33% is used for feeding animals for the meat industry, more than both ethanol or distilling for alcohol. If you read on down the page where it talks about agricultural uses, some 80 million acres of land is dedicated to the production of corn in general (for all uses). On top of that corn far and away gets the biggest share of the farming subsidies handed out by the agriculture department. Whether or not the feeding of animals for food for us is the majority, it’s a large amount of corn we’re feeding animals that in turn feed us. We can figure out more sustainable methods of feeding ourselves, I think.
5 Likes
I am not disagreeing with this. Just the notion that corn feed are all cooped up in feed lots. Many still roam during the day, and then come in to feed.
Hey, here is one other though experiment, what if we ate carnivores on a regular bases. Say domesticated tigers or lions. Then you would have a giant chart showing how much corn or grass goes into so many cows to feed one tiger to harvest. That would make an interesting detail for some dystopian story to highlight the gluttony of the uber rich.
1 Like
Everyone has their favorites. I’m pretty much in the “early-ish episodes” camp, somewhat because the later episodes took a turn to silliness, and mostly because the per budget episodes could not support ‘big ideas’ without looking tacky (even to a youthful audience). My favorite episode was ‘Mr. Nobody’; little special effects needed… but it was a story.
2 Likes
Exactly.
Everyone should get to choose for themselves what they eat, but getting all holier than thou about one’s choices solves no problems.
5 Likes
They are still eating corn, and often being given anti-antibiotics and growth hormones, to increase and speed up their time to slaughter. We just don’t have the idealized version of beef production that the beef industry wants you to imagine. It’s just as mass produced as anything else and that has real world consequences that we need to deal with instead of ignore.
But we don’t. That isn’t the food we eat, because lions and tigers are not domesticated. Cows are, however, domesticated as part of our food supply. I don’t think we should be wary of asking hard questions about it.
But beef isn’t just being eaten by the uber-rich… it’s being eaten by many people around the world. Such a story should highlight the destructive capacity of our current food production system, I think, to be an effective dystopia.
3 Likes
We weren’t eating Abu Ghraib prisoners.
6 Likes
And some meat eaters go out of their way to avoid eating animals that are abused; raising their own chickens, doing their own fishing, or buying only free range eggs… but the person you’re responding to has no idea if I’m that type of person, or if I even eat meat at all.
Instead, he or she made an assumption based upon limited info in my comment and decided they needed to start virtue signaling, and never mind the false equivalency used…
5 Likes
Is that what my cat is saying??
Yep, they are just trying to make a false equivalency to try and shut you up most likely.
3 Likes
I’m not disagreeing with you that the model some beef producers taxes resources more than others. The economics is complex and include things like the fact we subsidize a lot of corn, which makes it cheap enough to feed cows and still be profitable. Antibiotics and hormones are one of those things that do good in moderation, but can be abused.
Of course not. It is incredibly inefficient, even if we were able to domesticate them.
Not yet, but it might be. China and other developing nations that are growing are also growing in their beef consumption. We actually send Alfalfa from Kansas to China! That seems nuts, but I guess the shipping to there is cheap because they largely go back empty other wise. But you’re right that there are issues with beef consumption that will be compounded as it gets more prevalent. Green house emissions are also a concern with more and more cows. Demand will raise the price of consumption if the supply is taxed. Reduction in the availability of corn feed would affect costs. Legal limits on production would also raise prices.
Though the solution to all of this might be on the horizon. A system where we just clone beef muscle and fat cells and make “artificial” meat. It has already been done, though it is incredibly expensive and time consuming. But perfect that system, and we remove wasteful corn production, and reduce the overall numbers of cows and the emissions. I am sure there may be some cows bred for meat (like a craft beer), but it would be a luxury item.
1 Like
Not if they get cremated. Selfish bastards! I wonder how worm ridden modern burials are, especially when one is embalmed. Could go the “natural” burial route, but you gotta be quick about it.
People making choices to eat less meat should be part of the solution. And we tax other things that can have harmful consequences at higher rates. If beef costed more, less people would be able to eat it. But part of the reason so many people can eat beef is because the cost is kept low thanks in part to the farm subsidies. If you’re taking a market driven view, that’s as much of a market distortion as limiting production would be, yeah? The beef industry is also dominated by larger corporations as oppose to small farmers.
6 Likes
1 Like
Didn’t know there was a term for that!
I think you are right about farm animals and their conditions but according to Bentham you also have to factor in the pleasure (and arguably health benefits) we humans get from eating animals. I will agree we still firmly end below 0 then though… Factoring in the environmental impacts too, and we end up even further below 0.
Maybe my question wasn’t such a “stumping” question after all. I guess I’m just being a asshole and am trying to get people to say that it would be better if those animals were never born in the first place. Which is what we are saying I think and is a reasonable answer, but it just sound a bit extreme.
My favourite good way of sourcing meat is this local company that manages the wild cows in our (smallish) parks. The cows keep the plant growth in the park in check. This company has to keep the cow population in check by periodic killing of cows but don’t intrude in their lives in any other way (no medicine, no extra feed, just wild living). Except maybe for the methane production I don’t see any downsides to this way of meat consumption.
I would love to move to a world with more projects like this and less meat consumption in general. However I am realistic and know we are not even close to that. I’m grateful for all vegetarians and vegans. They are realistic about it and are (willing or unwillingly) compensating for stubborn people like me who keep insisting on eating meat.
Wow, you stopped amazingly close to a Godwin there 
2 Likes
Aye, and I died in the mud of Thiepval Wood for your freedom to say so.
You are misinformed. ALL cows are fed on grass. 90% of their body weight is from grass. Some are then finished on “grain” for a few months after being transported to feedlots… A lot of what they eat is chaff - corn stalks. Cowspiracy calls that “corn”.
We have gigantic areas in the U.S., which is called “grassland”. It can’t support crops - just grass. So, it is pretty cool that there is where we grow cows.
2 Likes
I drew a lot of inspiration from Asian cuisine, especially Indian. Abstinence from meat is viewed very favorably in traditional Hinduism so if anyone knows how to cook vegetarian, it’s Indians. I couldn’t do without their spices, even if I use them more conservatively because their seasoning can be pretty intensive. I also use a lot of Mediterranean herbs so my cooking has a sort of Italo-Oriental signature. I like complex flavors but I keep the recipes simple. For example, today I roasted potatoes. Just slice them up with some carrots, add a liberal amount of olive oil and spices (turmeric, paprika, mustard seeds, kalonji seeds) and chuck it in the oven. Halfway through I add chopped leeks, celery root, some smoked tofu and ground rosemary leaves (stuff that would carbonize if added too soon). With that I had some boiled brussel sprouts seasoned with fine cut garlic, olive oil and vinegar. It was a good lunch and simple to make. At least two days a week I have a legume-based meal; they’re important source of protein. And Saturday is always wok day, my favorite. Whatever veg I have, I chop it up and Wok the Casbah with spicy sauces and rice. Delish.
4 Likes
Well, yes. It was bad, but not as bad as I was expecting.
1 Like
They will eventually become triffids?
1 Like
If this would be true, McD and BK would advertise “grass fed beef” in an instant…
“Finished on “grain” for a few months” - so even if what you say would be true, considering cows bred to be slaughtered for meat hardly live to their second birthday, those “few months” on feedlots may well be “half their life” and quantity wise the majority of what they will eat is NOT grass.
1 Like
