Green Living
LargeMargeSentMe
member
Cycles 1-18 = a bust
DX= unexplained infertility
Cycle 19-20 On BCP, shutting down the ovaries
Cycle 21- monitored Gonal-f injections + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 22- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 23- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger - BFP!
VOTE ON MY PHANTOM BABY NAMES
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Discuss?
in Green Living
Cycles 1-18 = a bust
DX= unexplained infertility
Cycle 19-20 On BCP, shutting down the ovaries
Cycle 21- monitored Gonal-f injections + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 22- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 23- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger - BFP!
VOTE ON MY PHANTOM BABY NAMES
Re: Discuss?
Nothing I didn't already know... I still buy cheese and butter occasionally but haven't bought regular milk in months (and never buy beef).
I really wish more people actually cared about how environmentally destructive the beef and dairy industries are.
Ellie Jane - 9/12/11
Post-partum races!
11/6 - Kennedy Drive 8K: 36:27 (7:20 pace)
12/4 - North Face Trail Half Marathon: 2:10 (9:27 pace)
12/11 - Arts and Sciences 5K: 21:56 (7:03 pace)
1/8 - Golden Gate Park 10K: 44:30 (7:09 pace) PR!
1/22 - Waterfront 5K: 20:54 (6:43 pace) PR!
Cycles 1-18 = a bust
DX= unexplained infertility
Cycle 19-20 On BCP, shutting down the ovaries
Cycle 21- monitored Gonal-f injections + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 22- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger = BFN
Cycle 23- 3 weeks of BCP + Gonal-f + HCG trigger - BFP!
VOTE ON MY PHANTOM BABY NAMES
Cattle RUIN natural grasslands. Ruin. People are all "falala it's so much better than corn fed! Corn fed beef is so horrible, buy grass fed!"
Grass fed beef bring in all kinds of invasive species into the grasslands as they move from area to area. Ranchers will also plant certain non native grasses that cows like to eat on the grasslands that will take over entire areas, destroying natural habitats.
To me--it really IS a dilemma. (That was a great title for that book) A dilemma is when you have two choices: neither of which is ideal. So what do you do? You do the best you can.
I *think* there is a better solution. I also *think* it isn't that realistic of a solution, which makes me sad..so I try to pick the best solutions available. It sounds like you are too. I guess I'm at the point where..I'm past information gathering, and I'm comfortable with my choices..and I'm not going to...let stuff like this make me feel bad..I'm totally NOT ignoring it, but the next step would be me..owning my own farm and controlling every part of my food chain..and I just can't do that right now.
I posted about the veal industry on here earlier in the year. I was then invited to a local veal farm to see their operation. I wrote about it here.
Not all farms treat their animals in the manner that is portrayed in that presentation. The one I visited was not at all like what is in that presentation. Not even close. I walked away knowing that if someone asked me about their farm I could honestly say that the animals are raised humanly.
To me if you eat meat you need to know where it is coming from. That is the bigger message. Make your choices based on practices that work for you. Some people will chose to not eat meat at all, some will pick humane and sustainable options. The important thing is to open your eyes to what you are putting into your body.
Definitely. I think that was showing that all these labels may not mean anything...you need to see for yourself what the conditions are in the place you are buying meat (if this is something you're concerned about).
For me, it's easier to just not eat meat, but I realize that's not a viable option for some people and that's fine.
Ellie Jane - 9/12/11
Post-partum races!
11/6 - Kennedy Drive 8K: 36:27 (7:20 pace)
12/4 - North Face Trail Half Marathon: 2:10 (9:27 pace)
12/11 - Arts and Sciences 5K: 21:56 (7:03 pace)
1/8 - Golden Gate Park 10K: 44:30 (7:09 pace) PR!
1/22 - Waterfront 5K: 20:54 (6:43 pace) PR!
I can only speak for Arizona and other parts of the West--and I see that you are from the East. This is something that I have seen well-done studies on. In Arizona, Texas and even Hawaii open range cattle ranching has brought invasive species such as Buffelgrass--which is extremely invasive. Buffelgrass is a great grazing plant for cattle--grass fed! But it drives out other species. They track the seeds from pasture to pasture and it chokes out native species. It is SUPER hard to get rid of and of course it travels on the wind to places you don't have cows. Here is one article about it
http://www.springerlink.com/content/022408v3225g7778/
Here is another article
http://www.jstor.org/pss/4000300
And another
http://www.desertmuseum.org/invaders/invaders_buffelgrass.php
You can google it to find out more.
There are some other plants in Arizona specifically that are very rare. They have been affected by cattle ranching. When you look at studies of them, you will see aerial photos where the cattle have been hills--and the plants have slowly disappeared--and then on hills directly next to the "cattle hills" and the plants have secretly thrived. These are free range hills. If I am remembering correctly--you can also see that over the years--other species of new plants have come into the areas of the "Cattle hills.." effectively choking out these sensitive native plants.
