Article on what you eat as a personal issue

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This is an interesting article on the ramifications of diet choice that most people either aren't cognizant of or just don't consider.

Here's my (personal) beef with meat | ajc.com

It's based on the premise that, when it comes to diet, most people think or say, "What I eat is my business — it’s personal.”

Here is the crux of it, in my opinion

Now, if someone told you that a particular corporation was trashing the air, water and soil; causing more global warming than the transportation industry; consuming massive amounts of fossil fuel; unleashing the cruelest sort of suffering on innocent and sentient beings; failing to recycle its waste; and clogging our arteries in the process, how would you react? Would you say, “Hey, that’s personal”?

Probably not. It’s more likely that you’d frame the matter as a dire political issue in need of a dire political response.

Unlike the author, I don't necessarily believe that vegetarianism is a prerequisite for political and industrial reform. I'm also unsure about his claim that livestock are sentient, though the cruelty they are treated with is irrefutable, irresponsible, and should definitely be stopped. I think the rest of the piece is pretty spot on, though, and contains some interesting facts that I wasn't aware of.

[Free Range]

This,,,,,,,, person has some good points about the way some of our meat is raised, and intelligent people can debate that all day. However he like all veggies that are veggies for some miss placed political or moral reason wants to gloss over the truth about his chosen life style. Lets take a look at some of his points;

Methane, cows produce methane and contribute to global warming. Well first global warming is a political theory not a scientific fact, second he assumes that without cows there wouldn’t be a natural replacement like the American Bison. Of course he might be right because the amount of land it would take to feed everyone in America if we all switched to a veggie life style would be staggering. It takes far less land to raise meat then it does to raise veggies.

Synthetic Fertilizer, he says meat eaters are responsible for over half of the fertilizer, uh guess who is responsible for the other, not quite half? That’s right veggies.

And then in the end he brings his real strips into the light. Typical socialist BS, it’s not good enough for him to be free to do as he wants, he must force everyone to subscribe to his leftist BS ideas of how we should live our lives. Mother cows morn, if he really believes this then why is it that he doesn’t believe that broccoli also could feel pain?

[Ed Pushman]

Having read the article I must agree with Free Range.

I do completely agree with the points regarding the dire state of animal rearing that many Western farms and abatoirs take part in. I'd love to see a return to sensible and humane animal husbandry. The meat industry from that point of view is in a sorry state of affairs.

That aside however, the remainder of the article is pretty spurious. To claim that turning vegetarian would somehow ease global warming is laughable. If anything it would make things worse. Not that I even believe in "man-made" global warming. As more and more people are starting to realise and wake up to the fact that it's really (as Free Range pointed out) just a policital issue.

The earth has gone through many hotter and cooler periods than we are currently in and in fact, right now, we are some way off any of the high points in the past centuries and actually starting to cool again after a few years of rising temperatures. The very idea that we caused the rise in temperature or even more amazingly can somehow "fight" of "combat" it is laughable. How full of ourselves we as a species are. The planet's temperature changes as a natural fact and nothing we can do can change it. The more realistic theory is the warming is caused by sun-spots - a naturally occuring phenomena. The "green" agenda is just used by governments to raise even further taxes and strip even more of our hard-won civil liberties (let alone what they already strip away under the banner of "fighting terrorism" - but that's another issue).

Then of course there is the fact that making everyone turn vegetarian would cause even more starvation than there is already in the world. Many areas of the globe simply cannot support agriculture - think the Highlands of Scotland, the savanas in Africa, the frozen tundra of Iceland, the grasslands of New Zealand, etc, etc. So in order to grow all the crops now needed to support a fully vegetarian world, more and more deforestation would occur, and we're all aware of the devestation done to these wonderful eco-systems by farmers in Brasil, etc, looking to grow more food.

Add to that, that those areas of the globe I just mentioned would be lost as a food source. All your New Zealand lamb, American beef, etc, etc would disappear and all that land would go to waste. You can't grow vegetables easily, well or efficiently (if at all) in many of those places so instead of getting food from it you would have nothing! And even more people would starve. You think the Massai would survive withour their cattle? You think the Innuit could thrive without their fish and seal - can't exactly grow vege's on the frozen tundra can you?

Vegetarianism is a luxury afforded to the affulent Western socities and isn't a realistic alternative for the majority of the world's population.

And then of course there's the damage it does to your health. Without a meat and fat based diet, your health will suffer - and I don't believe that's something any of us on this forum wants!

Anyway, enough ranting from me!

Ed

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I wish this article hadn't been written by a militant vegetarian. People get so wrapped up what we "should" or "shouldn't" eat that they miss the bigger issue.

The food industry, as it exists today, is destroying our planet.

Even forgetting about global warming and excessive greenhouse gasses, do you know about consolidated feedlots? Even forgetting about how the animals are treated at CFLs, the environmental ramifications of them are staggering. Manure coating the ground so thick it seeps into the the table water and runs off into tributaries. Acres upon acres of land decimated by thousands upon thousands of animals. Tons of chemicals pumped in to keep the animals "healthy," which also gets into water. Millions of gallons of fuel burned to support operations.

Slaughterhouses are a whole nother ball of wax, but I won't go there (now).

I don't assert that eating meat is bad or wrong. I'm saying the way the industry is run in the US is bad and wrong and it's destroying the environment. I also think that if people knew more about it, they wouldn't support it.

Of course, people will overlook facts because someone says "vegetarianism is the answer" and people take offense; they don't have enough control of their sensibilities to ignore what-you-should-eat sensationalism and look at what's really going on.

If you're going to eat meat, make sure it's been treated responsibly from birth to your plate.