What, me worry? (about what I eat)

[John Barrows]

In Saturday's (10/31/09) NYTimes, Nicolette Niman (yes, of the famous Niman Ranch) makes a rational argument for why meat is not necessarily the root of all climate change evil.

Yes, we all know that we (people that is) are responsible for climate change - though I still haven't seen a clear explanation of why we should care or start panicking since having a little warmer weather here in Oregon, and maybe a little more sunshine would not be unwelcome. But one of the arguments that the chicken-littles make is that eating meat causes global warming because meat "production" creates more carbon dioxide .... yada, yada, yada ........

Niman points out that meat raised in factory conditions does in fact create a big carbon footprint. But if we ate meat that was naturally raised in pastures raised locally near where we live, then it's no more polluting that eating a radish. Yeah and that "methane" issue blamed on cattle is largely a function of feeding the damn poor cattle feed that's not natural to them (i.e. corn). In other words, if you ate stuff that didn't agree with us all the time, you'd fart a lot, too.

So the message that the tree-huggers should be sending is, "eat un-processed, locally grown, and sustainably raised meat and vegetables, and we and our environment will feel a whole lot better". Humans are omnivores, after all (as the latest food guru, Michael Pollan, points out), so as we say at "How I Taught My Brother to Cook" ... "screw the big food factories ... eat some decent basic food that you prepare at home from scratch." It's the right thing to do.

[Patrick]

Corporate America has pretty much squeezed out (or should I say, bought them out) the old fashioned dairy and beef farms. There is money in quantity and not quality. If you are lucky enough to live in a rural area with local farms then you can take advantage of their goods. However, in areas like mine natural products tend to be part of the boutique high priced venue. After all, living in one of the most expensive non farming areas in the USA the shopkeepers by choice or high costs make ideal food acquisition very difficult unless you raise it yourself. So you do the best you can. You'll die of ulceritive frustration if you try to be too much of a purest in a tainted environment.