Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Vegetarians Saving the World?

I didn't know half of the problem with global warming is due to livestock. Livestock production/meat eating is just as culpable, if not more culpable, than cars. In particular, ruminates To be specific--cows. They produce tons upon tons of methane, expelled into the atmosphere, and mostly from breathing, not as farts as many might like to think.

So, the real planet savers are non driving vegetarians. Vegans more precisely, those who don't eat meat or even dairy products. They're not promoting the livestock industry and it's extreme production of methane gas, dispelled into the atmosphere and a major contributor to global warming.

Vegans who drive SUVS are just as planet saving as nonvegans who don't drive at all.

It's a different take on it.

Livestock production is tremendously consumptive of all sorts of resources. It's also terribly unhealthy to eat most meat produced in our country. I saw the documentary Corn King. They told how most cows now are corn fed. They stand in massive feed lots up to their hocks in mud and manure, eating all day and not eating what is normal for a cow, with five stomachs they are born with, in order to chew cud. That's grass, not corn or any grain. Feeding ruminates a grain diet is deadly to them. That's why they have to put them on massive amounts of antibiotics, because they get acidosis, from eating grain, instead of what they're meant to eat--grass.

I haven't eaten beef for a long long time. I never liked it. I rarely eat meat at all, in fact. I grew up a vegetarian, in a church that preached vegetarianism as a healthy lifestyle choice. I began eating some meat, but not much later in life. I still eat meat now and then, but infrequently. It's not only unhealthy, but unbelievably cruel, the way most farm animals are treated before being slaughtered.

I remember the phrase passed around our church, to describe what you are eating when you eat meat---"the scrophulous tumors". That's a phrase that can scare a kid and it scared me.

But now, it's not only highly ethical to not eat meat, but also good for the planet. So do your duty, you planet savers out there, who just hate SUV's, but don't go much further. Stop eating meat!

If I was starving, would I eat meat or even bugs or worms? Of course I would.

I'd eat dirt too if I was starving. Or even newspaper. You do what you have to do to survive. And if the survival of our species, not just individuals, depends on turning the world to vegetarian living, would you change, to save lives, to save our species future?

Actually, I don't think I would. I don't care anymore, you see. I have no family at all. I have no stake in the future of this planet or its people. I rarely eat meat because it serves me not to eat meat. I see how people behave towards animals. I know how people have behaved towards me. I also know how many parasites and all sorts of other stuff is in meat. Not healthy stuff.

I hear so much crap out there. Bullshit actually. People claiming religions. People often will go stark rabid over protecting fetuses, but will live their lives in all sorts of ways that ultimately kill living people. Like eating meat. It's funny. But, the bullshit and bullcrap I hear out there, the blind stupid justifications, the rabid believe systems that are pretty much a bunch of empty noise, that's why I don't give a shit anymore. I realize our species can't change its course anymore than can an ant or a bee or a mouse. Pointless to worry about the future of our species, is my point.

I've wandered away from whatever point I thought I was going to make here. I wonder what the weather will be tomorrow. We're supposed to have another big storm move in, with snow, or freezing rain, something, not sure what.

7 comments:

  1. does that mean you don't want my recipe for melt in your mouth pepper steak.....or my best ever tacos with ground beef? Or my famous beef stew? Or my stuffed cabbage rolls? Or my stuffed baked potatoes....or my best ever meatballs....or my chicken n dumplings with light as a feather dumplings......or my marinated for the grill so delicious you can't stand it sirloin steak?
    o.k.
    Actually, I do claim a religion - Catholic - but...and I must stress this - I do NOT believe everything the pope tells us to do...I love the rituals of the Catholic Church...the recreation of the events in the new testament...and one other thing i love about Catholics - at least where I live, they are the ONLY religious group who offers shelters and soup kitchens - at least, besides the salvation army. And who do food giveaways, and coat giveaways and who give and give to the needy....A long time ago, when I was nearly destitute, they paid my rent for two months....I've always been close to the Jesuits because of their belief in education. The current pope is a disappointment. But even with the former pope, John Paul II, I still practiced birth control and such...and, when I was pregnant with my youngest, because I was going on 40, I had amniocentises done - I have no idea what would have happened had something been wrong with him - thank God there wasn't - but the was the burden Sarah Palin and her husband faced. They chose to have their baby. I honestly don't know what I personally could have done. I've always personally felt "against" abortion, for myself, but for women's rights...I strongly believe each woman has the right to do what is right in her individual circumstance - our church is even against the morning after pill which I think is the greatest invention since milk chocolate....
    but anyway, enough - this is your rant page...not mine....

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  2. Rant, Jeannie, I don't care. It's a free country. If I don't like, I delete!!! Hahahaha. The only place I have a tiny bit of control. I have probably my very own made up religion too. I should name it and write of some dogma for it. Or maybe "catma". Nope, you can forget those recipes. Beef I never eat. If starving, hell yes.

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  3. well, YOU could always substitute tofu- ey for the meat in the recipes, so if interested, let me know...or one of those other vegetarian "delights" that substitute for the real thing...as my son puts it, if God didn't want us to eat meat, He wouldn't have created cattle ....or He would have and we'd now be ruled by them.....

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  4. Your son's comments are common. In the words of old Indian chief "Tell him, when you get the great garden, full of the yaks and the whales etc etc (I forget most of the quote), that is is only we who are important." Something like that, a take on the Christian philosophy that we were given all the earth to destroy or abuse as we please because "it is only we who are important". Something like that.

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  5. This is a really good piece,Strayer. I can never understand how any human being -- and especially animal lovers -- can condone and participate in the pain and fear we inevitably inflict on other creatures during industrial farming.
    The argument about god put cattle so we could eat them is the same every bully uses -- I will hurt and give pain because I CAN. Not the opposite philosophy of love and kindness, which is EVEN THOUGH I can inflict hurt and pain I choose not to as it is cowardly to bully and hurt things weaker than yourself.
    Religion is often interpreted as justification for all sorts of cruelties.

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  6. actually, my son does not condone at all the cruety done to any animals - he practically raised himself on animal planet and would be in tears at any show that pictured abuse to any animal. But, he is a growing teenage boy now, and likes to eat meat. So do I. I just wish there was a better way to treat the animals. How people treat the animals they expect people to eat is an indication of what they think of the folks who eat the meat...Basically, they could care less about us or the animals...only the money filling their wallets...

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  7. Wave out to Timetravel!
    Yes, I suspect that the son of someone who sounds like the sort of kind person you are (I'm going by the responses to Strayer that I read) would have a big, generous warm heart too ...and not just towards his own kind but to all living creatures :). Great to know he loves animal planet! It's always nice to see the good folks Strayer has made a little online community of :)...even if I know she does understandably wish this was not just an online bunch, right Strayer?

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