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8% for the sake of what amounts to a flavour in your mouth is pretty earth shattering. Consider: would you spend 8% of your entire financial budget on beef? On

8% for the sake of what amounts to a flavour in your mouth is pretty earth shattering. Consider: would you spend 8% of your entire financial budget on beef? On an income of $30K, say, you'd spend $2400 on beef, ignoring all other food and other expenses? I'd even flip it around - take a random person off the street, in the UK, say, and tell them you'll give them 2 grand a year to stop eating beef. How many people do you think would take you up on that who don't even care about the environment? It's stark raving bonkers.

jimmaswell 7y ago
I'd be spending about $15/day on beef at that rate on my salary, which isn't very far off from my fast food habits.
- esotericn 7y ago
  I'm a bit confused by this - are you saying that it'd end up being 100% of what you eat, or that it's actually a reasonable estimate of your beef consumption? (as an aside - $15 on fast food a day! for your sake I hope it's relatively healthy stuff!)
  - jimmaswell 7y ago
    I haven't been to the grocery store much lately, and a Wendy's and McDonald's are within bicycling distance. I'll go to them once or twice a day often nowadays. When I first moved out, eating out so much would have felt like an intolerable budget failure, but I've found myself caring less and less over time. I try to stick to just the burgers, not soda or fries often. The jalapeno bacon fries at Wendy's have been an exception though. I feel like it's not really that unhealthy considering fat's actually not bad for you and dietary cholesterol doesn't become blood cholesterol, which was surprisingly still good for me despite this diet last it was tested. Results vary depending on the genetic lottery.
    - sk5t 7y ago
      You should probably aim for one visit to Wendy's or McD's a week... or one a month... or one a quarter. What you're doing now is like rationalizing vodka over beer.
      - barry-cotter 7y ago
        This is wrong. A burger is bread, meat and vegetables, maybe with some cheese or another meat. Between carbohydrates, protein and some vegetables an all burger diet is unlikely to lead to any noticeable health effects compared to a normal Western diet. Fries are vastly worse for you than burgers or pizza, whether you’re looking at macronutrients alone or tracking vitamins and minerals as well. http://www.businesspundit.com/the-mcdonalds-weight-loss-program/ http://www.businesspundit.com/the-mcdonalds-weight-loss-prog... > A US woman claims to have lost 33 pounds by eating nothing but McDonald's for 90 days. > Merab Morgan, of Henderson, North Carolina, began her diet because she found the Super Size Me film insulting. > In the documentary, film maker Morgan Spurlock put on 25lbs after eating excusively at McDonald's for just one month. > Ms Morgan, 35, memorised the calories in almost every menu item, and limits herself to 1,400 calories a day, reports the Detroit Free Press. > "It's kind of like the poor man's diet," said Morgan, who has tried Weight Watchers and Atkins but failed because of the time and money those plans required.
        benj111 7y ago
        A burger doesn't have enough veg for a healthy diet, I'd be amazed if its better than the average western diet. I'm thinking a generic McDonalds burger here with a wilted piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato and some gherkins. You could probably construct a healthy veg burger, I have no idea where you'd buy one. Something like subway seems like a better bet.
        barry-cotter 7y ago
        I didn’t say it was better, I doubt it would be worse. You vastly overestimate how much variety, or vegetables, are necessary to maintain health. The following are nutritionally complete; if you eat them you will not get any deficiency diseases, potatoes and milk, rice and beans, peanut butter and bread. Note that they all include a source of carbs and protein, like burgers. Hell, as long as you eat fatty meat you can eat nothing but meat with no ill effects on health. Over the course of a day you’d get enough lettuce and tomato to stave off deficiency diseases, and that neglects ketchup, otherwise known as concentrated tomato.
m0zg 7y ago
>> you'll give them 2 grand a year to stop eating beef I think the vast majority of people would turn down your offer. There's too little enjoyment in life as it is. Life without steaks and beer is not worth living for most people.
- throwaway3627 7y ago
  I bet this is unfortunately, uncomfortably true. There are major behavioral changes needed that can't be left to incentives or voluntary changes when survival is at stake. ICEs, meat agriculture, airline travel, unconfined clinker manufacturing and fossil fuel extraction must end if we're to survive this climate emergency. In addition, Be/CCS must happen, such as ferrous ocean seeding and seaweed extraction for contained burning with underground carbon emissions sequestration. Mexico is already dealing with an incredible volume of seaweed arriving daily on prime tourist beaches... which would be perfect for CCS if we were to burn it to generate power, reduce its volume and bury captured emissions very deep.
  - m0zg 7y ago
    >> There are major behavioral changes needed that can't be left to incentives or voluntary changes when survival is at stake. This was tried several times in different contexts (prohibition, war on drugs, etc), and it fails every time. Make alternatives appealing and people will run to them in droves. That is the only feasible path forward if you're hoping any change will be adopted by a large majority of people. Very few people will give up steaks or Hawaii vacations when all is said and done, unless you offer them a better alternative.
  - lentil_soup 7y ago
    What's ICE, CCS, Be?
    - thinkcontext 7y ago
      Internal Combustion Engine, cars. Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration, most common type I've seen is burning wood or other biomass for energy, capturing the CO2 and pumping it underground so that it doesn't cause warming in the atmosphere.
cosmodisk 7y ago
I spend about 15-20% of my salary on food.Probably a little bit less than half of it goes towards buying meat, including beaf. So,yes,I would.Do I really need to consume that much meat? Well, that's a different questions,but most likely not.

