Ah Yeah, That's Me
Years ago, my friends and I watched Broadcast News. Favorite scene: Holly Hunter tells her boss a thing or two and he says, "It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room."
Holly Hunter cries and says, "No. It's awful."
My friends pointed at me and laughed. Yes. I'm so in touch with that emotion.
When people ask why I'm a vegetarian, I often say, "Got an hour?" Seriously, there are several reasons, but basically I don't dig on flesh because a vegetarian diet is better for my health, better for the animals, and better for the planet. If someone wants to rant that meat doesn't do harm to heart, arteries, blood pressure and sex drive, I point to the other reasons. Someone else attacks the idea that animals weren't put here for our consumption, fine. What about the other issues?
Now there is news that backs up my third point. Eating dead animals harms our home.
I am always right. And it's a damn tough burden to bear.
posted by kate @ 8:27 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
The UN is on top of things these days aren't they? I first heard of this when I was a junior in high school. Which would be just about 16 years ago.
Which begs the question; How do you "counter" this "problem"? On the one hand you could say "I'll kill and eat the cow". Thus eliminating that one cow's emissions. Or you could opine that since animals of all kinds have been living, and farting, on this planet for millions of years that Mama Earth has figured out how to deal with their gas.
Either way, in my very humble opinion, eating or not eating meat will have very little effect on the old Global Warming. kthxbye ;)
I know. I read Diet for a Small Planet in college. Way to be on top of things!
And everything we do counts, don't kid yourself. From the car we drive to the food we eat to the lightbulbs we buy. If you aren't part of the solution, you are most definitely part of the problem.
Our kids and my new nephew deserve better than that.
I am part of the problem. To be sure ;)
I drive a ginormous SUV. I always pick the frivolous consumer item that is encased in the most packaging, and I'm always sure to leave all the lights on in the house.
Okay. Well maybe not. I do drive a medium sized SUV. I decry over-packaging (both for environmental and frustrational reasons). And my wife often refers to me as the "Switch Nazi". Leave a room, off goes the light switch. Even if you're coming back in five minutes.
Honestly, doing right by the planet doesn't have to involve granola and birkenstocks. Just stop using stuff you don't need to use. Buy smart. I have no data to back this up, but I would guess that if when given a choice if everyone would choose the item that is in the least packaging we'd go a long way toward helping the environment. (That was some mighty terrible sentence structure, geez.)
That's just one thing that people can do. I'm sure the vast readership of OIL Field* can find some more.
*HA HA!
Excellent Post... It makes me laugh when people call themselves ‘environmentalists’ and yet they eat meat. There is no doubt that factory farming is bad for the environment… Just drive North on I-5 in California (towards San Francisco) and you’ll smell –then see- the “California Happy Cows” confined to tight corrals (with no room to walk). Or, drive on I-35 through Iowa anytime during the summer to discover the sweet stench of Pig farms (contaminating the water for miles).
Factory farming is cruelty (and pollution) at it’s finest.
We could all drive electric cars and we'd still be a petroleum guzzling nation because of the petro-chemicals used in factory farming and the trucks needed to transport farm products thousands of miles from where they are grown. Iowa has a growing season long enough to produce all the food it needs-for vegetarians and omnivores both- yet it imports most of its food because all it's producing is corn and hogs. I'm too much of a carnivore to give up meat, but I think we could all stand to buy closer to home. Get to know a farmer who practices the kind of agriculture you want to support then ask your local market/restaurant to carry his/her products or buy direct.
If we all became vegetarians would cows become extinct? Hogs are highly adaptable and in a couple generations feral pigs are pretty much able to fend for themselves (and then some, they can tear up an ecosystem). But I wonder what cows would do left to their own devices. Not looking for a pro or con arguement re: vegetarianism, just wondering.
Good points PT - Driving electric cars and eating a plant-based diet and buying produce closer to home by themselves may not cause global change - but together they are part of the answer. That I know for sure.
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