Meat's not Green (global warming, buy, factories, compare)

[marmac]

Originally Posted by mg420

the whole point of the article is that being vegan is not a religion or a cult and the only things a vegan gets out of being vegan are having a much lower enviromental impact, greater health & lessing the suffering of living, feeling creatures.

as far as the slaughterhouse, i haven't been to one but i know people who have. i also haven't witnessed the Holocust, rape or slavery first hand but i know they are destructive and morally reprehensible.

I worked 19 years in a packing plant.

I never saw any cows gassed (Holocaust) or saw any cows raped.

[Omaha Rocks]

I'm perfectly fine with vegetarians and vegans not eating meat. Doesn't matter one bit to me.

Eat whatever you want, and shut up about it. Don't make up all this crap about how cattle being are tortured and livestock production is destroying the earth - because neither is true.

[forest beekeeper]

Mmmm.

My goats and sheep wander in the brush beneath the forest canopy.

The forest provides nearly everything they need to grow fat, produce wool and have off-spring.

Our chickens range free and peck through their droppings.

Slowly converting forest into meat, wool and eggs.

And yet the forest grows faster still than what they can eat.



'petroleum based freight, pesticides, packaging, and chemicals' What?

[tcrackly]

Originally Posted by mg420

the whole point of the article is that being vegan is not a religion or a cult and the only things a vegan gets out of being vegan are having a much lower enviromental impact, greater health & lessing the suffering of living, feeling creatures.

as far as the slaughterhouse, i haven't been to one but i know people who have. i also haven't witnessed the Holocust, rape or slavery first hand but i know they are destructive and morally reprehensible.

Life is about suffering and pain. It is about sensation and satiety as well. I know this from experience. All living creatures feel pain, loss, and need. What makes you think that celery stalk doesn't feel something when you l end it's productive life. Do you have the same empathy for killer White sharks and crocodiles or is it just for warm-blooded fuzzy critters? I'm afraid God made this system to work like it does; life feeding on life. If you can't accept it you're on the wrong universe. You certainly can't disconnect yourself from it. Your proselytizing is just a form of denial of the whole Gaian principle.

[forest beekeeper]

Listen up brothers and sisters,
come hear my desperate tale.
I speak of our friends of nature,
trapped in the dirt like a jail.

Vegetables live in oppression,
served on our tables each night.
This killing of veggies is madness,
I say we take up the fight.

Salads are only for murderers,
coleslaw's a fascist regime.
Don't think that they don't have feelings,
just cause a radish can't scream.

Chorus:
I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (having their insides revealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (burning off calories)
How do you think that feels (bet it hurts really bad)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (and that's a real crime)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (let my vegetables go)
It's time to stop all this gardening (it's dirty as hell)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade is a spade is a spade)

I saw a man eating celery,
so I beat him black and blue.
If he ever touches a sprout again,
I'll bite him clean in two.

I'm a political prisoner,
trapped in a windowless cage.
Cause I stopped the slaughter of turnips
by killing five men in a rage

I told the judge when he sentenced me,
This is my finest hour,
I'd kill those farmers again
just to save one more cauliflower

Chorus

How low as people do we dare to stoop,
Making young broccolis bleed in the soup?
Untie your beans, uncage your tomatoes
Let potted plants free, don't mash that potato!

I've heard the screams of the vegetables (scream, scream, scream)
Watching their skins being peeled (fates in the stirfry are sealed)
Grated and steamed with no mercy (you fat gormet slob)
How do you think that feels? (leave them out in the field)
Carrot juice constitutes murder (V8's genocide)
Greenhouses prisons for slaves (yes, your composts are graves)
It's time to stop all this gardening (take up macrame)
Let's call a spade a spade (is a spade, is a spade, is a spade, ...

By the Arrogant Worms

[tcrackly]

Cool, Forest.

[Chi-town Native]

I'm no fan of PETA or any other club-you-over-the-head-to-make-a-point extremist groups.

I eat dairy, and go out of my way to get milk & eggs from small farms - it is "factory" farms that are the problem, IMO.

Here's a good article with some stats regarding the energy use (that's much of what green living is all about) involved with raising livestock for meat:

Global impact of meat consumption | USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education) | Find Articles at BNET

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by Chi-town Native

I'm no fan of PETA or any other club-you-over-the-head-to-make-a-point extremist groups.

I eat dairy, and go out of my way to get milk & eggs from small farms - it is "factory" farms that are the problem, IMO.

Here's a good article with some stats regarding the energy use (that's much of what green living is all about) involved with raising livestock for meat:

Global impact of meat consumption | USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education) | Find Articles at BNET

They really need to be more honest in that article.

They talk about "water disposal." Hey folks, that called MANURE and it gets spread on cropland and natural fertilizer. It's GOOD.

They talk about 40% of Central American Rain Forest being cleared - and used for cattle pasture. But that's wrong. It's not being used for pasture.


Basically, World Watch Institute is a left-wing nut-job organization.

[Chi-town Native]

Originally Posted by Omaha Rocks

They talk about 40% of Central American Rain Forest being cleared - and used for cattle pasture. But that's wrong. It's not being used for pasture.

That does sound high & I note they don't footnote the source of that. But I will say that using phrases like "left wing nut job" doesn't really help your case, and displays instead that you have a closed mind.

Try this for a more personalized touch- where do you think McDonald's is getting their hamburger beef from, Omaha?

Rainforest clash in Panama signals larger debate - CNN.com

And as for the effects of this on the environment, here's one example of a scientific study looking into it:

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Global environmental costs of beef production

[TexasHorseLady]

Well, I KNOW where McDonald's is getting a lot of their meat from, because it's the pastures (lush, green pastures with fresh running water, by the way) surrounding our place in Texas. The company that owns those pastures, one of the two largest in the country of its kind, has a contract to provide McDonald's with meat (they get the cattle from the smaller farmers around here, and sometimes single Moms who raise a few bottle calves to supplement their income), and they've mentioned how much more stringent the McDonald's requirements are for the custom handling/raising of the beef than many of their other customers. I see how those cattle are living on a daily basis, outside my window and along the roads I drive every day.

McDonald's supplements its U.S. beef with beef from out of the U.S., correct. Mainly Australia and New Zealand (the international experts in pasture management, by the way), as I understand it.