Intensive Farming?Follow

So, the thread about Global Warming went on for 9 pages....

Yet a thread about one of the major causes of global warming sputters to a halt after a dozen posts. Most of wich are sarcastic or expounding the delights of eating cows.


In the global warming debate, one of the arguments is that 'we' need to change our habits. Because its our habits that are causing the alleged man-made GW. All sorts of theories abound related to more efficient transport, more efficient methods of producing power, less reliance on unsustainable fuel sources, more awareness of the way our lifestyles impact upon the planet, etc, etc..



As I said..



How come you can argue about the existence of man-made GW, and not relate it to the meat industry. Sure an car burns a lot of fuel and produces a lot of CO2. And there are plenty of you who say "get a bus". "get on a bicycle". "you bl00dy SUV drivers, your killing my kids with your fumes".

But for many people there is no practical alternative to owning a car. No public transport. Need to travel long distances for work....

Yet when meat ishe subject, suddenly its all "lets take the **** outta the veggies", and "I like eating meat, it tastes nice". A bit hypocritical if you ask me.

There is an alternative to eating meat. It doesnt cost extra. It doesnt change your lifestyle. It allows you continue along exactly as you are now, but without eating meat. Wich would do away with the need for factory farming and all the environmental damage that that involves, as well as the cruelty that is inevitable when you produce and slaughter animals on an industrial scale.

The health benefits of a meat free diet are well documented and pretty much undisputed these days. The damage that can be done to a person by the regular or excessive intake of meat (especially, but not limited to, intensively farmed meat) in their diet is equally well known.

Meatis high in fat and has no fibre whatsoever. A meat eater has a much higher chance of contracting cancers of the colon, breast, ovaries and more. It has been linked to asthma, and its connection to increased heart attacks is well known.

Factory farmings damaging effects on the environment are well known. Water aquifer depletion, overuse of chemicals, hormones and anti-biotics are also well known and the damage they do is well understood. The sattelite industries, such as land clearances to cultivate animal feeds are also well known to be a bad thing environmentally.

Some of the effects of intensive farming are just now becoming obvious. BSE. Avian flu are directly attributable to factory farming practices. Yet how often do you hear anyone say "Oh crap! we need to stop intensively rearing poultry like we do 'cos it may lead to a H5n1 outbreak that may kill millions". never. Why not?'Cos people 'like' eating cheap meat.

Pretty fu'cking lame excuse IMO.

but thats fine. Everyone can keep on argueing about the damage we are doing to the planet with our 'lifestyle choices', our cars, our throwaway culture, our disrespect of our planet, all the while completely ignoring the one thing would improve our environment, health and our conciounse almost instantly.

I find the image of person arguing about GW, and environmental issues, while chewing on a piece of a dead animal, about as hypocritical as a person holding a beer and a cigarette critisising a MS sufferer for smoking cannabis for pain relief.

Both are selfish, both are ignorant.

Anyone have any GOOD reasons to eat meat?


Other than it tastes good. (wich after you've not eaten it for a few months isn't true either)

Anyone at all?

Hmmmmm....

Spurred on primarily by discussions of the body of scientific evidence regarding anthropogenic climate change and discussions about Kyoto. If you want to contribute something of the same here beyond "Hypocrites! For SHAME!!!" then knock yourself out.

Personally, my potentially uninformed opinion is that you could create ecologically sustainable means of intensive farming. It'll cost more and there's no immediate impetus for it but it can be done.

However, you never answered my earlier question.

Oh, and for the record, I was a vegetarian for two+ years. When I broke fast, I still found meat to be perfectly nummy.

I eat a lot of deer (to keep the population down) that could potentially eat all of your vegetables (had they had a chance to live). I'm helping you out.



Edited, Mar 13th 2007 3:00pm by Kaelesh

Wouldn't that count as a change to my lifestyle?

That's it I'm changing my lifestyle, right after I get done eating my
BK Quad Stacker for lunch.

1,000 calories, along with a whopping 68 grams of fat, 30 of which are saturated. It has 240 mg of cholesterol and 1,800 mg of sodium.






Will I have time to run 298 miles to burn off the calories?

What's for dessert?

Out and out laughter ensued.

that one?

believe it or not, I don't have a problem with people eating meat.

You're right we are omniverous. I do believe however that we evolved to be able to supplement our diet with the occasional meat that we came accross while we were being all 'hunter/gathery'. (the appendix argument holds no water BTW).

back in those days we would sometimes be lucky enough to find a carcasse with a few bits of meat on it we could use. And even more occasionally we would actually catch something ourselves.

But to equate the scavenging and opportunistic habits of our ancestors with the meat consumption of the Western Lifestyles of today is a bit disingenuous to say the least.

Meat can be a beneficial part of our diet for sure. But consuming meat in the quantities we do, that require such massivly intensive farming methods is NOT a healthy (for us orthe planet) or sustainable practice.

If meat was reared humanely and organically then I abolutely do NOT have a problem with it being sold for consumption. But if it was raised and produced in that way it would be considerably more expensive. As the situation stands atm, it is artificially cheap to the the consumer. And because of this it is consumed in quantities that are absolutely NOT what we evolved to process. Hence the massive spike in related health problems wich we are all paying for.

Personally, now that I havn't eaten meat for 20 odd years i now consider meat to be an unneccessery part of dietary requirement.

But I'm for freedom of choice. If you want to eat meat. Do so. But it should be reared organicaly, slaughtered humanely and priced realistically. the subsidies that are involved in the meat industry are gigantic. that is why burgers sell for dollar. It is this that encourages people to eat far too much extremely poor quality meat. This that encourages poor farming practices leading to that poor quality, and if you are so inclined to care this that leads to the horrific cruelties commited on a daily basis in the meat industry.

The environmental issues surrounding intensive farming methods (not just animals, but plants too) are numerous.

Thats why I pointed it out above. Methane is far more of an actively dangerous 'greenhouse gas' than CO2. Yet its hardly given a mention when it comes to talking about GW. Why? Search me. As I said before, it would be much easier and more effective to get people to cut meat out of their diet, so reducing factory farming and its effects on the environment, than it is to get people out of their cars. but whereas we can all see the benefits of public transport, efficient power usage in our homes and industries, no one wants to give up meat in their diet.

Because it tastes good.

Not good enough in my mind. I got slagged off in the GW debate because i attempted to point out that its all very well sitting around waiting for the worlds 'leaders' to decide wether GW was man-made or not, and then if they thought it was, what to do about it. I said that if you were really concerned about the environment, and GW in particular, then we should all be doing something as individuals. One thing we could all do wich would have an immediate effect on our health and the health of the planet would be to drastically reduce, or remove altogether, meat from our diet.

But I guess its easier to sit around munching on some fried chicken bits, bellyaching about how the people who drive cars are the ones who are destroying the planets future.

There's your answer!

Ooooo...do we get to play the 'link' game?

Link

We could argue all day about wether agricultural methane and CO2 are going up or down. The fact is that huge amounts of both gases are being produced by intensive farming of meat.

Nobby asked in his poll wether we thought intensive farming was a good or a bad thing.

I've honestly answered as to why I think its a bad thing. i havn't said you should not eat meat. I have said why I think that intensive farming of meat is a bad thing and why I think intensively farmed meat is a product that should not be a staple part of anyones diet.

All I've heard so far is people telling me it tastes nice, and that we shouldn't worry about methane in the atmosphere because the Soviet Union collapsed.

way to go. lets all eat more meat and perhaps Iran and North Korea will collapse too....

But i thought this thread was about intensive farming practices.....

You brought it up. Not me.