I'm no vegan. I believe that the only truly sustainable agriculture involves raising crops along with animals. I also adore the globe's cooking traditions, most of which involve integrating meat and/or dairy products with vegetables, grains, and spices.
And yet, I'm appalled by this fact, from the USDA:
In 2005, total meat consumption (red meat, poultry, and fish) amounted to 200 pounds per person, 22 pounds above the level in 1970.
Two hundred pounds per year works out to more than half a pound per person every day. That's got to be out of balance -- for our bodies and the planet alike. I can't see how such ravenous consumption can be sustained without the many environmental, social, and public-health ills I try to keep up with in my "Meat Wagon" series of posts.
That's why I'm glad that Mark Bittman, one of our very best food writers and author of the essential Minimalist column in The New York Times, recently began seriously questioning our heavy meat consumption. This week, he's got a column on "putting meat back in its place." The only thing I'd add to his suggestions is this: While cutting back on meat, try to source what you do buy from pasture-based, diversified farms.
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Comments
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Gravel Posted 7:14 am
13 Jun 2008
http://www.goodfarmmovement.com/2008/06/solar-humanistic- ...
Bouwerie | Good Farm Movement
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Wolverine Posted 7:33 am
13 Jun 2008
Unless you're talking about very small scale ag for a very low human population, how in the world is raising farm animals in any way sustainable? Consider the harms of bringing large, non-native animals into ecosystems and erecting fences that additionally harm the native wildlife.
If people want to eat meat, they should eat wild meat, not domesticated. It's much better for the planet, healthier, tastes better, and is not cruel to animals like fencing them for life then killing them is, even on the smallest scale possible and without mentioning the horrid conditions in which animals are kept in factory farms.
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Biodiversivist Posted 10:13 am
13 Jun 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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caniscandida Posted 11:38 pm
13 Jun 2008
Also, it is good that so influential and widely respected a food writer as Mark Bittman is on the same page.
By way of a digression, but really part of the same big picture as what Bittman and Tom are here talking about, the sad story of transporting animals long distances, for slaughter in far-off places, is told in encyclopedic detail in, of course, the Encyclopedia Britannica's page for animal advocacy:
http://advocacy.britannica.com/blog/advocacy/2008/06/high ....
Thanks to the Farm Sanctuary people for the link, from their latest newsletter.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Ron Steenblik Posted 12:32 am
14 Jun 2008
"I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables which constitute my principal diet.
According to this website, Jefferson lived to the ripe old age of 84. He was rare in his day, not only for his abstenious consumption of meat, but also in that he often bathed.
Benjamin Franklin (who also lived to an old age) was, by contrast, adverse to water baths, opting instead to stand nude in the wind to take an "air bath".
Hmmm, it would have the merit of saving water and energy ...
These are only my personal opinions.
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caniscandida Posted 3:54 am
14 Jun 2008
Also, while many of the recipes are vegan, many are not. And he has a long section specifically on how to use milk, cheese, butter, and eggs to good effect in this kind of cooking.
Of course, egg-laying hens and dairy cows are among the most abused of all animals in the CAFO system. But in the kind of farming that Tom recommends, there would seem to be no need for such abuse.
On Jefferson: That is interesting, Ron. He was a disciplined person, apparently, and that no doubt counted for a great deal. But that he never lost any teeth might have had more to do with luck -- was there something that Washington was doing wrong, which caused him to suffer so much on account of his teeth?
And if Jefferson really never caught a cold ("catarrh") his whole life long, he must have made a compact with the Devil.
I wonder how much Jefferson's travels in Italy and France influenced his ideas on meat, and wine-drinking. And what lies behind his categorization of wines as "light" and "heavy," the latter tending to produce ill effects?
As for "ardent liquors," if he means whiskey/whisky and gin, he was probably needlessly fearful. Most nutritionists nowadays seem to emphasize just the alcohol content, not the special qualities otherwise of different alcoholic beverages. On the other hand, it is very possible that the product back in Jefferson's day was some irregular, quality-control-wise.
And then that strange detail about Benjamin Franklin's "air bath" -- which somehow does not surprise me. For all we know, he got his medical students from the University of Pennsylvania to stand round about, squeezing bellows at him.
