The efficiency argument doesn't cut it on its own though.  You wouldn't 
take a moral stance against live theatre because of how much more 
efficient movies are.

I think it's really important to have a sense of the true cost of eating 
meat, and unconscionable that we're not paying it.  The government 
subsidies are the first thing that has to go!


--- \/	 FROM Joshua J Estelle AT 07.01.25 18:34 (Yesterday)   \/ ---

>> The text of this article is about how mass farming of meat is bad for the 
>> environment, not that eating meat is bad for the environment. If eating 
>> meat alone was bad for the environment, then eradicating all carnivores 
>> would solve our global warming problem, no?
>
> It is true that locally raised meet likely has negligible negative impact and

> that the real problem is mass farming of meat, but I think even very 
> environmentally conscious meat eaters are unlikely to always eat "good" meat.
>
>> To change the topic slightly, your article reminded me of a very 
>> interesting essay by Jared Diamond (the "Guns, Germs, and Steel" guy) 
>> claiming that farming was the worst mistake humanity ever made:
>
> While farming may not also be perfect, it is by far the lesser evil to eating

> meat.  Consider we have to feed 10 people for 1 year.  Then think about how 
> much land and resources you would need to feed them a meat eating diet.  Each

> animal they eat will need a tremendous amount of resources to raise that 
> animal to be eaten.  Then consider if those 10 people were vegetarians.  The 
> amount of land and resources needed to feed them would be drastically 
> smaller.
>
> It's just more efficient to be vegetarian.
>
> I think I just discovered my short answer to when people ask me why I'm 
> vegetarian, "It's just more efficient."
>
> Best,
> Josh
>
>
>
>
>
>> On Wed, 24 Jan 2007, Robert Felty wrote:
>> 
>>> Really great article about how eating meat is bad for the environment. 
>>> Thanks to Clare for pointing it out to me.
>>> You can read it at:
>>> http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0120-20.htm
>

-- 
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/dreeves  - -  search://"Daniel Reeves"

    "The best way to accelerate a windows machine is at 9.8 m/s^2."