Protesters turn attention from 4x4s to meat-eating

[T_i_B]

Source: Independent

US activists are turning their fire from four-wheel drives and focusing on meat eating as the greater culprit in global warming.

To get the point across, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Peta, are preparing a Hummer car with a driver wearing a chicken suit and banner proclaiming meat as the main cause of global warming. They plan to park it near a White House-sponsored climate forum in Washington in September.

As proof, they cite a 2006 UN report, which concluded that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars, trucks, planes and ships in the world combined. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation report concluded that the livestock business generates more greenhouse gas emissions – 18 per cent as measured in CO2 equivalent which is greater than that produced by all other forms of transportation.

Peta will then take the truck to the headquarters of various environmental groups to force them to accept that raising animals for meat causes more global warming than all the 4x4s that clog US roads.

Read more: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2906328.ece

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Call me what you will but I can't see the old "cow farts cause global warming" schtick getting anywhere with most people.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. Back when I grew up, we didn't use energy to grow cows...

we'd just set 'em out in the pasture. :shrug:

[DCKit]

2. Did they have butt-plugs? Methane from gassy cows is being blamed for huge levels of warming.

I'm not trying to be a dick, but that's the point they're making.

However, if cattle (and everything else) were raised on pasture and not fed unnaturally, we'd all be a lot better off. Factory farming is only aggravating the issue.

I've thought about eating less or no meat, but I'm not there yet. However, I've also noticed that the meat I buy, especially the chicken, is starting to stink from the toxins built up by confinement, bad diets and chemicals. It won't be too long before there is little choice than to either give it up or go organic and I can't afford organic, except as a treat.

[MadHound]

23. Get thee down to your local farmer's market and get to know some local farmers

I live out in the country and have no problem obtaining cheap, tasty organic meats. Most farmers will sell you beef, chicken or pork in bulk. You have to have freezer howevere, and the money up front. But it is well worth it in the long run. I generally buy a quarter side, aprox three hundred pounds, every two years. The meat is organic, in fact I can visit the cow while it is being raised. And the cost is only $1.80/pound, no matter what the cut, hamburger to steak.

Get to know your local farmers, then you can eat healthy, organic food without paying through the nose.

[Tunkamerica]

3. it's more about their "emissions"

several studies have come out about the methane that cows/moose/pigs create

[Hieronymus]

4. Not to mention the energy and land used to raise them all.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

5. Not to mention the deforestation / desertification problem caused by the beef industry

... and the energy and synthetic-organic chemicals used in industrial farming of the corn, etc used to feed the cows. You don't get "billions and billions served" by letting Bessie graze on the grassy pasture.
In my more selfrighteous moments, I think, "you can't be a good citizen if you're not an environmentalist and you can't be an environmentalist if you eat meat regularly." When I'm feeling more pragmatic, I feel that this approach of PETA's could seriously backfire... if anybody listened to PETA anymore.
Now, if you get people to commit to cutting carbon first, you can make positive legislative changes that would affect the meat industry along with all other offenders. But if you tell them that their daily diet and most fundamental assumptions are at risk, they'll rationalize their way to rejecting the whole proposition of carbon responsibility.

[Kolesar]

10. I have hope that the energetic young people are going to suss this issue out

And lead their elders. Please see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=110531&mesg_id=110531

[bananas]

6. Human flatulence is also a major cause of global warming

which is why Beano(c) should be put into the water supply.

[T_i_B]

8. And I can't imagine a vegan diet lessening our flatulence can you?

All those beans for starters.

[leftchick]

7. Another Inconvenient Truth: Meat is a Global Warming Issue

http://www.emagazine.com/view/?3312

<snip>

There are many human activities that contribute to global warming. Among the biggest contributors are electrical generation, the use of passenger and other vehicles, over-consumption, international shipping, deforestation, smoking and militarism. (The U.S. military, for example, is the world’s biggest consumer of oil and the world’s biggest polluter.)

What many people do not know, however, is that the production of meat also significantly increases global warming. Cow farms produce millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane per year, the two major greenhouse gases that together account for more than 90 percent of U.S. greenhouse emissions, substantially contributing to “global scorching.”

<snip>

Additionally, rainforests are being cut down at an extremely rapid rate to both pasture cows and grow soybeans to feed cows. The clear-cutting of trees in the rainforest — an incredibly bio-diverse area with 90 percent of all species on Earth — not only creates more greenhouse gases through the process of destruction, but also reduces the amazing benefits that those trees provide. Rainforests have been called the “lungs of the Earth,” because they filter our air by absorbing CO2, while emitting life-supporting oxygen.

“In a nutshell,” according to the Center for International Forestry Research, “cattle ranchers are making mincemeat out of Brazil’s Amazon rainforests.”

[cobalt1999]

9. Where was all that global warming in our history.

There are something like 80 million cows in the US. Did anyone ever consider that there were about as many Buffalo roaming North America for thousands of years? All we've done is swapped one large herbivore for another.

What do they want? Those giant herds of wildebeests in Africa...gun them down, they are farting!

Some vegans are like evangelical christians. They are on a mission to convert the "ignorant". This is their latest tactic of many.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

12. It's not that simple

Wild animals grazing ain't the same as the cows of the gigantic cattle industry, in terms of their consumption, emissions, or impact.
<<What do they want? Those giant herds of wildebeests in Africa...gun them down, they are farting! Some vegans are like evangelical christians. >> Vegans are like evangelicals, except that their Good Books are supported by facts. A few I've read and recommend to you: Diet for a New America, Beyond Beef, Waste of the West.

