Childhood indoctrination

[littleendian]

While this is from 2011, I offer it to 'round out' and inform those who would like to take the romantic.... of "saving the planet for our children".... path via vegan/vegetarianism. Please remember this is from an Australian perspective and does focus on our own unique landscape/ climate and population

http://theconversation.com/ordering-the-...hands-4659

16 December 2011, 6.34am EST
Ordering the vegetarian meal? There’s more animal blood on your hands

The ethics of eating red meat have been grilled recently by critics who question its consequences for environmental health and animal welfare. But if you want to minimise animal suffering and promote more sustainable agriculture, adopting a vegetarian diet might be the worst possible thing you could do.

Thanks for sharing this interesting article, I'll also check out the book referenced there by Simon Fairlie, seems to be highly relevant to this discussion.

However I think the article unfairly compares the "best" kind of animal agriculture, i.e. grass-fed cattle, to the "worst" kind of crop production, i.e. heavily sprayed and artificially fertilized monocultures. Shouldn't it compare the "best" kind of animal agriculture to the "best" kind of crop production, namely local and organic? Or they should've used the "worst" kind of animal agriculture, i.e. CAFOs feeding imported soy which ruins small farmers and disfigures their children with the pesticides used on the monocultures (not to mention the animals and the use of petrochemicals)?

The article focusses on animal suffering, which is central to me, but there is another core issue, which is the environment, and unfortunately cattle on grass produce even more greenhouse gasses (methane) than cattle on an artificial (corn, soy) diet.

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Are they? Do we have any studies or statistics to support this claim?

There are no studies because few people gives a flying fuck about the suffering of these animals as long as the cheap meat keeps rolling in. They're mute and they're soon dead and nobody cares, so who's going to ask any questions? Nobody that's who. Makes me sick.

However, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence here, it's a nightmare. I think also reason will lead you to suspect that a system solely focussed on profit will have little concern for its "product's" suffering.