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Eating Steak Warms the Planet
Raising Cattle Gobbles Up Energy, Releases Gas: A 2.2-pound (1 kilogram) hunk of beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions and other pollution than driving for three hours while leaving all the lights on back home, according to a new Japanese study. Thus, raising cattle and eating steak help cause global warming just like using fossil fuels and electricity do.
An article in the July 18 issue of New Scientist magazine describes the findings. Scientists at the National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science in Tsukuba, Japan, analyzed calf production and the effects of producing and transporting feed.
They found that 2.2 pounds of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2 emitted by the average European car every 155 miles (250 kilometers), and burns enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.
Most of the greenhouse gas emissions come from methane released from the animals' digestive systems -- yes, cow farts and burps. Over two-thirds of the energy used in raising beef goes toward producing and transporting feed.
The article notes that organic farming can reduce the environmental impact of raising cattle. A 2003 study showed that organic beef, raised on grass rather than concentrated feed, emits 40 percent less greenhouse gases and consumes 85 percent less energy.
Cows are supposed to eat grass; that's what their digestive systems are set up to do. As Marion Nestle points out in her book 'What to Eat', grass-feeding cattle improves the safety and nutritional quality of the meat. Organic farming is better for our soil and waterways, too.
Now that you know some of the adverse impacts of beef, will you eat less of it or switch to grass-fed organic beef? (To get started on the latter, search for grass-fed, certified organic beef. Note that organic beef does not necessarily have to be grass fed, per U.S. rules.)
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Eating steak not only warms the planet. It is also the reason for obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, etc. Cows should be raised naturally. Because people are so glutton cows are prematurely raised with drugs. That is the reason why baby girls are growing breasts and pubic hair before they even start preschool. Girls start their period as young as 8 years old.
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Listen you guys, I'm super serial about this okay? Global warming, is a serial threat! In just ten years all of manhattan is going to be underwater! Didn't you see Inconvenient Truth! "Scientists can predict precisely what areas are going to flood, just like they did with Katrina" If only they had elected me, Al Gore, as president, i could have stopped global warming and prevented Katrina. I'm Super Serial!
Now listen, if you all turn off your lights when you leave a room and eat your vegetables and dont eat cows, we can save the planet from SUPERSTORMS, FLOODS, DROUGHTS, AND ALL SORTS OF OTHER SUPER-NASTY-EVIL THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE NEXT TEN TO TWENTY YEARS! I'M SUPER SERIAL!
Thank you for taking me, Al Gore, serial. I invented the internet.
Now, if you seriously believe that in the next twenty, hell fifty years that what those educated scientists have mapped out of manhattan, if you seriously believe that climatology is a mature enough science, that although we have no data to support the idea of rising sea levels, we can map out how much of manhattan is going to flood thanks to rising temperatures and melting ice, then why dont you all go ahead and eat your spinach and drive a prius. Sure, lets save the environment, use less oil, cut down on pollution, I'm totally serious! But when you put out an article about stopping global warming by becoming a vegetarian, you know that you have fully milked global warming, and its time to switch back to global cooling like in the seventies. Everybody dig out your data sheets that you havent touched in five years! Lets see if we can say some bullshit about global cooling now! -
A new Swedish study found that PETA supporters produce more greenhouse gases than people who prefer to eat tasty animals. The article was in The Old School Scientific Review. It went on to say that the reason for this is because PETA supporters are vegetarians. The study found a carnivore diet produced far less methane than that of a vegetarian diet. It stated people are supposed to eat meat, that's what the sharp teeth in the front of the mouth is designed to do. But the study goes further. They found that one PETA supporter produces more greenhouse gas than a herd of cows. It's because cows do not drive cars or use electricity unlike a PETA supporters. So remember, if you smell a fart it's most likely someone from PETA is nearby.
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You Chickin' Littles will buy into anything. I'll continue to eat beef and encourage others to as well. You vegetarians can eat the grass that you're probably smoking.
8/9/07 2:47 AM