Meat production by current methods is long term unsustainable. "I like bacon!" is not much of a counter-argument.
B-b-but it's a meme on the internet which automatically makes it hilarious to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy set.
Meat production by current methods is long term unsustainable. "I like bacon!" is not much of a counter-argument.
Think of the plants, man, think of the plants. Don't they feel pain too? Can you look a tomato in the eyes when you cut it and not see it squirming?
Lord Stern claims that meat will go the way of drunk driving in acceptance.
The fertility rate of the richest countries is 2 or lower (US is the exception at 2.1). This means we are either reproducing at a rate that is just enough or lower to replace ourselves. "Third world" countries are reproducing like rabbits, with some having fertility rates of as high as 8!
So, the question is, which "third world" country would you like to decimate?
Beef cattle raising IS among the least efficient ways of food production; that goes twice for "cornfed" beef. Sheep and chickens are a bit more defendable, pigs are in between.
Meat production by current methods is long term unsustainable. "I like bacon!" is not much of a counter-argument.
(<-- meateater)
All of them. And I even know how.
See, you have to look at the reason why the West suddenly isn't reproducing like rabbits any more.
We all were at that point too. We were basically screwing to beat the odds. Infant mortality and uncertainty about what comes even after that, made people try to beat those odds. If you expect one in three kids to survive, you make 10 to beat the odds. Let's call this Point A.
Then people get antibiotics, sanitation, etc, and all those losses just disappear. But people keep on screwing like rabbits for a while, mostly because that's the way things were always done. Their dad had lots of kids. Their grand-dad had lots of kids. They're not going to stop that trend. This would be Point B.
And then it sinks in that really you don't need more than 1 child to pass on your genes. Maybe get a second, you know, as backup if the firstborn gets run over by a truck. Then they stop. They also start it with the kids later, since, again, they're no longer having a finite time to beat the odds. If one or two kids are enough, you may well enjoy life until the 40's and only then worry about a replacement for yourself. And population actually starts shrinking fast. This is Point C.
The West is pretty much firmly at Point C. Even the current census data actually paint a slightly misleading image. The population decline would be even more dramatic, if it weren't partially offset by immigration... and by the fact that a lot of immigrants come from countries at points A or B. Those still screw like rabbits for a generation or so.
So my genocidal plan is this: let's help more countries get at least the basics. You know, antibiotics, water treatment plants, etc. Let's get them some doctors so those babies don't die half as much. In most cases it doesn't even take much to bump what they already have to a decent level, or just make sure they have spare parts for it.
Then in 50 years tops watch their population start to implode.
I know, I know, it's not as much fun as bombing them![]()
Would the cow be extinct if we didn't eat them?
Probably not, at least in North America. Few natural predators of an animal that large, if you take humans out of the equation.
Just wait until science develops enough to detect that plants do indeed feel pain. Breatharians will be the new thing...and the death of the human race.
Just wait until science develops enough to detect that plants do indeed feel pain. Breatharians will be the new thing...and the death of the human race.
Many plants use fruits and their consumption as part of a reproduction strategy. When they got humans in on their game, they got their reproduction to skyrocket.
Take the tomato. Tomatoes were once found only in South America. Now they can be found everywhere. Admittedly, not all fruits that are eaten find their seeds producing new plants, but enough do to make the practice well worth while, the case all over the plant kingdom. Enough seeds are extracted out of tomato fruits for reproduction purposes for the tomatoes to keep producing tasty fruits.
Most life forms find birth a painful process.
Did you watch that PBS show last night too? I liked the pot part.