Home/Posts Tagged ‘meat’
Posts Tagged ‘meat’
Climate Change, Health, Pollution, Jul 29th, 2011,
What you eat can affect the environment in greatly varying degrees. Different foods have different ecological footprints in terms of greenhouse gases, land use, water, pesticides, fuel consumption, etc. A recent US study estimated the environmental footprints of various types of food – with some interesting results. Lamb and beef were found to have by far the largest eco-footprints per kilo, followed by cheese, pork, farmed salmon and turkey; continuing in a more-or-less gradual slope towards tomatoes and lentils, which rounded out the bottom of the list. The study does not give very extensive information on the different ecological footprints…
Tags: dairy, ecological footprint, environmental footprint, farms, food, meat, study
Health, Politics, Jun 17th, 2011,
No matter if you eat a 5 pounds of meat per day or are a strict vegan, intensive livestock farming is putting your life at risk. This is due to the routine and preemptive use of large amounts of antibiotics on factory farms, which contributes to the evolution resistant strains of bacteria like MSRA. In the US, MSRA is believed to be killing more people than AIDS. For years the medical profession has come under criticism for overprescribing antibiotics or doling them out unnecessarily. ERs are notoriously overburdened by patients demanding antibiotics for the treatment of illnesses that may not…
Tags: antibiotics, bacteria, dairy, factory farms, industrial, meat, MSRA, pig, resistant, superbug, vegan
Health, Pollution, May 30th, 2011,
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to only eat meat that he kills with his own hands. For most softies in the rich, developed world this would mean becoming a vegetarian by default. Unlike exceptions such as Ted Nugent and other rugged hunter-fisher types, we are either too squeamish, too lazy or in some cases too compassionate to kill our own food. We’d prefer to forgo such barbarism and hard work, pop a tofu burger in the microwave and watch TV. But the CEO of Facebook (in case you haven’t noticed) is not like most of us. If we are…
Tags: Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, meat, vegetarian
Climate Change, Pollution, Videos & Documentaries, May 17th, 2011,
Back in the 80s Morrissey wrote the lyrics to the Smiths song “Meat is Murder”, while KRS-1 called meat eating suicide or “self-murder” in the BDP track “My Philosophy”. These thoughtful musicians were talking about cruelty and spirituality. They were coming from emotional and philosophical standpoints, but today their words ring true in ever more complex ways. Doctors, dieticians, climate and environmental scientists, and researchers from across the gamut of the physical, natural and engineering sciences are discovering more and more how the human diet affects the health of not only our bodies, but that of our planet. Factory farming,…
Tags: climate, dairy, documentary, film, meat, meat is murder, planeat, trailer, vegetarianism
Animals, Apr 19th, 2011,
A truck containing several hundred dogs was stopped by activists on a road in Beijing on Friday. A supportive crowd of some 200 people gathered and the driver was eventually paid off to give up his canine cargo, many of whom were in poor health. Though the eating of dogs is not uncommon in some Chinese provinces, these dogs were not livestock. They had apparently been stolen from their owners – some still had collars to prove it, though the driver claimed they had been purchased. The interception of the dogs was the latest bold action by pet-lovers in China,…
Tags: activists, China, dogs, meat, slaughter, truck
Climate Change, Health, Videos & Documentaries, Jan 27th, 2011,
The Ecologist recently published an interview with Jonathan Safran Froer, author of Eating Animals, entitled “Environmentalists who eat meat have a blind spot”. But Froer isn’t that cut and dry when it comes to meat eating and being an environmentalist. He avoids purist, all-or-nothing approaches to the argument and I agree. Ideals are goals, not things that should be either lived up to or cast aside: Oh I can’t be bothered to be a vegan, so f-it, let’s go to Micky D’s… besides George Monbiot says it’s OK now. Froer just thinks adopting a vegetarian diet is the simplest way…
Tags: Climate change, eating animals, Jonathan Safran Froer, meat, Ted Nugent, vegetarianism
Climate Change, Green living, Sep 8th, 2010,
Environmental writer and Guardian columnist George Monbiot knows a lot more about environmental issues than I do. But his latest article, ‘I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly’, seems too much of a flip-flop: from advocating one ‘extreme’ lifestyle to going a bit close to absolving meat eating’s environmental damage, because theoretically, the livestock industry could be a lot more sustainable. It is admirable for a public intellectual to admit he was wrong and Monbiot’s article makes good points, gleaned from Simon Fairlie’s book Meat: A Benign Extravagance. But the issue was never…
Tags: environmental, farm, George, industry, livestock, meat, Monbiot, vegan, veganism
Green living, Aug 18th, 2010,
A: The environmental impact of meat and dairy products is a complex problem. The livestock industry is damaging our planet in many ways. It is polluting the air – according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization report, it generates more greenhouse gas emissions, including CO2 (18%) and methane, than the whole world’s transport (13,5 %). It is polluting the water – gigantic containers called “lagoons”, where livestock animals’ manure and urine are stored, may leak or even break under heavy rains and storms. The waste is highly toxic and very often contains lots of antibiotics and dangerous bacteria….
