The New York Times printed an article yesterday about the impact of the livestock sector on greenhouse gas emissions.  I’ve talked about the environmental impact of meat being produced on an industrial scale before here at Simple Spoonful.  Check out the article and see what you think.  But remember–there is a great deal more to the health of the planet than just greenhouse gas emissions: soil, water, and air quality, for starters.

Also, if you haven’t already, stop by yesterday’s post to keep the comments coming about what you’d like to see featured here.  I’ve got some great input so far, and I’m looking forward to answering your questions.

Finally, stay tuned for the first installment in my response to the Mercatus study which attempts to dismiss the local food movement as a “marketing fad” and a “distraction from [...] real and serious issues.”  You can expect to see that sometime this weekend.  Happy Friday, all.

Thanks to Marion Nestle for the tip.

I’m going to be honest here.  Because I really do like things simple, trying to figure out which processed foods I could buy if I cared about fats was pretty much the deal-breaker for all processed foods.  It turned out that it was easier to make my own food than to decipher a lot of the information on fats.  Seriously.

Basically, when you get into fats, things get slippery.

Ha.

Puns aside, I will do my durndest to boil this information down to the bare essentials.

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Finally, the moment you have been waiting for all weekend–the breakdown of Michael Pollan’s “Farmer-in-Chief.”

Let’s cut straight to the quick. How can Pollan make the argument that to address the food system is to address climate change, terrorist threats, the need for energy independence, and the health care crisis?  After all, a rather significant gap seems to exist between Freedom Fries and greenhouse gases.  As Pollan points out in his article, however, the gap is far smaller than you would think…nonexistent, in many cases.   Understanding that, we’re left with an important question:  should a Freedom Fry mean something beyond a snub to the French?

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It’s game day here at the Simple Spoonful! Woot! Here’s how to play: Print out a blackline world map with all the countries. Now, truck yourself over to your nearest large chain grocery and take a good look at the produce section. Pay special attention to the stickers on the produce or the information on the plastic clamshells in which the berries or tomatoes come. Every time you can identify where the produce is coming from, you get to color in that country (or state, in the U.S.) on your map. You might have to ask a produce worker where certain things are coming from if you can’t tell–try it! It’s fun.

Oh–just to boost the fun factor, let’s say every time you find something grown in your home state, you get an extra 500 bonus points.

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Looking at the details of the meat-packing industry, the importance of consuming meat from naturally raised, antibiotic-free animals with space to move around becomes obvious. However, raising animals this way means it takes longer to grow them to the desired size for slaughter and you need a lot more space for them to feed on grass. For that reason, buying organic, grass-fed beef or organically raised pork or poultry in the grocery store can be prohibitively expensive for people on a budget. Plus, the “organic” label is far from perfect where meats are concerned. After all, hopefully you’ve surmised by now that feeding a cow organic corn doesn’t improve its health much.

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A lot of vegetarians have chosen their diets because of a belief that killing animals for food is wrong. While the Unicyclist and I respect that belief, we are aware that tilling fields and clearing them kills a lot of rabbits, mice, pheasants, and the like. Basically, modern agriculture isn’t animal-friendly any way you slice it. Even so, ethics are a part of why we are vegetarians.

In the past couple days, I covered some of the impacts of industrial ranching and CAFOs (Confined or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, depending on whom you ask) on your health and the health of the environment. For anyone wanting to have a realistic understanding of the wider implications of the way they eat, looking at the conditions in CAFOs is essential.

In about fourteen months, a steer in a CAFO will go from 80 to 1100 pounds and to slaughter, raised on a diet of corn, protein and fat supplements, and drugs. Animals in a CAFO are packed into a confined space, be that a pen crowded with other animals, or, in the case of many pregnant pigs, in a tiny enclosure where they likely can’t turn around.

Original image courtesy of the EPA

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Someone cover the ears of the beef lobby. (And the pork lobby.) I gots something to tell you.

Ready? Okay.

Meat isn’t good for you. In fact, substantial evidence has been mounted showing that, as a cornerstone of your diet, it’s actually harmful for you.

When I say meat is harmful for you, I’m talking about “modern meat,” the kind fed whatever is cheapest and gets the meat to market fastest, the kind produced in produced in factory-like operations, the kind kept in such close, crowded confines that cutting beaks and tails is routine. I’m not fixated on saturated fats and cholesterol when I say this. Honestly, I think that meat raised under certain conditions can be a healthful food, especially for certain individuals. However, that is not the way the meat industry is run in this country.

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In the past five years, there has been a reawakening of environmentalism. People are switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs, thinking about where they set their thermostats, and trying to conserve gas. The number one reason driving these changes (besides the fact that they can help you save money) is the Dreaded Greenhouse Gas Bogeymen and how said bogeymen influence global warming.

Don’t get me wrong: I think global warming is an issue that we absolutely need to be responsible about. However, there’s a lot more to keeping earth healthy for us and other species than just greenhouse gases and global warming. I’m talking water quality, air quality, soil quality. I’m talking biodiversity on land and in the water. One thing Al Gore didn’t mention in his film, An Inconvenient Truth, is that reducing your meat consumption or becoming vegetarian will cause perhaps the single greatest impact in reducing stress on the planet.

What is the carbon footprint of the livestock industry?

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Remember 1984, people? (The year, not the book.)

Okay, I am dating myself with that. But you know what? I am dated.

So, where is the beef? It’s a decent question. To answer that, I’m going to spend a couple posts taking you on a journey to find out where the beef has been. Buckle your seatbelts, folks. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.

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