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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caniscandida Posted 10:15 pm
15 Jun 2008
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/0 ...
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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Karen Orr Posted 6:07 am
16 Jun 2008
Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat
http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/5/17/223829/210
As I recall, the video runs 45 minutes to an hour.
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latenac Posted 2:31 am
17 Jun 2008
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JanetT Posted 3:10 am
17 Jun 2008
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latenac Posted 3:22 am
17 Jun 2008
tofu
legumes
eggs even if you're going lacto ovo
nuts
other meat substitutes
Unfortunately my husband is allergic to nuts, doesn't eat tofu, legumes disagree with him (I think it's related to the peanut allergy), won't eat eggs. And frankly I'm suspicious of seitan, veggie burgers and other processed protein substitutes.
He does however eat a wide variety of grains and fruits and vegetables. So if I can cut back on meat while buying meat raised in a way that probably actually has less environmental impact than a package of veggie burgers, all the better.
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javaearth Posted 5:06 am
17 Jun 2008
I know there is not going to be a sudden overnight change to vegetarian/veganism, but the fact remines that the current system is very very very faulted and needs change.
Lets make the change!
I only have this one life, so I am going to try my very best to make a positive change.
--- The Happy & Healthy Vegan ---
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caniscandida Posted 10:13 pm
17 Jun 2008
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/06/17 ...
Thanks to Karen Dawn, of Dawnwatch!
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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John former Marine Posted 10:38 pm
17 Jun 2008
If you really can't see going without meat because you're scared God will damn you for going veg (Cain/Abel), just try to cut back to to servings of meat a week.
Also, eating meat, in my opinion, is more ethical than eggs and dairy. Those animals are just as mistreated but have longer, more miserable lives. If you've got a big lawn or back yard, get yourself a goat and a dozen chickens. Feed the chickens your table scraps...you'll have more eggs than you'll know what to do with.
Shu pas a vende.
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John former Marine Posted 10:41 pm
17 Jun 2008
If you really can't see going without meat because you're scared God will damn you for going veg (Cain/Abel), just try to cut back to to servings of meat a week.
Also, eating meat, in my opinion, is more ethical than eggs and dairy. Those animals are just as mistreated but have longer, more miserable lives. If you've got a big lawn or back yard, get yourself a goat and a dozen chickens. Feed the chickens your table scraps...you'll have more eggs than you'll know what to do with.
Shu pas a vende.
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caniscandida Posted 2:16 am
18 Jun 2008
I did not know that there are carnivores who point to Yahweh's preference of the shepherd Abel over the gardener Cain as a justification for their diet, and on the other hand as a condemnation of veg*nism. But I am not at all surprised. It just goes to show:
the Bible is no "Bible," i.e. no final authority on anything;
it must be read with a whole sea of salt;
"God" in the Bible is just a character, the creation of more or less ill-informed authors, and not at all the true God.
As for the secondary subject of Tom Philpott's agricultural ideal, on top of the embarrassment that much (most?; all?) organic farming uses animal manure acquired often (most of the time?; always?) from CAFOs, here is an interesting little AP article on veganic organic agriculture:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/06/18/veganic.farm.a ...
Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.
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MAD MAC Posted 11:26 pm
20 Jun 2008
"Ahhh, hamburgers."
"Hamburgers! The cornerstone of every nutritious breakfast. What kind?"
"Ahhh cheeseburgers."
"No, I mean where'd ya get 'em. Wendy's, Burger King, Jack in the Box?"
"Big Kahuna Burger"
"Big Kahuna Burger. That's that new Hawaiian Burger joint right? I hear they have some tasty burgers. Ain't never had one myself. How are they?"
"The' the' they're good."
"Mind if I try a bite of yours."
"Please."
"Hmmmmm, this is a tasty burger. Vince, you ever have a Big Kahuna Burger?"
"No."
"Want to try one? They're real tasty."
"No, I'm not hungry."
"Well, if you get a chance, try one sometime. I usually can't get a good burger because my girlfriend is a vegetarian, which pretty much makes me a vegetarian. But I do love the taste of a good burger."
Victory in Pattani
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amazingdrx Posted 2:33 am
21 Jun 2008
Didn't halliburton pals serve up poisonous water to troops in Iraq? Hmmm. Not so righteous about that eyyh?
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog
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