Tags: Air Pollution, biodiversity, co2, dairy, ecosystem collapse, environment, lagoons, livestock, meat, methane, overfishing, TOXIC, water pollution
Health, Aug 17th, 2010,
The diet of the West, high in animal products, fat, salt and sugar, is increasingly associated with wealth and development. The growing middle and upper classes in China are causing meat consumption to skyrocket in that country. Those with more disposable income in characteristically poor places buy more imported, packaged and processed foods, which all tend to be higher in salt, sugar and fat. Meat becomes more of a staple than a luxury. In contrast, the poor of the developing world generally eat traditional diets that are high in fruit and vegetables. In the West it’s the opposite. The cheapest…
Tags: Africa, allergies, bacteria, children, developing, diet, disease, European, fat, food, guy, heath, meat, microbial, poor, rich, salt, study, sugar, vegetables, Western
Climate Change, Green living, Aug 2nd, 2010,
As an alternative to cutting meat consumption in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is considering the promotion of insects as a food source. The idea comes from a UN policy paper by a Belgian scientist at the University of Wageningen named Arnold Van Huis, who points out that most of the world already eats insects. In meat-rich Western diets – which are growing throughout the rest of the world and thereby causing emissions to increase – eating insects is somewhat taboo, but eating shrimp, which are very similar to insects, is considered…
Tags: beetle, citrus, emissions, farming, food, gas, greenhouse, insects, livestock, longhorn, meat, shrubs, trees, UK, UN, Van Huis
Climate Change, Green living, Health, Jul 23rd, 2010,
Two rather informative articles from Mother Jones go over the environmental benefits/drawbacks of a vegetarian diet vs. one that includes lots of meat. Kiera Butler’s ‘Steak or Veggie Burger: Which is Greener?’ – aka ‘Get Behind Me Seitan’ – may tread some familiar ground for those well versed on the relationship between diet and the environment, but it offers up some pretty important details, especially about processed meat substitutes. A processed ‘pea-burger’ requires as much energy as a pork chop, Butler claims. I don’t know what a pea-burger is, but I’m guessing she is referring to the bulk of industrially…
Tags: burger, Butler, diet, eat, eating, environment, factory, farm, farming, gluten, hexane, Kiera, meat, processed, seitan, vegetarian, veggie, wheat
Climate Change, Conservation, ,
Much of the feed for British livestock comes from soybeans imported from South America – mainly Brazil and Argentina. According to an article in the Telegraph, 350,000 hectares of rainforest is being cut down to grow soy for UK animal feed. Environmental group Friends of the Earth (FoE) has published a report entitled ‘Pastures New’ detailing how the British meat and dairy industry indirectly causes rainforest destruction in South America. The report incorporates new research by the Royal Agricultural College stating that only 8% of the UK’s agricultural land is used to grow animal feed. FOE urged the government to…
Tags: amazon, animal, beans, Brazil, British, dairy, deforestation, Earth, farmers, feed, FoE, Friends, meat, rainforest, South America, soy, UK
Climate Change, Health, Politics, Jul 20th, 2010,
During the last few days the British press has run some relatively prominent articles once again highlighting the correlation between meat eating and climate change, also resulting in a few additional commentary pieces and the usual backlash. Perhaps biggest of all is the Observer Food Monthly magazine’s OFM vegetarian recipe special edited by none other than the McCartney family (Sir Paul, Mary and Stella). Far from simply a collection of recipes – including several from Gwyneth Paltrow and other veggie celebs – the OFM special contains interviews with each of the three McCartneys, plus one piece that specifically connects environmentalism…
Tags: change, climate, Dominic, footsoldier, Kenya, Lady, Lawson, Lettuce, Lord, McCartney, meat, Observer, Paul, PETA, skeptic, vegetarian, vegetarianism, veggie
Green living, Health, Jul 16th, 2010,
A recent piece for The Ecologist, entitled ‘Biomass Britain: do fields of energy crops spell an end to grazing livestock’, explores the possibility of a revolution in the UK’s land use. 70-80% of land in the UK is used by the British livestock industry. The possibility of a near-complete shift from livestock farming to the growing of food crops and biomass for energy production may sound revolutionary to some and catastrophic to others. It would mean the de-industrialization of Britain’s meat industry and a 60-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, according to The Ecologist article. It’s a revolutionary vision that…
Tags: biomass, British, carbon, change, diet, emissions, energy, farming, forestry, industry, livestock, meat, Peel, plant, Scotland, Scottish, UK, wood
Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Jun 21st, 2010,
The meat of wild animals – many of them endangered – is routinely and illegally smuggled into Europe from Africa at an astounding rate, according to scientists. A new, never before attempted study on the smuggling of bushmeat suggest that 5 metric tons (11,550 lbs) are trafficked into Paris airport on flights originating mainly from Cameroon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Though some bushmeat is brought back for personal consumption – a ‘taste of home’ – much of it is sold in an open market in Paris for €20-€30 per kilo. Some of the meat is…
Tags: Africa, bushmeat, endangered, Europe, France, meat, Paris, smuggled, smuggling
Climate Change, Politics, Science & Technology, Jun 3rd, 2010,
A UN report entitled ‘Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production’, released Wednesday, states that eating less meat and dairy is necessary to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change, global hunger and energy shortages. From an article in the Guardian: As the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets rich in meat and dairy products are unsustainable, says the report from United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) international panel of sustainable resource management. There’s been a bit of a back and forth regarding how much the meat and dairy industries contribute to…
Tags: Climate change, consumption, dairy, emissions, environment, environmental, food, global warming, impact, meat, production, report, UN, unsustainable, vegetarian
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Videos & Documentaries, Apr 11th, 2010,
One third of greenhouse gasses in New Zealand come from livestock, according to the below report from CNN Eco Solutions. Home to just 4 million people, New Zealand has 38 million sheep 9 million cows, which fuel large export industries in dairy, meat and wool. These animals produce vast amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas 21 times stronger than CO2. Scientists in New Zealand are attempting to produce a vaccine that inhibits the microscopic methanogens that live inside the stomachs of sheep and cows from producing methane. CNN – Tackling belching cows Vaccinating the world’s cow population is one approach…
Tags: CNN, cows, dairy, emissions, gas, greenhouse, livestock, meat, methane, New Zealand, sheep
Climate Change, Science & Technology, Mar 28th, 2010,
When it comes to the effect livestock has on the environment, most people “in the know” will cite the UN’s “Livestock’s Long Shadow” report. This report basically claims that more greenhouse gas comes from livestock (18%) than all of the world’s transportation combined (15%). However, Frank Mitloehner, an air quality expert from the University of California-Davis, did some detective work recently and his findings strongly suggest otherwise. Mitloehner discovered that the livestock vs. transportation comparison is based on faulty data. How? Well, according to him, the livestock portion of the report takes into account everything that goes into animal agricultural…
Tags: Climate change, flawed comparison, fossil fuels, greenhouse gas emissions, livestock, meat, study, Transportation
Climate Change, Nature, Wildlife & Flora, Mar 10th, 2010,
Back in the headlines after a triumphant Oscar win for Best Documentary Feature, the makers of the anti dolphin slaughter and capture film The Cove have not been relaxing in the glow surrounding the awards ceremonies. According to an article in the Guardian, The Cove‘s director Louie Psihoyos and company have helped bust an American sushi restaurant for serving whale meat. Called The Hump, the Santa Monica, California establishment was filmed serving sei whale meat to undercover members of the crew from The Cove. ‘These are endangered animals. They are protected species. It is one thing for the Japanese to…
Tags: dolphin, japan, meat, Psihoyos, restaurant, slaughter, sushi, The Cove, whale
Climate Change, Politics, Dec 7th, 2009,
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' src='http://gf1.statico.be/wp-content/themes/greenfudge/thumbnails/2378.jpg' alt='eat-less-meat-to-stop-climate-change-%e2%80%93-british-government-continues-to-link-diet-to-environment' class='art-teaser' width='95' height='95' /> Britain seems to be one of the more forward-thinking nations when it comes to issues like animal welfare, ecology and climate change. Of course they were also the first industrialized nation and so arguably responsible for many of the root causes of today’s environmental problems. Still, you have to give them their credit: they are starting to stick it to the factory farming industry. November 25th‘s Evening Standard featured a prominent story about the link between livestock farming and climate change. Echoing earlier statements by former government advisor Lord Stern, a new government report calls for a ’30 per cent…
Tags: Climate change, environment, Lord Stern, meat, vegetarian
