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Must Low-Carbers Destroy The Earth?
Submitted by Dana on Tue, 2010-07-06 11:04
I live in a lefty-trendy college town. I love the place -- it has the amenities of a city many times its size, with the charm, friendliness, and pace of a small town. But I do tire of the constant pressure from the large local vegetarian and vegan faction, telling me that not only am I killing myself by basing my diet on animal foods, I'm destroying the planet as well.
This meme seems to be based in part on the belief that since eating animals is obviously mean and heartless, it must also be ecologically destructive. But it is also based on the simple fact that a pound of conventionally-raised, feedlot beef represents about 5.5-6.5 pounds of corn and soybeans (this from the Purdue University Extension Service website). The argument is that by becoming vegetarians and eating those grains and beans ourselves, we would save the resources it takes to grow much of those grains and beans.
It is disturbing that the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently recommended that everyone eat less meat or even go vegetarian, because they had drunk the meat-causes-global-warming Kool-Aid. Indeed, according to the Peace, Earth and Justice News, the UNreport cited the fact that "Agriculture accounts for 70 per cent of global freshwater consumption and 38 per cent of total land use, and is a major source of greenhouse gases, phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.”
German scientist Ernst von Weizsaecker, co-chairman of the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management, says, “Livestock now consumes much of the world’s crops and by inference a great deal of freshwater, fertilizers and pesticides linked with that crop production in the first place.”
What this argument ignores, of course, is that grains and beans are not the natural diet of cows -- or for that matter, of sheep or goats -- any more than they are the natural diet of humankind. The whole reason our distant ancestors started keeping flocks of ruminants, apparently before they started raising crops, is because ruminants eat stuff we don't. Properly raised, they do not compete with humankind for food. Indeed, they take high-cellulose plants, primarily grass, and turn it into high-quality food that supports tremendous good health in the human species.
(Having written this, I find myself wondering if part of the reason for the Old Testament proscription of any meat that does not come from an animal that "chews the cud and splits the hoof" -- a description of ruminants -- is because omnivorous animals such as pigs do, indeed, compete with humankind for food. Hmmm.)
And of course, those ruminants fertilize the very pastures they graze on, which not only obviates the need for fertilizers, but takes care of the huge feedlot problem of what to do with manure.
Anyway, I was thinking about this already because of the article I linked to the other day, Why We Need Cows. I have another article for you along the same lines: Debunking the Meat/Climate Change Myth. Knew you'd enjoy it.
We repeat: It's not meat that harms the environment, it's modern corporate agribusiness.
I am pleased to report that while writing this article, I ran across the news that the UN is reconsidering their statements against meat-eating.
I think I'll go call around, and find out what a side of grass-fed beef will cost me.
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The book you should read and
The book you should read and quote to the vegans and vegetarians is The Vegetarian Myth, by Lierre Keith. She is an ex-vegan and has written a brave and passionate account of how and why she changed and what she has learned about the dangers of vegetarianism, not only to health but to sustainability.
The Vegetarian Myth
Been there, done that. Have recommended the book, and posted a few links I got from Lierre.
Must Low-Carbers Destroy The Earth?
Thanks for posting the link to the Meat / Climate Change story. I had posted the same on my blog several months ago and got the same kind of reaction from the veggie/vegans. Corporate Confined Animal Feed Operations (or concentration camps) are not feeding anyone, animals or people. In addition to the massive quantities of genetically modified grain and soy, these animals are so sick that they require large amounts of antibiotics (also used as growth stimulants) to keep them alive long enough to slaughter for market. Clearly identifying the corporate culprits behind this kind of animal (and soil, air and water) abuse is the necessary and appropriate task of intelligent eaters. Thanks for helping make it clear.
I'm so thankful for this
I'm so thankful for this post, because my Women's Studies background means I run in very liberal circles where vegetarianism and veganism is often the default, and my way of eating definitely makes me the outsider. I often hear the argument about livestock consuming valuable resources, and until now, I never made the connection between grass-fed beef and environmental impact.
Thanks for always giving me lots to think about!
Answering Back
Yeah, a little girl ringing a register at the Goodwill today said something about cow manure being a major cause of greenhouse gasses. I said "Not if it's left in the pasture where it should be -- otherwise, why didn't we have a problem when there were 75 million buffalo running around this country?" She allowed that I had a good point.
Check out the Weston A Price Organization
I am very glad to hear that you are addressing this issue in your blog. The Weston A. Price Organization (http://www.westonaprice.org) has a great deal of excellent and scientific information on this issue, as well as compelling articles about the need to include animal fat in your diet. They also have an extensive list of resources and links.
Thanks for clarifying this.
Sally
For the longest time, I didn't realize
that cows were not really meant to eat corn. If all those feedlot cows are fed corn, then no wonder agribusiness consumes so much of the earth's resources. I don't really think of "corn" as a vegetable anyway, much less something that needs to be a staple in any person's diet (though here in the south, creamed corn is considered a vegetable!).
A couple of months ago, we bought a bunch of grass-fed beef from a ranch about fifty miles from here. We are extremely lucky to able to afford it; for several years I only bought beef if it said "Manager's Special" on it. (I never could bring myself to buy the giant packages where you couldn't actually see the meat.) I know the nutritional profile of grass-fed beef is superior, and, I have discovered, so is the taste! Grass-fed ground beef is so different from feedlot beef, I don't think I can ever go back to feedlot beef. We also bought a variety of roasts and steaks as part of a package; my kids are not crazy about beef except in ground form, so our next purchase will probably be 25 pounds of ground beef. I would love to see local beef (local everything, for that matter) become the norm, and more affordable for everyone.
Right on Dana
It was crazy of the IPCC to recommend vegetarianism. I think it was cuz the new Head of that org is an Indian vegetarian. It was an off the wall nutty and non-scientific idea that degraded the credibility of that important body.
Animals are part of nature and so is the eating of them. It is the industrialization of animals that distorts this, just like so many other activities that cause climate change: the extraction and burning of oil to air condition poorly insulated mega-box stores et cetera et cetera.
By the way, the water that is "used" by normal livestock is free and harmless. It's called "rain". Even if we stopped eating animals, the rain would still fall and be used by plants to grow.
I read a book a few years ago
I read a book a few years ago that said if you overlayed a map of cultures that forbade eating pigs on a map of arid regions where corn and grains were difficult to grow, they would almost exactly match. The author was claiming that until relatively recently it was difficult for Islam to spread into regions where grain was not plentiful.
I'm sure you're right that it's not the meat-eating, it's the giant monocultures. But right now I can barely afford to feed myself and my family with the factory-farmed meat. Going for so-called "sustainable" grass-fed cows and free-range chickens is out of the question. How do we make sustainability affordable?