Don’t Blame Meat for Global Warming...Blame Factory Farms

Humans have been omnivores for over 3 million years…why all of a sudden is eating meat such a bad thing?

For most of those 4 million years, the animals that we ate grazed on grass. In factory farms (the preferred method of meat production in the US) animals are kept in cramped conditions and forced to eat grains (which the animals are not designed to eat). The grains fed to the animals are predominately genetically-modified soybeans and corn, grown using heaps of chemicals and fossil fuels. Once the animals are nice and fat they are slaughtered and shipped off to distant locales to be consumed.

Some people feel that becoming a vegetarian is a good way to reduce their impact on the environment, but I would have to respectfully disagree. I am fully supportive of people choosing to forgo meat for ethical/religious reasons but from a purely environmental standpoint not eating meat may not reduce your impact on the environment. With our "efficient" factory farming industry, your extra portions of meat will just be shipped off to a developing nation for consumption.

One way to reduce your impact on the environment where meat is concerned is to eat only local/regional, grass-fed, pastured, hormone- and antibiotic-free, and humane meat (and to tell all of your friends about it). Create some competition for the factory farms, if you give up meat entirely the factory farms don’t see you as a possible customer anymore and won’t fight for your business.

When properly managed, raising animals on pasture instead of factory farms is a net benefit to the environment. To begin with, a diet of grazed grass requires much less fossil fuel than a feedlot diet of dried corn and soy. On pasture, grazing animals do their own fertilizing and harvesting. The ground is covered with greens all year round, so it does an excellent job of harvesting solar energy and holding on to top soil and moisture. Grazed pasture removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere more effectively than any land use, including forestland and ungrazed prairie, helping to slow global warming.

To find out more about the importance of meat and other real foods:
Nina Planck’s Website
Real Food (Book by Nina Planck)
Eat Wild

To find local, grass-fed and pastured meats in your area:
Riverview Farms
Eat Wild – Georgia

I have a feeling that I might get a few comments on this article and they are welcomed, we cannot better ourselves if we do not openly communicate about the issues facing us.