Red meat is evil!

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Sunday, July 3. 2016

So claims the WaPo. It made me laugh because this is America's #1 barbecue weekend and only quite peculiar people are not grilling meat.

A few thoughts.

If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication? Should we kill all the farting deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?

Why do they always talk about Red Meat? What's so specially bad about it compared to pork or chicken? Not a thing, as far as I know. That old beef about red meat's health badness has long been disproven.

And how bad can red meat be, given that the human body is made of it? Are the cannibals worried?

Anyway, it's all silliness.

Posted by The News Junkie in Hot News & Misc. Short Subjects at 09:00 | Comments (31) | Trackbacks (0)

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Much of that is meat production, which contributes an estimated 14.5 percent to annual greenhouse gas emissions. That's more than emissions from every car, train, ship and airplane combined. Of that, 65 percent is enteric fermentation (or, cow, sheep and goat farting) "

They aren't silly they are insane.

#1 b moe on 2016-07-03 09:05 (Reply)

"They aren't silly they are insane"

Maybe. More likely just dishonest or self-important little control freaks. IF they were truly insane I suppose I'd pity them.

#1.1 anon on 2016-07-03 10:11 (Reply)

The News Junkie: If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication? Should we kill all the deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?

The biomass of domestic ruminants is far higher than the natural biomass.

#2 Zachriel on 2016-07-03 09:24 (Reply)

Bull shit.

#2.1 GoneWithTheWind on 2016-07-03 10:09 (Reply)

In pre-settlement U.S., there were about 30 million bison, by far the largest biomass of ruminant at the time. There are now nearly 100 million cattle. In other areas of the world (e.g. the Pampas), the ratio is even higher.

See Flores, Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850, The Journal of American History 1991.

#2.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-07-03 10:37 (Reply)

I call BS on 30M head bison, I read over 100M head bison before white man took over. Cattle on feed according to USDA 10.8 M. Commercial slaughter 28M and dairy makes up half of that.

#2.1.1.1 Mhf on 2016-07-03 10:59 (Reply)

Mhf: I call BS on 30M head bison, I read over 100M head bison before white man took over.

19th century estimates haven't held up. The ecosystem couldn't support those numbers. See Flores, Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850, The Journal of American History 1991.

#2.1.1.1.1 Zachriel on 2016-07-03 12:20 (Reply)

For once I have to agree with Zach. It wasn't an asteroid that killed off all the dinosaurs, it was their own flatulence! Just one heard of Argentinosaurus, eating all that biomass, think of all the gas! You're definitely on to something here Zach. Keep up the good work.

#2.2 B Hammer on 2016-07-03 11:53 (Reply)

People in the southern hemisphere would have to have claws on their feet so they could hang on upside down.

#2.2.1 Zachriel on 2016-07-03 12:28 (Reply)

If we eliminated that portion of the biomass currently referred to as Liberal Democrats and the portion referred to as Islamists, that would solve several problems all at once.

#2.3 mike m on 2016-07-03 13:14 (Reply)

If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication? Should we kill all the deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?

Why do they always talk about Red Meat? What's so specially bad about it compared to pork or chicken? Not a thing, as far as I know. That old beef about red meat's health badness has long been disproven.

And how bad can red meat be, given that the human body is made of it? Are the cannibals worried?

At least six fallacies in three paragraphs; possibly a record.

Anyway, it's all silliness.

Mind if I borrow that? Because the woodwork is suddenly alive with the sound of rightist mythology.

Here's the thing: Rightists have lost a nation, only to double-down on one of the odder, more meaningless cultural artifacts, one that evidently none of them have even thought through. This constitutes patriotism, the root of which is patriot.

Congrats. And happy Fourth, if you can keep it. Which up till now, you made no serious effort at.

#3 Ten on 2016-07-03 11:16 (Reply)

What are you trying to say Ten??

#3.1 Dale on 2016-07-04 08:55 (Reply)

Pretty much what I already did. That rightists are as foolish as leftists and nearly as resistant to having it pointed out.

#3.1.1 Ten on 2016-07-05 09:17 (Reply)

How'd you get the cow to wear that silly hat?

#4 jdgalt on 2016-07-03 12:20 (Reply)

Treated it like a nice pet dog until it was time to hang it by a back leg and bleed it out through the throat. I mean, except for the rides in the car, the place in the home, sleeping on the bed, the lifetime of emotional connection, and the pet cemetery.

