"Can You Be a Meat-Eating Environmentalist?" (article)

ArcticFox

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cheri-shankar/can-you-be-a-meat-eating_b_484906.html?just_reloaded=1?show_comment_id=41711364#comment_41711364

 

A lot of the time, people think I am a vegetarian because I think "animals are cute" or whatnot.. but it is definitely an environmental thing too.  

mestills

Great article.  I love me some HuffPost.

treesapplaud

I'm not so sure... We eat organic/ free range or wild meat (elk/reindeer) about once a month. (Swedish organic meat has some of the highest standards in thw world, even better than EU standards on animal treatment and I have visited organic farms to see the conditions first hand.)

I think this is being the change we want to see in the world. Plus it just tastes better to have fresh, never frozen organic meat, and this affects how our friends view meat as well. We've also cut our cheese usage in half as it is the only animal product we don't buy organic.

I think meat should be seen as a treat, something for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I very much consider myself an environmentalist.

SuperGreen

IMHO, eating meat itself isn't the core issue enviromentally speaking, it's the intensity and volume at which animals are raised in the U.S., i.e., CAFOs.  The grass-fed farmers at my Farmer's Market have a much smaller environmental impact than a CAFO.  The CAFO is so large that it requests vast monocultures of corn to support it, and the CAFO produces so much animal waste that it runs off into rivers and stream polluting the entire area.  Small scale grass raised beef though, takes land that can only support grass (not good enough quality to support vegetables) and turns it into protein.  The size of the grass paddock limits how many cattle the farmer can have, so the cows are spread out.  The paddock can absorb the cow patties and turns it into new grass with little runoff into rivers and streams.  The same methodology applies to chicken and pork.

But if you eat meat every day, at multiple meals a day as most Americans do, the small scale grass farmer can't supply all that demand and you get CAFOs.   Meat was a special occasion a generation ago because there were no CAFOs, you could only eat as much beef as your local farmer could do on his grass paddocks.  As our population and industrial capabuilities grew, we figured out how to get more meat from less space and the CAFO was born.  The industrialization of meat is the problem, not eating meat itself.

I'm leaving out the animal rights aspect because this was a "can you be an enviromentalist and still eat meat" post, but the same methdology applies.  The industrialization and brutal confinement and slaughter of animals is the problem, not the act of killing a chicken itself.  I think you can humanely raise, slaughter and eat a chicken.  But you cannot do that at McDonald's.

ETA: I am a vegetarian for environmental reasons.  I don't think there is anything wrong with having chicken or fish once a week or so (beef once a month) from the Farmer's Market.  However since I can't ensure I'm getting environmentally concious and humane meat while eating at a restaurant, or a friend's house, I choose not to eat meat at all.  I have no issue whatsoever with eggs or humanely raised milk.  Chickens will lay an egg a day regardless of whether we collect them, same goes for milk.  Nobody needs a hundred zillon chickens running around, or cows with mastisis (sp).

Alisha_A

I definitely think so, although not to the degree that meat is in the typical American diet, IMO. People have eaten meat for most of history. Its not to blame. What is, like SG pointed out, is the industrialization of it, the lack of appreciation, the cheaper cheaper at all costs mindset.

It amazes me how often I read about what an impact it would be if people just went meatless for a day. Really? One day? That's that hard? You don't even have to do one day "all at once". I'm pretty sure that doing breakfast, lunch and dinner meatless, even on different days, counts the same. I find it shocking, and sad, that is so hard.

What's even sadder though is how unappreciative we are (using the collective societal "we"). These animals suffer greatly, giant corporations profit, our health and the environment are greatly harmed. And for what? Mediocre product. What is it that makes our society so completely obsessed with shoveling shoddy products down their gullets regardless of what harm it does?

All other aspects aside, organic, grass-fed, well-cared-for animals taste better. And you also have reduced health costs and reduced damage to the environment, which does effect us financially in numerous ways.

Actually I think being a meat-eating environmentalist is important because it shows people a more understandable way to be green. While your average American will balk at the idea of being a vegetarian, they might not balk at eating better meat products.

SuperGreen

Alisha_A:

What's even sadder though is how unappreciative we are (using the collective societal "we"). These animals suffer greatly, giant corporations profit, our health and the environment are greatly harmed. And for what? Mediocre product. What is it that makes our society so completely obsessed with shoveling shoddy products down their gullets regardless of what harm it does?

I completely agree with this.  I see obese people in huge SUVs inhaling McDonalds at 60 mph, and I'm like "this is what the rest of the world thinks Americans are.  And they're right!!!" As Michael Pollan wrote, the quality of a McD burger is a "signifier of comfort food, not comfort food itself."  It tastes like our memory of a burger, not a good burger itself.  Why do we do such societal and environmental harm to eat something so quicky we don't even taste it? 

We're the richest country in the world and we spend the lowest monetary percentage on food.  People drive Mercedes to the tune of a $600+ a month car payment for 6-7 years, and balk at paying $10 a pound for grass-fed beef.  When I tell people our grocery budget ($600 a month) they look at me like I have 3 heads and am spitting fire.  It's madness.