In case you haven’t already read them …
Two magazine articles (Scientific American, February, Nathan Fiala, “The Greenhouse Hamburger” and Audubon, January-February, Mike Tidwell, “The Low-Carbon Diet”) published this month detail the real cost of eating meat.
It results in a carbon footprint that is of the same order of magnitude as the total cost of all of our transportation modes combined!
I was struck by the fact that the issue of our eating too much meat has not, as yet, entered into our national dialog about global warming. Certainly, we should continue to do as much as possible to improve our gas mileage, and develop alternative energy sources.
We could also, however, achieve a huge benefit by simply cutting down on the amount of meat we eat each year!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if President Obama announced that as part of his encouraging us all to “Go Green,” he and his family are personally cutting down their weekly consumption of meat and that he hopes we will all follow his lead?
Margery and Fred Blonder
Dixfield, Maine
Ill eat more meat
Influential urbanites with no understanding of ruminant physiology provide this shallow analysis of the impact of meat eating on global warming. Note that they are always alluding to red meat (beef) in confined feeding situations. Cattle grazing on local grass powered by the sun, their natural diet, have a positive influence on CO2 balance. They sequester CO2 by the treading action of their feet exactly as did the buffalo that formerly roamed the plains building fertility which exists to this day. Any discussion of meat eating must include poultry, now the leading meat consumed worldwide and pigs, a close second, which consume more corn than do cattle. It takes 10 calories of fossil fuel to produce one calorie of corn. The feed conversion rate of corn to chicken and corn to pork is superior to that of beef only because these animals have a digestive system well designed for corn. If required to live on grass they would die. The true efficiency of cattle, especially dairy cattle, exceeds that of any other domestic species.
Joann in Carthage
I think we are spending too much time with this global warming nonsense, this letter is bordering on laughter, cows causing global warming. Mother Earth has a way of healing herself. We are not warming, we are cooling, and whos to say its manmade? Man made global climate change is a complete farce, and this letter adds to that farce.
I like my beef so rare that a good vet could bring it back to life!!
Did I say like? I meant love!
There are “studies” linking meat-eating *and* corn-eating to global warming. I think shopping locally is more important than cutting *out* meat and corn. Cutting down on meats may not be a bad idea for both health and pocketbook, as dried beans are cheaper and combined with brown rice create an acceptable protein source. However, my opinion is not directly based on any study.
There seems to be no end to folks getting onto the global warming bandwagon ‘mantra’. Instead these ‘folks’ ought to be promoting birth control of people if they truly believe people are the prime cause of global warming.
Fewer people means less need for animals to feed us, etc.
Oh, I’m sorry .. that makes sense!
Bob Vallette