Marvin Double- As a vegetarian / vegan for 35+ years I couldn't agree more with the facts regarding the relationship between animal agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions, and environmental degradation. While hope may well be present everywhere so many people are so distracted by things like surviving an ongoing economic collapse and surviving to the next pay-cheque this issue will likely not seem important enough to be serious dinner conversation, let alone a cause for action. Naturally I hope this will change and quickly. There are a lot of people working hard to bring the message to everyone, but at this moment in time they are outmatched by so called Big Agri, with deep pockets and tremendous persuasive power in Washington. The best hope we have to change things is through grass roots organizations, personal action and wonderful documentaries like Cowspiracy. .
Muon Ray- This is why we need artificial meat facilities, grown from mycoprotein and muscle cells grown in nutrient cultures. Moreover, the spin offs from a biotech-based agriculture would be enormous for the energy industry, we could literally grow oil-producing algae in facilities used to treat biological waste. This would free up the vast territories used for farmland to plant vegetables and reforest the planet, which would negate the carbon emissions that have built up since the industrial revolution. We could have the same life, more or less, as we have had before, only with an actual likelihood of continuing it, instead of hanging over the precipice as we are doing so now.
Roberto Mercado- GO VEGAN!!!!!!!!!!
Rickugg- What's he saying kill all the cows. I believe they been around thousands of years.
DrunkardCow- What global warming? CO2 is a plant food, not a pollutant, so why not talk about global greening? Past 16 years there hasn't been any "global warming", inconvenient fact for the AGW zealots. Go vegan! Put your money where your mouth is!
quistunes- I am tired of extremes on both ends. I am entirely against CAFOs, and my ideal would be to tear down the ranch fences, let the native grazers run, bring back the wolf & beaver, to restore grasslands, forests, & riparian areas. The mono crop, till heavy system of grain, fruit, & vegetable production is a major contribution to soil death & ecosystem poisoning. Even if they may not emit greenhouse gasses, the so called vegan foods contribute to desertification & ecosystem destruction. Animals are an absolutely integral part of all ecosystem health. It must be done as nature does with climate appropriate species working together in a biodiverse polyculture. I feel like this video interview makes to many judgements &assumptions without studying natural systems on a much deeper level. I'm disappointed in the Real News on this one.
Laurie Lyon- Veganism is not the solution to the way we raise animals. Yes, animal agriculture is hazardous. We need to have a more nuanced discussion about these issues. Going from one extreme to another isn't helpful. I can not eat wheat. I can not eat soy. Soy products are not very digestible. I do not have digestion problems with meat. The eating of meat is what began the evolution process that took primates to humans. The balance of fats and animal protein is essential in our diets. The best method for raising food both animal and vegetable is organic bio-dynamic farming. I think the reason that this method of farming isn't more popular amongst organic farming is that the philosophy is very esoteric and the practice is labor intensive and it can only be done on a much smaller scale than how even organic big farms can do. Read "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith. Animals are an integral part of an ecosystem. We can not remove them from the process and expect that it will create a healthy system.
The Parodox- Entomophagy
TheGodlessGuitarist- what, no corporate climate trolls today?
BluesdesJours- more bravo sierra from our fave climate alarmists. too bad you assholes weren't out there counting farts when the country was teeming with buffalo
Sphamandla Hlela- Very interesting discussion. My perception is that the focus has been split between transport and power stations/energy supply. We constantly here about windmills and solar energy.Energy supply is the biggest components/culprit of GHG emissions - so I'd give these environmental organisations a bit of a break here. Greenpeace (and other organisations) have been fighting the oil drilling, in more and more places, for example.The problem is: we don't see power stations everyday, we just switch on the lights. We don't see the factory farms - we just buy our packaged meat ,in the supermarkets. Maybe this contributes a bit.However, I do agree more needs to be done to try and get people to eat less meat. This is a very difficult task, though. People will scream about FREEDOM!!!
nailay7- Does meet need to be eliminated? Probably not, but does its consumption need to be hugely reduced? Probably yes. If we were to treat meet as a luxury instead of staple there could be far less animal agriculture. Cattle raised on a small scale seems perfectly feasible. The reason why I think people often go with wholly plant based diet as a solution is because they don't see some of the underlying problems. Plant based agriculture on an industrial scale is very very destructive socially and environmentally. Know I don't know if it causes as much Green house gasses as beef production, but it does other things (if someone wants to know more I'll gladly share my research). To me it really seems to be a question of the whole industrial food system, and not just a question of one or the other part of it.
Name of - title
Animal Agriculture: A Neglected Agent of Global Warming?