
Why eat less meat? - uhtred
http://www.whyeatlessmeat.com/
======
ckastner
_Why Eat Less Meat is a site dedicated to changing the conversation on eating
meat from a divisive, emotionally-charged debate to a constructive discussion
based on scientific evidence. The following pages list the major reasons to
eat less meat, with each reason explained and supported by extensive
citations._

 _“For every 100 calories of grain we feed animals, we get only about 40 new
calories of milk, 22 calories of eggs, 12 of chicken, 10 of pork, or 3 of
beef.”[3] In other words, our food preferences have led us to effectively
throw away food on a mass scale._

The first sentence may be a correct observation which may be backed up by the
citation (I admittedly haven't checked), but the second sentence is incorrect.
The food has not gone to waste, it was converted from one form to a (at least
for some people) more desirable form.

~~~
legulere
Further, the traditional way to feed livestock is with resources we can't use
ourselves. Pastures on land that has low yields, rest of food now thrown away
being used for animal food, acorns from forests. At least partly those
resources are still used.

~~~
mping
This may or may not be true; afaik >50% soy plantation in the world is for
cattle, and humans can eat soy; probably don't need that much soy.

Even if we cannot use the resources, the land would be better without pasture
for sure. And we don't need to use ALL of the land of pasture for vegetables.

~~~
legulere
My point wasn't that meat production doesn't stand in competition with plant
based food production, but that it doesn't need to (especially with a lower
meat consumption, which the website actually advertises)

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jbob2000
"Eating less meat" needs to come from a higher level than the individual. You
can't convince millions of people to change their diets based on morality and
ethics.

Governments could start by removing subsidies for certain types of animal
farming, which would cause consumers to realize the true cost of eating meat.
A hamburger costs $1 in some areas. That's ridiculous.

As well, the tax system can be used to leverage behaviours. Maybe grocery
stores hand out coupons if you don't purchase meat, which you can send in with
your taxes for a rebate? Something like that.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
More liberal proscriptive moralizing. You _can_ convince millions of people;
the vegetarian/vegan movement is doing just fine thank you. But that's not
enough - now we need to force people to think vegan?

And that article - full of vague attributions of harm and second-order
effects. More cows means more methane! Just like when a hundred million
buffalo roamed the US plains? Like that? But now its a problem? Or 'the US
growing grain for meat means we're not giving it away to the 3rd world'. But
we did that all the time - the US grows so staggeringly much grain we had to
send it away in ocean tanker ships to avoid flooding our own markets. Using
some for meat doesn't have to take anything away from giving it to others.
What we lack there is simply the will.

And on and on - more vague attributions of meat-eating to theoretical harm.
Why this strange argument? Because the author has a not-so-hidden agenda. We
should all be vegan just like them. And they'll say any tortuous thing to
'prove' it.

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tzakrajs
Does anyone know of a good site that argues why we should eat more meat?

~~~
jbob2000
I don't have a link off hand, but I remember from university a professor
showed us how many vegetables you would need to eat to get an equivalent
amount of protein from a serving of meat (chicken breast or small steak). You
literally need a mountain of veggies to equal the protein provided by meat.
The thought was that if we wanted to replace meat protein with veggie protein,
then we'd need to cover the earth in soy, edamame, and lentils.

~~~
mping
That's just not true. I googled for lots of different sites, all of them say
that, for example, 100g of beans have around 40g of protein. Then you have
other vegetables with lots of protein too. More than the daily recommended
dose.

