Climate chief Lord Stern: give up meat to save the planet

[Red Arrow]

Oh, but I thought that's what they were doing with the carbon credits they want me to voluntarily buy when I book an airline trip, so they can plant trees in Europe that are going to convert my bad CO2 into O2.

Maybe I missed it but I don't remember hearing where the money was going.  An interesting side note is that having electric trains in developing countries counts as carbon credits to sell but the same electric train in Portland OR doesn't count because we are a developed country.  I think I saw that on Light Rail Now.

[cannon_fodder]

Meat is expensive.   For every pound of meat it takes several pounds of feed (generally vegetable matter).  The industry refers to it as "feed conversion" :

Beef - 15:1  (~2lbs of that is fodder humans could possibly eat . . . mostly grasses)
Chicken - 3.5:1
Pork - 3.6:1
Fish - 2:1 (farmed, though generally fed protein as a portion, which messes it up)

But at the end of the day, humans don't get protein from vegetable matter very efficiently.  We are designed to eat meat (small one chamber stomach).  So while Americans over consume meat, cutting it out is ridiculous.

On a basic economic level, if the vegetable matter was more efficiently distributed as food instead of fodder, it would be.  But millet, hay, and field corn have limited human consumption value.  Items that are more readily consumed by humans are much more expensive to produce/process.

And on the environmental impact is debatable.  While a cow has an environmental footprint, eliminating meat based protein from our diet would almost certainly require additional farm land for the production of food for humans.  The pasture land suitable for raising livestock but not for crops would be wasted ground as far as human hunger is concerned.

It's a mixed bag.  While I know I should cut back and am (will) try . . .  I love meat.

[Conan71]

Oh, and think of all the emissions you and I create when we smoke meat CF.  Shameful, I tell you, just shameful.  (But quite delicious!)

Just wait, some knob somewhere, will suggest all outdoor fires like campfires and grills should be outlawed to help curb global warming.

[FOTD]

you don't have to smoke it! (hasn't the devil told you this!)
http://www.vidmax.com/video/2954/Hungry_for_a_late_night_snack__How_about_some_raw_meat_/