[cobalt1999]

15. I'm not one of the "ignorant" you need to educate.

I've read the UN report, I've read the books. As for their "facts", color me unimpressed so far.

If PETA or the vegans wanted to go after the feedlots and industrial farming practices, I'm all on board. However, they don't do that. They make the valid points about the environmental impact of some industrial farming practices, but then jump the gap to "giving up meat". That's not a logical jump. This isn't about science or logic to them, this is about CONVERTING people, same as evangelicals.

BTW, explain to me the real difference in emissions between 100 million Buffalo and 80 million cows. Methane is methane.

[O.M.B.inOhio]

21. Whoa, I'm on your side.

Nobody's calling you ignorant. Yes, PETA seems to pop up at the worst times, politically. Or perhaps they're cited when they're the most ridiculous.
I haven't got a source for you, but I do believe that there is a difference in methane output between free roaming, grass-eating bison as versus corn-fed feedlot cows. Methane is methane? Well, I produce carbon dioxide when I cycle to work, but the CO2 is CO2 argument doesn't excuse the car when I'm lazy and drive. wild grazers contribute to the health of th e "carbon sink" grasslands with which they co-evolved. Industrial cattle are a very inefficient means of food production, especially damaging then the feed is also fertilized with petrochemicals,and trucked around, etc. Not all grazing cattle are off the hook. The deforestation / desertification of Amazon rainforest is largely driven by cattle ranching. I suspect that the cows that graze on this very temporary grassland that has been forest produce less gas than factory cows, but the impact of lost forest is no consolation.

There's a growing awareness and acceptance of climate change. PETA should just stay out of areas where the trend is positive; they only contribute to the resistance to change. Where I live, there are small ranchers who sell naturally raised meats. This isn't an option for most Americans. It's a leap of logic from bad impact of beef and pork industries to "be vegan." But for most Americans, living with a low impact would mean taking meat out of the 3-times-daily routine. But sometimes an advocate for a cause ought to shut up for a while and let the implications reveal themselves, lest they help fuel a backlash.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

18. so you are saying the way farming is conducted in the US is contributing.

not meat per se.

cos these distinction are kind of important.

[NickB79]

25. Actually the number of cows FAR outnumber pre-European bison numbers

Before we wiped them out, there were approximately 30-60 million bison roaming North America. Today, there are between 95-100 million cattle on US farms. Canada has 15 million head of cattle.

So, there are between twice to as many as three times as many cattle as there were bison at their peak.

[Teaser]

11. I'm SOOOO glad PETA is involved with this.

That helps make it credible.

[KurtNYC]

14. Exactly -- PETA is not concerned with climate change, but this a chance

to get holier than thou.

PETA's "concern" here is bogus.

[mainegreen]

13. The problem isn't meat per se, but how much meat, what kind of meat and how it's raised/aquired.

Same as transportation. Not all transportation is the problem; just some forms.

It'll be interesting to see if that distinction is clearly made by them or not.

[cobalt1999]

16. You don't convert people with facts and distinctions.

That wouldn't accomplish their objective.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

17. yup. flying fruit from SA or Asia to the US also doesnt help matters.

we need to have an intelligent solution to this.

an all or nothing situation will not help

we also need to seperate issues such as global warming from animal rights.

[mainegreen]

19. It drives me nuts to see 'grown in Chile' on a green pepper in the middle of summer.

How can that possibly be sensible? HOW?

So crazy.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. its cheaper. all of this boils down to economics, which is why i think wealth disparity

is the root cause of every fucking problem.

[Lilith Velkor]

22. PETA useful idiots for oil companies

...would be a more accurate headline. :eyes:

[conspirator]

24. Screw PETA. No one touches my meat n/t

[ProudDad]

26. It's more than just a few billion cow farts ruining the Ozone Layer and increasing Global Warming

It's e Coli:

"What illness does E. coli O157:H7 cause?

People generally become ill from E. coli O157:H7 two to eight days (average of 3-4) after being exposed to the bacteria. Escherichia coli O157:H7 infection often causes severe bloody diarrhea and abdominal cramps. Sometimes the infection causes non-bloody diarrhea or no symptoms. Usually little or no fever is present, and the illness resolves in 5 to 10 days.

In some persons, particularly children under 5 years of age and the elderly, the infection can also cause a complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), in which the red blood cells are destroyed and the kidneys fail. About 8% of persons whose diarrheal illness is severe enough that they seek medical care develop this complication. In the United States, HUS is the principal cause of acute kidney failure in children, and most cases of HUS are caused by E. coli O157:H7."

E. Coli Outbreaks Becoming More Common in US

http://healthlink.mcw.edu/article/1031002172.html

Mad cow...

Not to mention the disgusting conditions in the growth pens, feed lots and slaughterhouses...

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A pound of meat takes MUCH more oil/coal/gas and water than the equivalent protein from other sources.

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It's also bad for you:

A High Beef Diet During Pregnancy Linked To Lower Sperm Counts In Sons
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070328073237.htm

Effect of High-Fat, High-Beef Diet and of Mode of Cooking of Beef in the Diet on Fecal Bacterial Enzymes and Fecal Bile Acids and Neutral Sterols
http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/9/1880

Effects of a high-beef diet on bowel flora: a preliminary report
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/27/12/1470

etc, etc, etc.