Saying the environment did just fine before agriculture overlooks the fact that before agriculture we had large free roaming grazing herds of deer,, oxen, wild cattle etc there are a hell of a lot of species of insect, bird etc which require a grazed sward to feed/ nest etc…. Take away the grazing and they’re going to go extinct
Also leaving aside that most plant based ( not ) meat is not delicious. If you like the taste of soya “ meat” wouldn’t it taste the same if it wasn’t made to look like meat and just sold as lumps of soy?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2211912416300013 The entire article also goes into detail about broad nutrient availability too. While the amount of arable land being used for livestock seems high, consider the water requirements are much lower than if having to irrigate crops (grass grows mainly from green water, while crops are irrigated with blue water). https://extension.unl.edu/statewide/scottsbluff-morrill/weird-things-cattle-eat-and-it-is-perfectly-ok/ You basically turn plant byproducts or potential waste into edible food. Don't get me wrong, some grain is incorporated into almost every cow's diet and it seems like a lot compared to human use, but it's a fractional amount of what they're eating. I also think it's unwise to equate diets processed vs whole vegan/veg foods (don't get me started on the complete lack of causal evidence as far as veg diet and longevity goes in general). If someone tells me: don't eat the meat, eat the corn or processed corn instead! I'm not going to buy for a second that's the healthier option.
Given that environmentalists have the couched lance of estimated economic cost of pollution aimed at various types of consumers, meat eaters will likely see a eco-based meat tax in their lifetimes. It's fine. I'll try to save money by eating politicians instead.
Yeah, I'm just not doing one of these again. It's probably a lot of work to google stuff and sift through ~95% of the results that don't support one's existing position, trying to find any quotes to cherry-pick, and I don't want anyone wasting their time. I get it. People want to keep doing what they enjoy doing, and without feeling bad about it. It's like buying the sweatshop produced clothes, the child-slavery produced electronics, and on and on. Who wants to think about such things. I'm a realist, so I know that crises like climate change won't be addressed on the individual level, anyway. But I'm happy that there are so many delicious food products available to me now that I can enjoy which produce no conflicts with my conscience.
Oh, thank you for the permission! And you keep being self-righteous and arrogant and cramming your own (your cult's) ethics and morality down everyone else's throats.
You can do whatever you want, just like anyone else. Do whatever you feel is ethical and allows you to sleep at night. That's what I do, and I'm sure it's different for many individuals. Not sure where the hostility is coming from. If I'm a member of a cult, I'm certainly not aware of it. I don't even personally know any other vegetarians or vegans. But like I've said, people get really worked up about this stuff, so, I don't really want to discuss it further. It's all old hat to me.
Yeah, let's move on here. Who cares what somebody wants to eat or why they want to eat it? Find something better to kick each other in the balls over.
OK, moving on ... here's another solution to a scientifical problem: shift the goalposts. (For those too young to "get it" -- this refers to the Kirki tanker incident. But to be honest, it could refer to any maritime disaster that ends up with dumping crude oil into the sea).
In the first seconds of meeting someone new to you, your brain assesses that person by answering three questions: Are you a threat? Can you be trusted? Are you competent? Indeed, first impressions are made in a fraction of a second: Evolution favoured speed over accuracy. (Research has shown that first perceptions tend to be inaccurate.) Negative snap judgments err on the side of caution. If you mistake someone as a threat, and they’re not, the cost is low. But if you mistake them not as a threat, and they are, the cost could be enormous. What You Need to Know About Making a Good Impression Oh, and the best way to not be perceived as a threat, and trustworthy and competent, is to smile.
Cicadas come in annual and periodical varieties. Periodical cicadas make a “synchronized mass appearance” either every 13 or every 17 years. This year, two different broods— a historic double brood—are emerging simultaneously, the first time this has happened in 211 years. The Cicadas Are Here Emerging cicadas are so loud in one South Carolina county that residents are calling the sheriff's office asking why they can hear a "noise in the air that sounds like a siren, or a whine, or a roar."
My three questions are very simple. What is your name? What is your quest? What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
Now there's a movie I haven't watched in ages. It's sort of become one of those things I'm afraid of. I have such fond memories that I want to watch it again but since it's been a decade since I last watched it, I'm certain it'll have lost something for me. So I've avoided it.
Is it carrying coconut shells? And here's a bit of scientific news I just heard. (WARNING: if, um ... how can I put it politely ... bodily functions disgust you, please stop reading). Anyway. Everyone who reads history knows that, for many, many years, people used pee to wash clothes and soften leather before manufacture. (If you didn't know that before, now you do). But here's the more interesting, scientific bit: urea, also known as carbamide, is the chemical compound that made (and still makes) the difference. This compound is a safe, useful, naturally occurring molecule that is produced by protein metabolism found in mammalian urine. It is still used today, mainly in agricultural fertilizer but also in animal feed (cattle especially can convert it into protein), urea-formaldehyde resins, emollients for skin care, barbituric acid manufacture, and even cold-packs (for short-term muscle-pain relief) ... at least according to the ACS). The article has more on this, but I just thought it was interesting. I didn't realise that pee was still considered to be liquid gold in scientific circles. Kind of gross, but hey -- they're always telling us to recycle ...
My dad told me that back on his parents' farm, a hundred years ago, they saved the horse urine, watered it down, and used it as fertilizer in the garden. I think there was a trough to collect it? I'm not sure.
This happened to me but with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The first time I saw it, I laughed a lot. Second time, recently, I did not find it as funny. 1. Only to myself. 2. Not one iota, can't even trust myself. 3. I know how to hammer a nail into my thumb.
