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Grass-fed meat is often worse for the environment. See e.g. http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/04/08/grass-fed-beef-packs-a-punch-to-environment/ http://

by Xodarap 16y ago

Grass-fed meat is often worse for the environment. See e.g. http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/04/08/grass-fed-beef-packs-a-punch-to-environment/ http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/2010/04/08/grass-fed-be... In any case, consider an analogy: suppose you wanted to end human slavery. Would supporting "sustainable" slavery end it more quickly, or not supporting any slavery at all? I realize that slavery is not the moral equivalent of eating meat, but in terms of the effectiveness of boycotts, they are pretty similar. I can't really imagine a way in which the boycott to buy only "sustainably" slave-made goods would hasten the end of slavery more quickly.

Psyonic 16y ago
Reminds me of something Slavoj Zizek once said: "The worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it."
gregwebs 16y ago
none of the "science" (or blogs in your case) people quote about pastured meat is close to correct. This blogger assumes that all methane from cows will be released into the atmosphere like in the factory model when it is in a big pile by itself. This assumption does not hold when the cow manure is spread out and worked into the soil by nature. Methane is probably the least of our concerns in such a comparison anyways- there is a much greater damage done to find and burn all the fossil fuel for the fertilizer to grow the grains with and other energy used in this process- by some estimates a calorie of factory farmed meat comes from 10 calories of oil. Compare this to grass fed meat where most of the energy input is solar to grow the grass, and the topsoil actually grows instead of being slowly degraded while growing grains. I am really not going to bother debating a ridiculous comparison of eating meat with slavery. It is essential for our health and we don't need to feel bad about it when we aren't destroying the environment or torturing animals.
- gregwebs 16y ago
  actually, I remember now that most methane emissions from cattle are from burping. But I still have never seen someone analyze the whole system- equally important is how much methane is absorbed back from the atmosphere in a pasture.

by Xodarap 16y ago

Psyonic 16y ago

Reminds me of something Slavoj Zizek once said: "The worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it."

gregwebs 16y ago

none of the "science" (or blogs in your case) people quote about pastured meat is close to correct. This blogger assumes that all methane from cows will be released into the atmosphere like in the factory model when it is in a big pile by itself. This assumption does not hold when the cow manure is spread out and worked into the soil by nature. Methane is probably the least of our concerns in such a comparison anyways- there is a much greater damage done to find and burn all the fossil fuel for the fertilizer to grow the grains with and other energy used in this process- by some estimates a calorie of factory farmed meat comes from 10 calories of oil. Compare this to grass fed meat where most of the energy input is solar to grow the grass, and the topsoil actually grows instead of being slowly degraded while growing grains. I am really not going to bother debating a ridiculous comparison of eating meat with slavery. It is essential for our health and we don't need to feel bad about it when we aren't destroying the environment or torturing animals.

gregwebs 16y ago
actually, I remember now that most methane emissions from cattle are from burping. But I still have never seen someone analyze the whole system- equally important is how much methane is absorbed back from the atmosphere in a pasture.