jimmaswell 7y ago

I'd be spending about $15/day on beef at that rate on my salary, which isn't very far off from my fast food habits.

esotericn 7y ago
I'm a bit confused by this - are you saying that it'd end up being 100% of what you eat, or that it's actually a reasonable estimate of your beef consumption? (as an aside - $15 on fast food a day! for your sake I hope it's relatively healthy stuff!)
- jimmaswell 7y ago
  I haven't been to the grocery store much lately, and a Wendy's and McDonald's are within bicycling distance. I'll go to them once or twice a day often nowadays. When I first moved out, eating out so much would have felt like an intolerable budget failure, but I've found myself caring less and less over time. I try to stick to just the burgers, not soda or fries often. The jalapeno bacon fries at Wendy's have been an exception though. I feel like it's not really that unhealthy considering fat's actually not bad for you and dietary cholesterol doesn't become blood cholesterol, which was surprisingly still good for me despite this diet last it was tested. Results vary depending on the genetic lottery.
  - sk5t 7y ago
    You should probably aim for one visit to Wendy's or McD's a week... or one a month... or one a quarter. What you're doing now is like rationalizing vodka over beer.
    - barry-cotter 7y ago
      This is wrong. A burger is bread, meat and vegetables, maybe with some cheese or another meat. Between carbohydrates, protein and some vegetables an all burger diet is unlikely to lead to any noticeable health effects compared to a normal Western diet. Fries are vastly worse for you than burgers or pizza, whether you’re looking at macronutrients alone or tracking vitamins and minerals as well. http://www.businesspundit.com/the-mcdonalds-weight-loss-program/ http://www.businesspundit.com/the-mcdonalds-weight-loss-prog... > A US woman claims to have lost 33 pounds by eating nothing but McDonald's for 90 days. > Merab Morgan, of Henderson, North Carolina, began her diet because she found the Super Size Me film insulting. > In the documentary, film maker Morgan Spurlock put on 25lbs after eating excusively at McDonald's for just one month. > Ms Morgan, 35, memorised the calories in almost every menu item, and limits herself to 1,400 calories a day, reports the Detroit Free Press. > "It's kind of like the poor man's diet," said Morgan, who has tried Weight Watchers and Atkins but failed because of the time and money those plans required.
      - benj111 7y ago
        A burger doesn't have enough veg for a healthy diet, I'd be amazed if its better than the average western diet. I'm thinking a generic McDonalds burger here with a wilted piece of lettuce, a slice of tomato and some gherkins. You could probably construct a healthy veg burger, I have no idea where you'd buy one. Something like subway seems like a better bet.
        barry-cotter 7y ago
        I didn’t say it was better, I doubt it would be worse. You vastly overestimate how much variety, or vegetables, are necessary to maintain health. The following are nutritionally complete; if you eat them you will not get any deficiency diseases, potatoes and milk, rice and beans, peanut butter and bread. Note that they all include a source of carbs and protein, like burgers. Hell, as long as you eat fatty meat you can eat nothing but meat with no ill effects on health. Over the course of a day you’d get enough lettuce and tomato to stave off deficiency diseases, and that neglects ketchup, otherwise known as concentrated tomato.

m0zg 7y ago

>> you'll give them 2 grand a year to stop eating beef I think the vast majority of people would turn down your offer. There's too little enjoyment in life as it is. Life without steaks and beer is not worth living for most people.

throwaway3627 7y ago
I bet this is unfortunately, uncomfortably true. There are major behavioral changes needed that can't be left to incentives or voluntary changes when survival is at stake. ICEs, meat agriculture, airline travel, unconfined clinker manufacturing and fossil fuel extraction must end if we're to survive this climate emergency. In addition, Be/CCS must happen, such as ferrous ocean seeding and seaweed extraction for contained burning with underground carbon emissions sequestration. Mexico is already dealing with an incredible volume of seaweed arriving daily on prime tourist beaches... which would be perfect for CCS if we were to burn it to generate power, reduce its volume and bury captured emissions very deep.
- m0zg 7y ago
  >> There are major behavioral changes needed that can't be left to incentives or voluntary changes when survival is at stake. This was tried several times in different contexts (prohibition, war on drugs, etc), and it fails every time. Make alternatives appealing and people will run to them in droves. That is the only feasible path forward if you're hoping any change will be adopted by a large majority of people. Very few people will give up steaks or Hawaii vacations when all is said and done, unless you offer them a better alternative.
- lentil_soup 7y ago
  What's ICE, CCS, Be?
  - thinkcontext 7y ago
    Internal Combustion Engine, cars. Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Sequestration, most common type I've seen is burning wood or other biomass for energy, capturing the CO2 and pumping it underground so that it doesn't cause warming in the atmosphere.

cosmodisk 7y ago

I spend about 15-20% of my salary on food.Probably a little bit less than half of it goes towards buying meat, including beaf. So,yes,I would.Do I really need to consume that much meat? Well, that's a different questions,but most likely not.