For decades we have heard that cow farts(Burps) is the culprit that is putting dangerous amounts of gases into our atmosphere….and recently the rash of ‘plant based’ food is becoming a fad that makes some happy and others it is a waste of time.
Ask yourself what would actually happen if we all stopped eating meat?
Humans eat a stunning amount of meat every year — some 800 billion pounds of it, enough flesh to fill roughly 28 million dump trucks. Our carnivorous cravings, particularly in industrialized, beef-guzzling countries like the United States, are one reason the planet is warming as fast as it is. Raising animals consumes a lot of land that could otherwise soak up carbon. Cows, sheep, and goats spew heat-trapping methane. And to grow the corn, soy, and other plants that those animals eat, farmers spray fertilizer that emits nitrous oxide, another potent planet-warming gas.
For all those reasons, and many more, activists and scientists have called for people to eat less meat or abstain altogether. At last year’s United Nations climate conference in Egypt, activists chanted slogans like “Let’s be vegan, let’s be free.” At this year’s conference, which starts November 30, world leaders are expected to talk about ways to shift diets toward plant-based foods as a way to lower animal agriculture’s climate pollution, the source of 15 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Cutting out meat can be an effective tool: The average vegan diet is linked to about one-quarter the greenhouse gas emissions of a meat-intensive one, according to a paper published in Nature in July.
But what would happen if everyone actually stopped eating meat tomorrow?
“It would have huge consequences — a lot of them probably not anticipated,” said Keith Wiebe, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Such a quick shift probably wouldn’t cause the sort of turmoil that would come if the planet immediately ditched fossil fuels. But still, the upshot could be tumultuous, upending economies, leaving people jobless, and threatening food security in places that don’t have many nutritious alternatives.
Livestock accounts for about 40 percent of agricultural production in rich countries and 20 percent in low-income countries, and it’s vital — economically and nutritionally — to the lives of 1.3 billion people across the world, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. One-third of the protein and nearly one-fifth of the calories that people eat around the world come from animals.
What Would Happen if Everyone Stopped Eating Meat Tomorrow?
These people state that 15% of greenhouse gases comes from the cow and such farting….what the neglected to tell you is the we humans throw away too much food whether meat or pant based and 30% of greenhouse gases comes from landfills that we load up with the scraps.
I was born a predatory and I shall die a predatory….is that simple enough?
If plant based stuff is so good then why does it taste like meat?
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I am 85 years old and I will eat meat as long as I can get it.
I swear,meat cannot be beat no matter what else you might decide to substitute.
AMEN! chuq
I still eat meat, but I know more and more people who have become vegetarians in the past 10 years.
Best wishes, Pete.
I know it is a troubling trend….thank goodness I am old and will most likely not see some stupid bill banning meat. chuq
Yes, I would think that food waste would take priority. No way will I stop eating meat. I’ll eat meat when I crave it. That means my body needs something in the meat. Fake meat is not meat. The body knows.
I agree but the waste pollution is seldom mentioned….meat well stay in my diet as well chuq
I am pleased to announce to the world that you simply cannot beat meat!
Now that was clever. chuq
I am of the opinion that when it comes to meat, one simply cannot beat it.
Puns work well chuq
hands work better … you have heard the old southern expression, “I am a good hand to work.” which usually means, “I was educated at rootin-tootin Hootin’ Holler University” and all I can do is dig holes or shovel stuff. These are the kinds of folks who usually answer the question, “Sex” followed by a blank to be filled in with “Sometimes.”
Stump Jumper Tech….chuq
It isn’t just the CO2 that’s the problem. I’d say that was the least of the problems caused by modern cattle operations.
Wisconsin is covered with “mega farms”, operations that milk 1,000 – 5,000 cows a day. Each one of them produces as much raw sewage as a small city which is held in enormous holding tanks. And then every spring and fall the roads are clogged with tanker trucks hauling it out onto fields, spreading literally millions of gallons of toxic sludge around the countryside which then gets washed into local streams and rivers, and trickles down into the ground water. Something like 60% – 80% of the drinking water wells in the state test positive for manure contamination in some parts of the state. In some counties in the state like Keewaunee that number is close to 100%
My concern is with agribusiness….more plants more fertilizer, pesticide and such in run-off into the ground water supply….just as horrific as anything a cow can do. chuq
You’re absolutely right, of course. Pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers are a huge problem as well. And as pests and weeds become increasingly immune to the chemicals we currently use, they’re turning to more and more toxic substances to try to keep things under control.
A lot of it comes down to pure greed. Everyone wants more, and, and more. The family farm was 140 acres of mixed crops and we milked about 40 cows. They were pastured, pampered and sometimes more like pets because, well, they were most of our income The happier the cows were the healthier they were. Then starting in the 1960s everyone started telling farmers they had to get bigger and bigger and bigger. They needed to make more money. A lot more money. But in order to do that they had to mortgage their farms, borrow to the hilt, buy more cows, build more buildings, buy more equipment. It plunged them into a never ending cycle of debt.
We didn’t go down that road. We stayed small. We remained frugal, buying used equipment and repairing it ourselves, kept on treating the cows more like members of the family than milk producing machines. And that’s the way we stayed while all of the small farms around us went bankrupt as they tried to expand. I saw guys drop dead at the age of 40 or 50 from heart attacks caused by stress and overwork. It was sad. Still is sad. And to make things even more ironic my parents were literally millionaires when they retired while the mega farmers couldn’t afford to retire because of their debt load.
e farmers that have connection with their product….you should be commended….My thought is you cannot fix a problem by creating others. chuq