Save the planet, go veggie, Oh Lordy
By CraftyCorner
@CraftyCorner (5600)
United States
October 27, 2009 9:13pm CST
Lord Stern wants us all to go vegetarian to 'save the planet'.
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I'm as concerned as the average citizen of garden Earth regards solution and climate change, but I am not certain if human kind is 100% the cause of climate change (we must take into consideration that big orange ball in the sky; the sun, volcanoes, and other stuff) much less the appetites of people for a big rib eye steak.
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There are also other forms of meat, and other ways to cultivate meat, that are less problematic for our global home. Among them are 'grass fed' meats and insects that are enjoyed in other parts by the less squeamish.
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Lord Stern claims that meat will go the way of drunk driving in acceptance. I am not so sure. Crystal balls for future gazing are very often opaque.
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I predict that meat eating and meat eater fads will go a different way should this treaty get signed. I predict that meats will be farmed with greener and 'kinder' technologies as the Web exposes factory farming for the horror it is both on the environment, eaters, and the animals. (What technologies I can't begin to guess, although inland fish farms are a possibility.)
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Breeders are developing breeds of cattle that require less land to raise yet produce more meat per animal today. In the future, this can go to extremes for ultimate low impact beef farming.
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Birds and their eggs are always a safe bet, as the 'urban chicken' is everywhere including the United States. Some vegetarians eat eggs. Vegans are the ones who give all animal products a strict pass.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1223247/Global-warming-Climate-chief-Lord-Stern-urges-Britons-vegetarian-save-planet.html
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http://www.minicattleatktfarms.com/pages/1/index.htm
2 people like this
6 responses
@laydee (12798)
• Philippines
28 Oct 09
I don't think that going veggie would be a great help to save mother earth. Why? Well, what happens if all of us decides to eat greens? The earth would go bald, who's going to get all the carbon dioxide out? Get what I mean?
Not to mention that there are nutrients we get from meat that we don't get from veggies plus we have farms and poultry raising to support the need for food. What happens if we just decide to leave meat? There'll be over production of something we can't even use.
I think the best way really is to cut down our use of non-biodegradable materials.
2 people like this
@flowerchilde (12529)
• United States
28 Oct 09
Say! You said that very, very well!
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
Not to mention this smacks of six kinds of elitism! We upper classes can eat meat but you lower classes can eat our ___________!
@evanslf (484)
•
28 Oct 09
men and women were made omnivores - that's just the way it is. If we were carnivores, no doubt our bodies would suffer from gout and other unpleasantries, and if we were herbivores, then our health would suffer in other ways. I don't see how becoming vegetarian will help to save the planet, but worshipping less at the altar of mamon would certainly help!
2 people like this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
Hmmm, there are those who are less carnivorous than you claim. I admit meat features in my meal, but it doesn't gobble the center. Just can't afford it...
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
28 Oct 09
hi crafty corner here in the US going green means to me at least a much more expensive item, whatever it purports to do to save
'our planet.So I am going to stick to my healthy diet of some lean meat, lots of veggies and fruit, lo fat milk and whole grains and small amounts of healthy fats. Most of us will not
go totally green as right now we are in the middle of a recession that is really a depression. 12 percent of people are out of work, and we all are not spending like we used to, its time to
tighten our belts and cut costs. going green has become an expensive proposition to my way of thinking.
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
The 'urban gardener' is also popping up to grow high dollar cash crops too.
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
2 Nov 09
That is true about humans being omnivores. The forward facing eyes for binocular vision are signs of a hunter, the multipurpose set of teeth are the signs of an omnivore, and the medium length gut are signs of an omnivore. Carnivores have forward facing eyes, sharp teeth for ripping and tearing and a short gut to quickly digest the food. Herbivores have large flat grinding teetn to grind the vegetation, along with a large complicated digestion system to extract as much as possible from low nutritional plant material. Herbivores have eyes in the sides of the head so they can look back while being pursued.
When humans eat only plants they suffer nutritional deficiencies like Vitamin B12, a clear indication this is an un-natural diet.
If one has to look what a truly natural diet, we should look at chimpanzees, they are the closest animal to humans having 99+ percentage of genes in common. They eat mostly fruits, vegetation and insects, supplemented with the occasional meat.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
28 Oct 09
Gotta agree with laydee...there would be even more deforestation if the world was full of vegetarians because the demand for crop land would be so high. And, what to do with all of our current livestock? The ranchers down here in cowboy country aren't gonna go away quietly and all of us meat eaters aren't gonna switch to salads either. Calling meat eating a fad was pretty cute though. Fads don't usually last for centuries. 
2 people like this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
Very true. Admittedly, there can be a bit more kindness to the culling of the beef, chicken, and turkey product, we are not gonna go veggie over night because some Lordy thinks it's the thing to do...
@mariposaman (2959)
• Canada
28 Oct 09
The reason the planet needs saving is that there are too many people on it consuming too many resources. United States consumes half the world's resources with a fraction of the earth's population. As China and India become more prosperous and want to consume more resources at the pace that USA is doing then the earth's resources will be unsustainable.
Everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room. The earth's population is doubling every 40 years, so even if you reduce you consumption by 1/2 in another 40 years you are back where you started and in 80 years you have to reduce your consumption by 1/4, so at some time we will all be poor.
Recycling and eating vegetables only puts off the inevitable depletion of earth's resources for a few years. We have apparently reached peak oil production and easily available oil is on the decline and will become more expensive. Most arable land is in production and topsoil is being depleted through intensive farming. Using science as a doorway out will also buy us time by increasing crop yields, and genetically manipulating animals to be more efficient will also buy us time but is not the solution. Global warming will make more areas unlivable and unfarmable for food, creating mass migration North and South.
The only solution is to freeze the population and practice sustainable practices. This is not going to happen.
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
Your right about that. Yet the Child Free are finding themselves in hostile territory when they seek out permanent solutions to birth control in many American States.
@Zenstrive (237)
• Indonesia
29 Oct 09
I simply can not understand vegetarians. Why waste a tasty and healthy source of proteins? Some of them can not even supplied by bunch of leaves, beans, nuts, and roots?
1 person likes this
@CraftyCorner (5600)
• United States
1 Nov 09
This Lord isn't vegetarian. He is an elitist. Very different animal.
