11 Comments so far

1. mcmircle February 17th, 2007 5:06 pm

   I don’t think the issue is meat so much as it’s mass production- and the disproportion between the labor and resources required to produce all the stuff we buy and what we pay for them.

   If we eat lentils and rice and chocolate and coffee, and drive when we could bike or take public transportation, have we solved the problem of global warming?

2. PJD February 17th, 2007 6:39 pm

   Yup, It is going to take a heck of a lot more than just going vegan.

   The parking lot at my local “Whole Foods” (Oh, I dearly hate the snobs that shop there) and even the Food Co-Op is fairly packed with SUV’s.

   The biggest single carbon-emissions decision is deciding where you live. Get out of suburbia. Don’t live there and especially don’t work there. Moving to an older city neighborhood with walking-distance shopping and transit reduced my car use a couple hundred percent.

3. blessthebeasts February 17th, 2007 7:31 pm

   I think the author’s point is that going vegan
   is a very practical, compassionate and healthy
   choice to make to have a real impact on greenhouse gas emissions. Anyone can do it, every day without buying a different vehicle or moving to an area with good public transportation. Which is not to say that those aren’t positive actions to take.

4. weebler February 17th, 2007 9:55 pm

   It isnt the whole answer but it sure helps–not just for global warming but for a host of other things–including water use, widlife and habitat destruction.

   They are cutting down rainforest in the Amazon so they can grow organic soybeans to feed european cattle. Meat is a huge problem and always has been. Going back to “small farms” as some want to–doesnt change that it is an unnecessary and cruel industry–a blight on many levels. Even if one was a human supremacist(pathetic of course) and didnt care about nonhumans, you could still argue that eating meat violates human rights because it wastes water and grain and crops on livestock for rich nations when it could be used to feed starving masses. I have to say though that knowing human nature many people would probably rather face ecological disaster than give up meat.

5. old goat February 18th, 2007 6:47 am

   To paraphrase Albert Einstein – resolution of a problem cannot be effected from the perspective from which it was created. To paraphrase an ancient Persian admonition – if you seek ‘human nature’look higher. The ad industry is a multi billion dollar interest. These are players that need to be rounded up and taken to task. Put them in a room with… hmmm… who would be good interlocutors?

6. Uncle Buck February 18th, 2007 12:32 pm

   One point overlooked is the 90% loss of energy as food passes up trophic levels.

7. yasuo February 18th, 2007 12:59 pm

   Going vegan is so good for your health, saves tons of money and is easier than you think. When I’m in San Diego taking care of my mom I walk to Whole Foods (and Albertson’s. I,too, am dismayed by the Lincoln Navigators hogging the parking lot. And Whole Foods sells meat and “farmed” salmon, so it’s not really a health food chain. But I have to start somewhere, so I’ve gone vegan and I buy organic steaks for Mom.

8. ezeflyer February 18th, 2007 1:08 pm

   There is enough food for a certain number of every species in a balanced ecosystem. Endless money-power concentration, technology and death control without birth control have pushed our ecosystem far out of balance. We are simply experiencing the results of that imbalance and the global human overpopulation, resource scarcity, environmental pollution and species extinctions it has produced. Wars, plagues, crime, contamination, mental disorders, stress and so on are the acute exacerbations of these chronic imbalances in nature.

9. genaman February 19th, 2007 9:01 am

   While I applaud our author may I just say one thing which too me is noot any attempt at humor.
   No Room No Room!
   Soylent Green is Tuesday

   PS That old Sci’Fi book and movie is so on the money it is scary.

10. cryingtiger February 19th, 2007 9:43 am

    in the same vein as that first comment, i have a question… i notice a lot of vegans and vegetarians eat a lot of processed foods. not everyone of course, but often people seem to fall back on all types of processed soy products, “fake meat” or other processed vegan foods to find protein substitutes and comfort foods. or, they’re just used to eating processed food anyway. i’m just wondering, i don’t know the answer to this, how much fossil fuel does this kind of processed food use relative to whole, unpackaged, unprocessed food? i don’t know whether this comes close to the ratio of animal:vegan foods for fossil fuel consumption (though maybe it does?), but it seems like something to consider.

    i was vegan for 4 years and vege for several more. now i eat meat, but only about once or twice a week. lately i feel like supporting ethical meat farmers is a better strategy than just hoping the world will decide to stop eating meat and cause industrial meat production to collapse. more than anything i try to take into account the need to buy local, organic, unprocessed, and fair trade… there are lots of ways we need to change our consumption if we’re intent on sustainability. overconsumption of meat is one facet… but there are others, no?

11. pangolin February 20th, 2007 3:38 pm

    I really don’t see how going vegetarian is going to do that much for Climate Change. I would note that one of the most overcrowded and overpopulated regions of the world, the Indian subcontinent, is largely a vegetarian population.

    Reduce your meat eating, sure. Support grass fed beef, local meat and poultry producers and reduce your power usage at home as much as possible. Think about getting out of your car permanently.

    If you’re a vegetarian and you take one jet flight you have eliminated any benefit that your diet gave to the planet that year. Likewise if any significant portion of your diet is fruit that was air freighted.

    Finally, returning prairie ecosystems to grazing animals would result in increased carbon sequestration. Prairies soils were a carbon sink before they were broken to produce grains for agribusiness operations. Their ability to support millions of meat producing animals was legendary while also supporting a wide range of now endagered species. Google: Buffalo Commons.

    Climate Change is more complex than bumper sticker solutions like “dont’ eat meat” are capable of dealing with.

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