One has to know their place, after all. Like G-d intended.

#4.1 Ten on 2016-07-03 13:05 (Reply)

Broccoli screams when you cut it

#4.1.1 Bird Dog on 2016-07-03 13:38 (Reply)

WAIT! Now I get it. You devious, clever, brilliant rightists, you. Snark like this is the whole deal, isn't it? It's really all there is to it.

Because you can. Right? And all that about insanity and silliness and leftists upthread was just cover.

Man, you guys are good.

#4.1.1.1 Ten on 2016-07-03 13:57 (Reply)

Ten, why don't you and Zach just get a room?

The rest of us here would enjoy the peace and quiet of real sanity.

#4.1.1.1.1 B48 on 2016-07-03 19:53 (Reply)

The ZBot? We couldn't be more different. Some of you people are so utterly clueless.

What's it like to jam things into neat little categories over and over like that when you're so hopelessly wrong about them? That degree of hidebound signalling and habit is truly remarkable.

And so I do.

#4.1.1.1.1.1 Ten on 2016-07-03 21:36 (Reply)

But yet the "Global Warming" alarmists can pile into a
plane and fly 6000 miles to a "Global Warming convention".

#5 Ron Spins on 2016-07-03 12:33 (Reply)

I only eat beef from vegan cattle.

#6 OldFert on 2016-07-03 13:45 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Anyway, it's all silliness.

Yes it is, and yet, those that want to control out diet have been beating this drum for at least the last 45 years. They never give up.

The proposed taxes on red meat being considered by the Danish is new. One wonders how long it will be be before someone on the Left proposes it here?

Perhaps some day a presidential candidate will be promising to "bankrupt the cattle business"?

#7 feeblemind on 2016-07-03 16:43 (Reply)

Humans are generally considered to cook up like white meat, not red meat.

#8 Marque2 on 2016-07-03 20:57 (Reply)

"If cows and sheep and goats are killing the planet, what about all of the wild animals that roamed the globe before domestication? Should we kill all the farting deer, caribou, bison, wild pigs and Wildebeests?"

There is a hypothesis, with some amount of evidence to support it, that cattle, sheep, etc. fed a completely "natural" diet of grass and other plants produce far less methane than do cattle, sheep, etc. that are fed a modern grain-based diet.

>> Why do they always talk about Red Meat?

#9 wolfwalker on 2016-07-03 21:04 (Reply)

oops, sorry, that comment got messed up and lost the last paragraph. It should have been:

"Why do they always talk about Red Meat? "

Because red meat in large amounts is in fact less-than-healthy in several ways. Also because out of all the animals we Westerners raise for meat, cows are the cutest.

#9.1 wolfwalker on 2016-07-03 21:07 (Reply)

There is also a very science based school of thought that goes like this: Grass pasture that is being managed properly, not over grazed but also not under utilized absorbs much more carbon than grass that is being left alone. Put another way, grazing cows are having a net positive effect on the balance of greenhouse gasses, not the other way around.

#10 Dirk on 2016-07-04 03:02 (Reply)

Dirk: Grass pasture that is being managed properly, not over grazed but also not under utilized absorbs much more carbon than grass that is being left alone.

Natural mollisols (grassland soils) accumulate organic carbon primarily in the roots of native perennial grass species. Annual species, typical for animal feed, generally result in a loss of the soil's organic carbon.

See Sanford, Perennial Grasslands Are Essential for Long Term SOC Storage in the Mollisols of the North Central USA, Progress in Soil Science; Soil Carbon 2014.

#10.1 Zachriel on 2016-07-04 09:06 (Reply)

Animals allowed to graze freely, til with their hoofs and fertilize the soil with their crap and urine, while spreading any undigested seeds.......primarily.

#10.1.1 Dale on 2016-07-04 11:59 (Reply)

Hey Z (Hazy?)....what problem do you have with carbon? Don't you like it because it's black? Maybe your unaddressed racism is showing?

#10.1.2 Dale on 2016-07-04 12:02 (Reply)

Bumper sticker I once saw: "Red meat isn't bad for you; green, fuzzy meat is bad for you."

#11 Milo on 2016-07-04 06:16 (Reply)

Key point is to distinguish between grass-fed and grain-fed beef. One is perfectly healthy to eat, good for environment, etc. The other less so.

#12 Herbert Badgery on 2016-07-05 07:30 (Reply)

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Sunday, July 3. 2016

Red meat is evil!