I am a vegetarian for ethical and health reasons, but I stumbled upon this little article.
A few snippets:
Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein, according to the Cornell ecologist's analysis.
Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1.
Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the United States, Pimentel noted. Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food.
\"More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans,\" Pimentel said.
Such a waste of resources for a sick process anyway. Think about it: 800 million people could be fed off of this grain, nearly 10% of the world. Just my thoughts...
There's more than enough space around the world to grow food for 6 billion. Mismanagement and politics aren't going to go away just because everyone decides to go vegan.
I can't really comment on what the US meat industry does, because I know very little about it. I have some knowledge of the process here though: fossil fuels don't even figure into the equation, because they're not required to grow cattle or poultry; energy and water are both in abundance, because they're recycled and don't just disappear into the animals; cattle are never fed grain in this country because grass is plentiful and much cheaper.
That grain is generally not edible by humans. It's grown for feed.
We are carnavors. check out you cannine teeth. If we were to eat only plants, we would have teeth like cows.
It's too much work to get all your amino acids from plants and most vegans I've met look anemic. For individuals to go vegan is fine, but not everyone can. Not everyone is smart enough to survive it.
As where grain is concerned; there is more than enough grain produced to feed the world as it is. Many times large portions simply rot waiting to be used. Countries that have food problems suffer from far great problems that a simple lack of food. Political/military powers keep it from getting to the people. the country for is unable to pay for it. Basic internal logistic strucks are crippled or simply non-existant.
There is or WAS a practice in the beef industry that was very dangerous to humans (supposedly stopped in 1997). A lot of meat byproducts and remainders from cattle and sheep slaughtering were ground up, intermixed and fed back to cattle as feed for a protein boost. However, that process introduced prions into cattle by cross-contamination of waste meat byproducts from sheep, who can harbor the prion brain disease Scrapie. Prions are thought to be the cause Crutchfield-jacobs disease in humans. Downer cows, usually considered inedible for human consumption, may have had mad cow disease and were routinely slaughtered and recycled back into the beef industry food chain. Ick!
Duper wrote:We are carnavors. check out you cannine teeth. If we were to eat only plants, we would have teeth like cows.
Actually, we are omnivores.
A vegetarian diet has distinct and proven health benefits. <wikipedia entry>
My religion encourages, but does not require vegetarianism. So I grew up vegetarian. Growing up vegetarian gives you a very different point of view. Being a vegetarian isn't a struggle for me. Where most people see a delicious juicy hamburger, I see something I ran over yesterday. I feel about eating meat the way most people would feel about chomping down on cockroaches. I'm not offended that anyone else wants to eat meat, but you wont catch ME putting bits and pieces of dead animals into MY mouth!
Spidey wrote:Yes, I’m sure your religion dissuades anything that could possibly be any fun.
All a matter of your point of view. Quite frankly, when I look around at people who are living a more "worldly" life, I don't envy them. Most of them seem quite unhappy.
I think the church's stance against dancing is extreme and a bit silly, I may have missed out on something there. But other than that, nope, I can't think of anything I missed that I want. And, of course, I'm a grownup, I could learn to dance any time I wished, if I REALLY felt the need, so obviously it's not a terribly strong desire.
And really, think of the advantage to the rest of the world that they didn't have to watch me dancing!
Speaking of...
..perfectly cooked..
...piping hot...
...beef:
The other day on NPR there was a man with a heavy Indian accent talking about how he was not allowed to eat beef. So he never did, until he accidently ordered and ate a chicken fried steak dinner. He said it was very delicious and was shocked it was beef.
Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein, according to the Cornell ecologist's analysis.
A multiplier really isn't all that useful from a nutritional standpoint. You can't say "1 gram of meat protein is worth 2x as much as 1 gram of cellulose from plants."
Chicken meat production consumes energy in a 4:1 ratio to protein output; beef cattle production requires an energy input to protein output ratio of 54:1.
Chicken is leaner and better for you as a diet staple compared to beef. Not news (but also unheeded in this country).
Animal agriculture is a leading consumer of water resources in the United States, Pimentel noted. Grain-fed beef production takes 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food.
That's just a number. By itself, it's just a statement of fact.
"More than half the U.S. grain and nearly 40 percent of world grain is being fed to livestock rather than being consumed directly by humans," Pimentel said.
As mentioned above, that's because the grain being grown isn't suitable for human consumption.
Your body is meant to process a healthy diet that consists of a lot of lean meat. You're also meant to walk pretty much nonstop, hence our knees pointing the opposite direction of every other animal's. We spent thousands upon thousands of years evolving this careful balance to screw it up in half a century with corn syrup, pounds of red meat, and sedentary lifestyles.
DCrazy wrote:Your body is meant to process a healthy diet that consists of a lot of lean meat. You're also meant to walk pretty much nonstop, hence our knees pointing the opposite direction of every other animal's. We spent thousands upon thousands of years evolving this careful balance to screw it up in half a century with corn syrup, pounds of red meat, and sedentary lifestyles.
Our knees bend the same way as all other animals, don't mix up knees and ankles.
Going into \"color theory,\" red makes us react a certain way that causes hunger and aggression. Sure there are some vegetables that are red but most aren’t. All good meat is red and poisonous meat turns blue or green. If you put a blue light bulb in your refrigerator, you will want to eat less from it. If you install a red one, the opposite will happen. This programming didn’t come from eating vegetables, but from eating meat.
Octopus wrote:Going into "color theory," red makes us react a certain way that causes hunger and aggression. Sure there are some vegetables that are red but most aren’t. All good meat is red and poisonous meat turns blue or green. If you put a blue light bulb in your refrigerator, you will want to eat less from it. If you install a red one, the opposite will happen. This programming didn’t come from eating vegetables, but from eating meat.
Are you actually saying that people become aggressive (in bad ways) because of eating red meat ... because it's red ???
I use a white light bulb in my fridge so I can tell if the milk has gone bad without having to smell it.
In some stores, they use pink lighting in meat cases, but that's to help the color of the meat to look more appealing. Most meat is soaked in blood before wrapping to improve color.
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