Are any of you not vegetarians?

Just to name a few facts off of the top of my head:

(1) A recent U.N. report claimed that Animal Agriculture contributed to roughly 13% of CO2 emissions, more than all of the cars, planes and trains combined.
(2) One pound of meat costs about 1500 gallons of water to produce.
(3) One pound of meat requires about 10 lbs. of wheat or grain to be offset, or wasted in the process. In doing this, 9lbs. of viable food are essentially thrown out.
(4) Runoff from cattle ranges seep into rivers which flow to oceans.
(5) To prove the true cost of the industry, 1lb. of meat without any subsidies would cost over 35 dollars per pound.

Please consider these truths.

 

Woo... I knew these facts but it's always a shock...

I'm not vegetarian but I do try to eat less meat.

 

It's good that you're cutting back!!! Congrats on that.

 

Nice one

 

I was for awhile (and even was a vegan for a very short while) because of my concerns on trying to grow more animals than can be grown without serious environmental impacts. I did grow up on a farm when a younger child though, and I saw the kind of care and decent treatment that small farmers can and usually do provide for their livestock. Factory-farming operations, where most of our meat comes from, is very concerning for the serious environmental impacts it usually causes, and for the generally poor and inhumane treatment that most livestock receive in such cases.

I do eat meat nowadays, but I also try to limit my intake of meat (its much less than average, I'm sure). As for seafood, there are many species that I refuse to eat whatsoever due to totally mismanaged and unsustainable fisheries--I refuse to be a part of that. I won't eat spiny lobsters, conch, most groupers/sea bass, orange ruffy, etc. I love salmon, but only rarely eat it because the fisheries are on the verge of collapse (but haven't collapsed yet, like some of the above species). Sadly, some of these species are among my favorite foods and are absolutely delicious, but I can't justify contributing to the ecological extinction of these animals, no matter how good they might taste. Besides, I figure, if I don't make some personal sacrifices to improve the world, who will?

I do go to special effort to reduce my impacts/carbon footprint in ways that are a little easier for me personally to cope with: I very, very rarely run AC in the summer, I don't heat my apartment above 65 or even 60 F in winter (so I rarely need to heat), I'm careful about not wasting gas, etc. My yearly utility bills are on the order of what a lot of people pay monthly.

Chris

 

I eat meat. Why? Because most of this is propaganda bullshit and it's only relevant to one farming style. There are plenty of ways to get economically viable meat.

 

for every animal you don't eat, i'm gonna eat 3-5 of them, depending on the size

 

Ha, bring on colon cancer eh?

 

not really, but go on believing that

 

Have any of you vegans and vegetarians considered the role of animal/fish proteins in human development?

http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/stories/2003/01/12/foodAndHumanEvolution.html

 

That is so great Gardener, haha.

Really, if you are vegan & you are eating a bunch of soy replacement shit, then you are doing nothing for the environment.

 

Boycott soy, wooo!

http://www.ipsterraviva.net/tv/wsf2005/viewstory.asp?idnews=94

 

I eat three cows a day.


No but seriously, chicken is amazing. Tuna, sardines, salmon, trout, it's all amazing. I'm too poor to be a veg, but when I do "get" food it's usually can's of stolen vegs, or some protein source. I'd rather the dead animals be put to use by my consumption than them go to waste.

 

you should put your falsehoods back in your head and go seek the facts,and the facts are these 3 comments are complete and utter bullshit.

we raise our own meat. it costs roughly 2 dollars and 10 cents a pound to raise a cow or pig for slaughter, that is including all costs involved feed, hay even the butchering. that price is for the processed meat.

a cow drinks roughly 10 gallons and a pig drinks roughly 5 gallons of water a day, we butcher around a year. thats roughly 10 gallons per pound of processed meat for a pig or cow.

i dont know where you got such ludicrous figures but they are false...

what bullshit....

anyone that believes those figures to be correct is a Moron.

 

i'm not a vegitarian, but i am a noncarowner/driver. and i feel i'm doing more for the environment and everything else to do with the kind of world we all have to live in, by not driving as long as i don't have to. if i were living out in the boonies, where i grew up, where i would love to be, then of course i'd be driving and having to be driving some kind of a vehicule, at least under present conditions.

but i also think its even more important to vote for and support in every possible way, energy and transportation policies that are environmentally harmonious.

=^^=
.../\...

 

Oh, yawn at this thread. How predictable that a load of people defending meat eating would trash it with "meats role in human development" shit. What a load of bullcrap. Mind you, after being vegan for so many years, ive heard it all

 

Its really not a replacement for anything, and its not shit, its just another part of our diet. Beans. Soya beans are beans. Rich in protein. We also eat grains and seeds, nuts, fruits, veggies and all kinds of plant matter. These provide us with all we need if done sensibly. We dont need a meat replacement, we eat plants

If you want shit, look no further than the standard diet of most western countries

 

I am not trying to state that being a vegetarian will make you stupid. Just stating that without the introduction of flesh in the human diet, man may not of evolved as he has. Perhaps without it vegetarians will advance to a higher plain. Like everything in nature all is relevant.

 

I used to be vegetarian, back in the "salad days" when I was younger (pun intended). We'd have these big parties every year, sorta like a mini Woodstock, with live music, and everyone would camp out. There were two grills set up, one for the vegan crowd, and one for the carnivores (the meat one was set up far away so the smell wouldn't offend the vegans). Anyways, I gradually found myself at the carnivore grill more and more often. It all started innocently enough with some fish one of our friends had caught that day, then it progressed to locally grown chicken and turkey, until it ultimately escalated into pork and beef. It was at that point I knew I was a carnivore.

Seriously though, I feel a lot stronger in my athletic endeavors since I started eating meat again, gotta have those Omega-3's that you get in fish oil, and as gardener points out, there is evidence of carnivorous behavior in the evolution of man. Not that I don't still enjoy my stir fry veggies and tofu, but I enjoy fish and seafood, free range chicken (we raise our own), and we go in on a locally grown cow every year (as far as I know, the farmer who raises it isn't subsidized either, and it works out cheaper per pound than that crap you get at the grocery store).

So don't close your mind to eating meat. It's healthy, and it's not a crime, provided the animals are treated with respect. Plenty of my friends were vegan or vegetarian when they were younger, but we all eat meat these days.