Rethinking The Meat Guzzler

[anjel]

This article in Time accounts for a lot of the reason I'm vegetarian. There is a lot more to meat consumption in the US than just "it hurts animals". There are huge environmental costs as well:

Rethinking the Meat Guzzler


From The New York Times:

Once, these animals were raised locally (even many New Yorkers remember the pigs of Secaucus), reducing transportation costs and allowing their manure to be spread on nearby fields. Now hog production facilities that resemble prisons more than farms are hundreds of miles from major population centers, and their manure “lagoons” pollute streams and groundwater. (In Iowa alone, hog factories and farms produce more than 50 million tons of excrement annually.)

Animal welfare may not yet be a major concern, but as the horrors of raising meat in confinement become known, more animal lovers may start to react. And would the world not be a better place were some of the grain we use to grow meat directed instead to feed our fellow human beings?


This part is also something I wanted to point out:
The environmental impact of growing so much grain for animal feed is profound. Agriculture in the United States — much of which now serves the demand for meat — contributes to nearly three-quarters of all water-quality problems in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

This is mostly what is causing the Dead Zone in the Gulf that I might be working on doing research with. A lot of this industrial waste from these meat factories, which then in turn pollutes and chokes the Gulf fishing industry, which on smaller scale is a far more sustainable form of protein. Not to say that the Gulf Fishing industries don't have their own impact, but smaller scale fishing boat operations have less impact, and sea food is far more healthy.

Comments

[rooth.livejournal.com]

I assume you've read Fast Food Nation, or if you haven't you should. It probably won't do much other than strengthen your position, though -- the meat machine is friggin' scary. But, if vegetation processing happened on the same scale and with the same capitalist factors, it would probably be similarly scary (minus the whole blood thing, but that's the least scary part of the meat machine).

I read the book, and have lent it to at least two friends so far. I also saw the FFN movie last night with a couple of friends -- it wasn't as enlightening as the book, but both friends sounded incredulous at some aspects of the movie. Evident from comments like, "That really doesn't happen, does it?" I couldn't show or recite the relevant sections of the book, since it was out on loan, but I tried to convince them that, yes, people lose limbs in the beef assembly line, and yes, nasty things happen when you separate guts from corpse.

*shudder*

[kerithehobbit.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I did a project on the evils of factory farming and speciesism last semester in my philosophy class, Contemporary Moral Issues. When I made my presentation, people were laughing in my face when I tried to discuss the environmental repercussions of factory farms...it's scary that so many people are completely ignorant about where their steak comes from.

[mal23.livejournal.com]

I would highly recommend 'The Omnivore's Dilemma' by Michael Pollan. Aside from following the industrial food chain (you'll be horrified to know how much of your body is made up of corn, because almost all the meat available in supermarkets is fed almost entirely on corn, which is totally unnatural for a ruminant to eat anyway), but it also shows the alternative, farms that cycle animals an crops, use no pesticides or fertilizers beyond that produced by their animals, etc. Very interesting read, I think you'd appreciate it.

Fast Food Nation is another good one, as mentioned above. It's been a few years since I read that one, though, so Dilemma is fresher in my mind.

[neopantyger.livejournal.com]

At least somebody is thinking about it. ;D

[anastacie23.livejournal.com]

That was an excellent article. I didn't know you were vegetarian - but it certainly makes sense given your love for the environment!

[dog0fwar.livejournal.com]

the amanita in your profile is completely out of place, how can it be friends with tree roots if its in a pot omg D:





also friended (facebook too)

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Are you from LOL furs? Cause otherwise I'm fearing you are a troll...
Did I see you at FWA at all? I need to spend more time out of the alley next con

[dog0fwar.livejournal.com]

Im friends with koogs, kwazu, etc. I was at fwa too.

I troll people on occasion, but only if they deserve it. I thought it was cool you were a mycophile and fellow murry furry so I decided to friend ya :3

Hopefully no offense was taken?

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

Oh no.. I just looked at your FL and journal and saw you were friends with a lot of trolls and it kind of unnerved me. But as long as your intentions are true, and you're friends with cool furries, I'll add you

[dog0fwar.livejournal.com]

lol, who makes the troll list that you were concerned about?

[vegex.livejournal.com]

It seems we've grown apart as friends, I'm guessing it's time for me to move on

[anjel-kitty.livejournal.com]

yeah... we weren't really ever friends, but either way take care of yourself