<Our fossil fuel, beef and forest clear-cut habits
< are reversing the evolution of the atmosphere-
<adding methane and carbon dioxide that
< were removed millions of years ago as the
< environment evolved to one where we could live.
<With our high energy lifestyles and our mechanical
< thinking (produce and consume)
< we are rapidly changing the environment
< into one where we won't be able to live.
<Carbon dioxide (from our smokestacks and tailpipes)
< and methane (given off by colonies of termites in
< the tropics, as well as by the colonies that bacteria
< have established in the bellies of cows)
< are both greenhouse gases.>
While I appreciate your prose & the sentiments you expressed, I take
exception to your lumping "beef" with forest clear-cutting. Out here in the
clean pristine west (I refer to the states of N Dakota, Montana & Wyoming,
plus the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan & Alberta), cattle freely roam
the endless prairie pasture. In summer they eat the wild grasses that
thrive on acres where lentils & pinto beans or other forms of vegetable
protein could not possibly survive. In winter, they scratch the snow to get
at the dry grass underneath. During blizzards, the ranchers drop off a few
bales of that same grass hay for them to eat & maybe a barrel of beet pulp
or soybean meal to supplement their hay. All the nutrients from their dung
& urine are recycled in the fields where they graze.
These animals never ever taste antibiotics in their feed, they give birth
to their babies out on the range & don't sleep on the porch even when the
mercury drops to -40*. The rancher only needles a calf in a life/death
situation such as pneumonia. Beef calves achieve 3/4 of their mature weight
on a diet of mother's milk, grass & hay. The grass & hay come from marginal
acres that could not produce grains for human consumption (breadwheat,
lentils, sunflowers, pinto beans etc). Only for the last few weeks of their
lives are they fed grain at all out here. Even then, they consume barley
that wasn't good enough to brew beer with, or spent brewer's mash. You may
choose as a personal lifestyle choice to enjoy other forms of protein, but
I defy you to find a more sustainable production system than western beef.
Oh yeah, the C02! 150 years ago, 30 times as many buffaloes roamed the same
states that produce western beef now. They didn't eat any less & they
certainly didn't burp or fart any less than the cattle do now. Please stop
the gratuitous beef bashing & confine your criticism to intensive
confinement systems.
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