Global issue... Animal agriculture and "cowspiracy"

[Sun Wukong]

So, much like Blackfish, a film has come out stating the elephant in the room of global warming is clearly animal farming.

https://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/

Basically says the only way forward is to go vegan. Dairy is even worse for the environment, including the amount of feed crops and water use... leaving aside the methane, it is still a big drain.

I was rapidly anti-vegetarian when younger, but I am also not too arsed about recycling. It seems to cause more issues/waste, and puritanism is bullshit so disliked holier than thou lettuce botherers.

But got to say, quitting meat is such a small step to helping the environment. So is not having children.
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Top cat
"Hard times lead to hard people. Hard people lead to good times. Good times lead to weak people. Weak people lead to hard times." Smegballs
"Oh and STE balloons would be one of the nicer things we would receive at the office, the amount of dog turd in jiffy bags is not funny." Jsmith86

[CaNsA]

It's a miracle how how the human race has survived all this time considering meat has always been nommed.

[Rob Fzs]

The facts are all cherry picked to suit the agenda of selling vegan branded food, they've done all the research off american feed lots, which in the grand scheme of the world, amounts to not much.

These same people want pet's banning from living in houses and zoo's closed down, so all nature lives a 'natural' life.
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Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

[Lord Percy]

Saw Cowspiracy last year and it was quite interesting.

[doggone]

I can be bothered to look at the brain dead propaganda, but it will have an American bias from the mention of using water as if it somehow vanishes rather than mostly ... recycled to the land.

A great deal of UK production is grass based and from land which certainly isn't suitable for growing organic nut cutlets.
A lot of vegetarian staples seem to be imported from far corners of the world, that isn't very environmentally friendly compared to dairy products or meat from a farm a few miles down the road.

In Northern Europe we have always had a diet reliant on animals because over large areas that is the most efficient way to get protein bearing in mind our climate.

This is where the indoctrinated dweebs come back and rant on about pigs fed on grain etc.
What should be borne in mind is that cattle and pigs do indeed get grain as a dietary boost but they aren't getting stuff that would otherwise have been made into bread.

There are strict quality controls for grain going for human consumption and the feed wheat which fails due to weathering/difficult harvest or whatever goes to animals.
There will always be a good percentage of arable crops which don't make the grade.
Pigs especially have always been basically fed on our left overs.
You could just dump that second quality grain I guess.
Or why not use it to feed animals if you aren't stupidly wasteful.

The most efficient farming systems involve both animals and arable cropping, the animal manures are valuable soil improvers and reduce the need for artificial fertiliser.

[CaNsA]

[Lord Percy]

[ThoughtContro...]

[Skudd]

I don't have actual figures just observational, but I see plenty of these save the earth/don't drive a car/meat is killing the planet types all seem to have a dog or three. Biggest carbon footprint that we can actually do something about very easily.
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Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Jmoan]

I'd sooner stick nappies with gas tanks onto cows for a win win result.

[Tracey Suntan-King]

I'll bet that none of the boffins who advocate giving up meat and eating only veg, nuts, pulses and legumes (whatever they are) have extrapolated one important fact.....

If everyone eats that crap, the farts alone will kill the planet.

Imagine also the extra strain (snigger) on the sewerage systems and lastly, the extra bog roll consumption.
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Whether you think you can, or think you can't, you're probably right

[Polarbear]

[RhynoCZ]

[Lord Percy]

[Kawasaki Jimbo]

There's a chap called Allan Savory who claims that, "Only livestock can reverse desertification," meaning properly managed grazing by wild and/or domesticated animals.

[Lord Percy]

[Rob Fzs]

[smegballs]

Personally I think money would be better be spent adapting to climate change, rather than trying to fight it, and lowering pollution.

Bearing in mind there has been a cyclical ice-age pattern in just the last few million years (which geologically speaking is the blink of an eye) that's a pretty big climate change, long before humans even had metals. Let alone the long term climate change over hundreds of millions of years when earth was way hotter and had a very different atmospheric composition.

I remember reading an article a few years back which went on about making a commitment to not "allow" the global temperature to rise by more than two degrees. Allow!? What are we going to do? Prosecute the planet for non-compliance? It just goes to show the ridiculous mindset that we have about ruling the roost here on earth. The climate changed before we were here, it will change after we are gone too.

[pepperami]

[Robby]

I think this problem may end up being sorted by economics, with a little politics thrown in.

US agriculture relies on growers being able to sell staples - mostly corn - at well below the cost of production, largely due to massive federal subsidies but also relying on a few other things, like illegal migrant labour from Mexico earning a pittance.

This cheap corn enables massive feedlot farms producing dirt-cheap meat. This means people can consume large amounts of low quality meat.

It isn't a sustainable model. Topsoil doesn't regenerate that fast, crops are susceptible to blight, animals are susceptible to infection and so rely on an awful lot of antibiotics. The whole system relies on a small number of very large farms, which represent single points of failure.

The fix, which would be a slower cultural shift, is for people to eat smaller amounts of higher quality meat. This is starting to happen with people buying decent organic food, but the shift is slow.

One of the things that looks like a ray of hope, particularly here in the UK, is old-fashioned organic, free range meat. Your traditional idea of a small farm, green fields, animals eating grass, selling direct to a local butcher with a local slaughterhouse. More expensive, but worth it. Properly sustainable, rotating the fields through different uses.

In time, things will balance out. The EU will probably keep away from really intensive farming, we already produce too much. China and India can look at the US model and see how it works long term. The US will have to change at some point. Meanwhile I'll keep buying free-range pork, beef and chicken from a farm I like.

[ThoughtContro...]

[Lord Percy]

[Rob Fzs]

[Sun Wukong]

It's interesting to me because the day before watching that documentary, I was clear that I would return to farming in the next year... even if just for a short stint.

And part of the justification is that there will always be a meat industry.

Granted, where I would be going to farm really cannot be used for crops, but the water use would still be high in borderline desert areas.

It adds all kinds of other questions;

Dairy and egg farming are bad, mkay. But what if I have a pet goat, whom I milk. And some pet ducks, who chuck out some eggs now and then.

And, what if I shoot the odd kangaroo and eat it. They are "wild" but also a pest and a drain. Can I do that?

Can I feast on the irritating fluffy bastards with impunity, so long as I don't support the meat industry... whilst working in the meat industry.

Is it ok as long as it is not intensive meat farming in indoor feedlots, but sustainable pleasant stuff.

The dilemma.


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Top cat
"Hard times lead to hard people. Hard people lead to good times. Good times lead to weak people. Weak people lead to hard times." Smegballs
"Oh and STE balloons would be one of the nicer things we would receive at the office, the amount of dog turd in jiffy bags is not funny." Jsmith86

[Rob Fzs]