While I cannot advocate strict vegetarianism being one reluctant to give up the luxury of the occasional Neiman-ranch burger, I can definitely side and agree with those who wish to massively reduce our production and consumption of meat. The question is, what will be done to educate the majority that eating meat in the quantities they are used to is unhealthy, and more importantly what will be provided as a healthy, (and tasty) cost-conscious alternative?

In the late 1970s a Wisconsin senator pushed the FDA to educate the US populace about over-consumption of Beef, only to have his career destroyed by Big Beef lobbyists. The only concession the FDA made? The creation of the \”food pyramid\” and pushing the meme of \”nutrients\” which to this day are used to mis-educate people regarding the importance of different foods.

“the hypothesis that some people have a genetic requirement for meat is, at its basis, unscientific. There’s been a lot of work done on nutrition for well over a hundred years; countless nutrients have been identified; countless foods have been analyzed; and there is every ideological predisposition for meat-eating scientists, in a meat-eating society, to identify nutrients that meat has that other foods don’t.

Yet despite all this, no necessary nutrient found only in meat has been identified. All the evidence that we have so far indicates that there is no nutrient which any human requires which can only be found in meat. Temple Grandin and the Dalai Lama are in abundant company. Many (perhaps most) people have a vague belief that meat is somehow necessary, at least for them — that’s why the frenetic slaughter of 300 animals a second is going on worldwide. However, it is not very likely that this is the case.”

borrowed from: Keith Akers

Cows have always produced methane. And they always will. Humans, however, produce the bulk of our noxious gases by choice. As such, we should not force other species to pay for our choices. We should instead evaluate our lifestyles.

Poor cow indeed.

I am otherwise extremely green, and fairly well versed in alternate energy sciences, but have to admit, I don\\\’t know this bit – and I am hungry for a burger!

(PS – Please do not berate me for using a food product that takes more resources and that we could feed more people if I were vegetarian instead…hate me if you will, but more people on the planet is not part of my personal mission. We may differ, but that\\\’s my view after due consideration.)

It’s ironic that this comes from Argentina where as a rule, cattle is grass fed and mostly organic with feedlots being a recent addition.

adopting a plant based diet is the real engineering solution here. even without considering the greenhouse gases it makes ecological sense. from water used in beef production to the number of people we could feed in the world if we didn’t cycle our grain through livestock, then eat the livestock. people need to realize that vegetarianism is environmentalism.