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 12:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

Being dead is better for the environment too B) . There are too many people on the planet.

But I agree with the premise. I was a vegetarian for about 15 yrs. Lasted until my wife had protein cravings while pregnant with our second son. So we added a little chicken and fish to the diet and have kept it that way for the past 18 yrs. Haven't had a meal at McDonalds/KFC, etc. since 1971 and don't intend to anytime soon. (Well, technically not a meal, but I did have fries and a shake from a McD on a road trip around 1990. An hour later I was pretty sick and convinced not to try that experiment again.)

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 01:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

LOL!

Nate

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 12:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

Beautiful.

I'll need a study to see what happens when this ominvore drives an EV instead of a Prius.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(darelldd @ May 8 2006, 03:34 PM) [snapback]251753[/snapback]</div>

Honey, pass the Soylent Green please.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 12:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

:lol: :lol: LOL :lol: :lol:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 02:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

Especially if he's a meat eating SUV driver who sleeps at night with the light on.

 

Nope Meat & Potatos Baby!

Mmmm nice bloody med-rare Porterhouse steak mmmm..

 

seems to me i heard that a Prius cut a LOT more than a single ton of CO2. we had this discussion before and wasnt it something like 13 lbs per gallon?? assuming 15,000 miles @ 50 mpg that is 300 gallons verses what?? an SUV...no that would be unfair...i guess... anyway, an average 5 seater?? then say 25 mpg that would be 600 gallons so 300 gallons COULD be saved at 13 lbs per gallon would make about 3900 lbs or nearly two tons...

knew being a meat eating, prius man was a better deal!!

 

I'd have to sit down with a pencil for a bit to compare the two to dispel my skepticism about the relative numbers, but the basic notion that meat eating is wasteful from a POV of how many people can be fed is certainly true compared to eating the plants directly, and so it follows that multiples of CO2 are generated.

 

Dave,

Petrol is ~ CH(2)sub
One mole of CH2 weighs 14 grams, that after combusion becomes one mole of C02 that weighs 44 grams.

Petrol is about .75 the weight of water v/v

20,000Km/yr * liter/20Km * 0.75 kg/Liter = 750 Kg of CH2.
After combustion, 750 Kg *44/14 = 2357 Kg CO2, or somewhat over one kiloton.

addendum: earlier errors hopefully fixed.

 

LOL @ grasshopper!

I'm an 'almost' vegetarian - I still eat meat sometimes, maybe one or two meals a week. It's part for health, part for ethical reasons (don't really mind eating animals for food, but treating them terribly really bothers me,) and largely for the environmental impact (sustainability, emissions, pollutants) of meat-rich diets. Plus, I really think the meat I get from a local farm is *much* tastier than what we used to get from the supermarket - but I'm too cheap to buy it too often =P

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(geologyrox @ May 9 2006, 10:23 AM) [snapback]252104[/snapback]</div>

I'm with you on this one - our meat consumption at home has gone down a lot in the past year. Maybe once per week.

With that, my parents were here a couple of weeks ago and made their favorite: Kibalsa Sausage ....I 'bout puked. It was soooo heavy and I could feel my arteries hardening with each bite!

 

I made the mistake of trying to eat more beans and less meat once. Biggest mistake I ever made.
Now I can't eat a slice of bread in most restaurants due to soy allergies.
I now have to get my protein from meat or fish.

 

Found on the Web --

Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR)
Feed conversion ratio (FCR) is a measure of the amount of feed eaten per unit of bodyweight gain or carcass weight gain. Since feed is the numerator, FCR should be minimised. Common values for growing ruminants grazing pasture are around 7-10 whereas pigs and poultry aim for values less than 2. For a production system some people measure the feed conversion ratio for the system as output of beef (kg liveweight or carcass weight) per tonne of dry matter consumed. The term Feed Conversion Efficiency (FCE) is also often used but the more correct term is FCR as it is a ratio (i.e. feed eaten per unit of gain)
---------

If the cow is thought of as an engine that converts plant calories to meat colories, it is obvious that it is terribly inefficient.

I now remember reading criticism of attempts to introduce cows into starvation prone areas. The agricultural yields that had been feeding people were being wasted by running the crops through cows.

So anyway, the basic notion that the OP quoted is simple science. The actual numbers will depend on which and how much of each animal are eaten as part of the daily coloric requirements, since they have differenct FCR's; and there is a basic presumption that the entire coloric intake can be substitued with human digestible plants which is true in the US, but not the world over where range grazing does still happen.

SUV's are gas guzzlers
Meat eaters are food guzzlers

hmm..

Not to troll, but I cannot help but notice the same ignorant jesting by meat eaters here, that I often read from energy guzzlers of other varieties. Smugness is *such* a narrow ledge.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(grasshopper @ May 8 2006, 03:49 PM) [snapback]251649[/snapback]</div>

seems like this guy liked your idea of eating people except that I don't think he really cared for the environment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4752797.stm

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(EricGo @ May 9 2006, 09:29 AM) [snapback]252176[/snapback]</div>

There's also the fact that livestock produce methane. Methane is 21 times more heat absorbant than CO2. We have a lot of livestock in the USA.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(NuShrike @ May 9 2006, 05:15 PM) [snapback]252453[/snapback]</div>

True.
But some of the Milk farmers are already recapturing most of the methane to be reused to fuel their farm. And don't forget the Japanese scientists have made gas from cow dropping.

Cattle farming is going to be the thing of the past in the future. Probably Vegans too... :lol:
Have you guys heard of "Lab grown meat"? Some scientists are growing animal tissues that can be eaten. They further made the meat better without the artery clogging part. The only things they have not been able to do is grow the meat with blood, and grow it in big slabs.