La Grande Bouffe

According to a recent U.N. report if we removed all the cars from the roads but kept on consuming meat at our current rate, specifically beef and lamb, the amount of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere would continue to soar. That's because there are so many more cattle and so fewer trees in the world, compared to pre-industrial times, that we're literally eating ourselves out of existence.

Not figuratively literally. Literally literally.

Furthermore, beef production itself is an absurd waste of resources. While it results in fully 50% of all agricultural greenhouse emissions it provides just 3% of our caloric intake.

There's reason to believe that market forces will eventually solve this problem, not just because we'll become better at processing Bossy into yummy hamburgers but because crude oil will eventually become scarce enough that we'll begin to use more of our crops for biofuel instead of for fattening cattle. Factor in the inevitable crop destruction due to meat-production-driven climate change and suddenly you'll be paying more, lots more, for all your food, not just meat. If you can get it, that is.

Or, you can start cutting back on eating meat now, by about 3/4. Carl Lewis won 9 gold Olympic medals as a vegetarian and so can.... well, maybe not you but there's always hope.

Addendum: And thanks, Mr. Bundy, you delicate little flower, for showing us the sensitive side of the ranching industry.

=Lefty=