I'm sorry, I can't remember the name of the plant right now--I can find out, but I saw the study done at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix--where I worked.
I agree, it is interesting! I'm in VA and I know our grass fed farmer has had his closed herd on the same acreage for 40 years and I've never seen more thriving grassland. I also haven't heard about any problems with invasive species here. Local local local does seem to be the answer. Properly managed cattle grasslands have zero carbon emissions, and preserves a thriving ecosystem from turning into a housing development.
Personally, I have a big problem with anything being in Arizona, Nevada, and other SW states. It's a freakin' desert! There's not supposed to be millions of heads of cattle grazing there, or millions of people. Phoenix especially drives.me.crazy. Millions of people in the middle of the desert with green grass lawns. It's insanity. Just to head off the "buffalo grazed in the SW for generations and the grassland was fine!" arguement my understanding is that buffalo graze differently than cattle, plus the Heartland grass states are farther north than where I'm talking about. Arizona wouldn't have a problem with invasive species in cattle grasslands if people hadn't put more cattle than the grassland could handle there, and planted the invasive species for the too many cattle to eat since they were going through the existing grass too fast. FMLA, this isn't a problem with grass fed cattle, the problem lies with how the ranchers are managing their herds. The people are to blame, not grass-fed cattle.
We may not see eye to eye on some things but you are preaching to the choir when you speak of this topic. SuperGreen.
That being said--The question was posed how grass fed cattle have ruined grasslands--as if that wasn't true..but it is true. So I answered that question
People in general--over the generations have a misunderstanding for what exactly is going on in the deserts. They think "nothing" is going on there. They don't understand that there are distinct habitats thriving...so they can do whatever they want to the area--and it has no impact, but that isn't true. It's sad because each of the habitats surrounding the Phoenix area: Sonoran Desert, Chapparal, Grassland and Riparian are very distinct--but you have to get to know them (and that's just Phoenix--Arizona in general is seriously diverse..it's amazing). They take time. Nothing in Arizona just shows itself to you, but people haven't really understood that so they immediately want to CHANGE it ("make it better!"). It's easy to look at areas of the SW and think that nothing lives there--but that is hardly ever true--and it has also been historically easy to think that the land is so tough it can take anything you throw at it--because it is so tough to LIVE there, but it is surprisingly fragile.
Anyways. That's my soap box about my beloved Arizona. Don't ruin grasslands..And don't say nothing lives there either. A lot of stuff does. So there.
Wow we agree on something! This is a momentous occasion.
Just to drive my point home, I get that "The question was posed how grass fed cattle have ruined grasslands." My response is that it's not the cattle themselves that are ruining the grassland. Intensively grazed cattle are. It's the rancher's fault, not the act of cows eating grass itself.
No where did I say "nothing lives there." I agree with you on every point. The SW is a beautiful collection of ecosystems if you open your eyes to see them. It makes me extremely sad to see what has happened to the natural land of this country, I think Arizona is particularly disaterous. You can't support all those people on an aquifer forever. It's going to end and there will be *big* problems when it does.
I agree with J&J that not all places operate the way that slide show depicted. I know some dairy farmers personally and have toured their barns and those are some happy cows. Of course they only have about 50 cows - it's not a huge mass-producing facility, so it goes hand-in-hand that the animals are treated better.
I do think it's important to know where your meat/dairy comes from, but I also found it irritating that the slide show made fun of marketing tactics used by the industries, when the slide show itself was a marketing tactic against those industries.
I also believe you and I could go on and on about a little state I like to call Nevada
Cattle didn't ruin the grasslands, cattle ranchers did. Ranching cattle where you can't raise them on local plants, and where the cattle can't survive 'naturally' is the problem. Its just like what caused the dust bowl -- cattle ranching and corn farming. You can't just run in and bring in a species not 'made' to handle the local climate and eat the local vegetation. By trying to plant the food for the cattle that don't thrive there they are just making the whole problem worse.
Now here, we have grass-fed cattle ranches that do well. You know why? BECAUSE WE HAVE GRASS.
You know why its not so great in Arizona? 'Cause there's no grass!
Now I know Arizona climates and plants, and I know the place in Arizona history of the cattle-ranching industry. I actually interned with the Bureau of Land Management at a lot of cattle ranches way back when. Its tough to raise cattle out there, especially most of the food breeds.
Arizona really needs to market lizards as tasty!
I just don't think its fair to say that its wrong for a species to eat its natural diet because people try to set this system up in ways and places in which it doesn't work.
I think that it is easy to focus on Arizona here because--yes, I focused on Arizona, but if one looks at the articles I provided, buffelgrass specifically has been introduced in grassland areas in Texas, Hawaii, and Mexico as well as Arizona. The problem is much, much greater than just one state.