Global warming goes … vegan
posted at 9:30 am on October 27, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
If people want a glimpse of what the world will be like with global-warming hysterics in charge, Lord Stern of Brentford lets the veil slip in an interview with the Times of London. Stern admits that the upcoming Copenhagen talks would produce a pact on energy usage that would send the cost of meat “soaring.” That suits Stern just fine, because he wants to push the world into vegetarianism anyway:
People will need to consider turning vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.
In an interview with The Times, Lord Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” …
Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.
He predicted that people’s attitudes would evolve until meat eating became unacceptable. “I think it’s important that people think about what they are doing and that includes what they are eating,” he said. “I am 61 now and attitudes towards drinking and driving have changed radically since I was a student. People change their notion of what is responsible. They will increasingly ask about the carbon content of their food.”
Climate change is just another lever for the same old busybodies to run people’s lives. Lord Stern explains that his tastes and philosophy have changed since he was a student — and assumes therefore he has the right to dictate everyone else’s choices. Global-warming hysterics want to use this as an excuse to gain control and power for their idea of a benevolent despotism.
The health-care overhaul debate in the US has the same dynamics. Its advocates want to control the delivery of health care and make it more public in order to use it to insert themselves into private choices. Call it “creeping elitism,” but it’s creeping from all directions these days.
Seven hundred years ago, man farmed and raised cows and pigs on the entire island of Greenland. When they do that again, perhaps I’ll worry about bovine flatulence as a global threat. Until then, I consider creeping elitism from horse’s asses a much more elitist threat than methane from cow’s butts.
Blowback
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They may as well….. in the fields they fertilize the strawberries in it. If you saw what goes on in the rice paddies you probably wouldn’t eat that either.
fourdeucer on October 27, 2009 at 10:33 AM
The International Ministry of Truth says: yes. You can get any flavor and color, as long as it’s pea green. All we are saying, is give peas a chance!
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 10:34 AM
Let’s see, because of the GW whackos, we can’t:
eat meat
travel
own cars
own cows
have children
have food produced greater than a 100 mile radius.
Blake on October 27, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Oh, and dogs. We can’t own dogs. Too big of a carbon pawprint.
Blake on October 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM
Not true. It was some coastal regions. Still, regions which have been under ice for centuries since the vikings were farmining.
burt on October 27, 2009 at 10:36 AM
I once read a book by a Christian author who suggested that us rich Westerners should all euthanize our housepets, so that we could blindly throw more food at the Starvin’ Marvins of the world. That was one of the few times I wanted to serve a brother in Christ a knuckle sandwich.
Dark-Star on October 27, 2009 at 10:40 AM
Every aspect of our lives is going to be governed by the same people who were out in the streets protesting The Establishment and Big Brother in the 60′s and 70′s.
But, don’t call them hypocrites.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 10:43 AM
I’ll quit eating meat when animals stop eating meat.
As for water and waste?
They ain’t making any more water. Imagine that all the water in the world has been drunk before. Your job is to find the water that’s been drunk least, and failing that the water that’s been dunk last, longest ago.
I love “scientific” advice from those absolutley clueless about High School level Earth Science.
Wander on October 27, 2009 at 10:43 AM
From one cattleman to another, very well said. We’ve been under assault for many years now, and our numbers as a result are dwindling.
For everyone else, enjoy your beef…
While you can.
TXUS on October 27, 2009 at 10:45 AM
But why do they want us to eat less meat? The “green” folks want to eliminate the herd animals that produce so much dangerous pollution.
Allow me to rephrase: nature-lovers want to kill lots of large animals because their breathing and digestion produce gasses that are harnessed by other organisms to survive and grow.
The people who hunted the buffalo to near-extinction would be champions of Al Gore’s movement.
hawksruleva on October 27, 2009 at 10:46 AM
Why don’t these idiots take their own advice and just start killing themselves if they are so unhappy to be here and leave the rest of us ALONE!
Sporty1946 on October 27, 2009 at 10:48 AM
Vegan and vegetarianism is not natural and you will die if you follow the diets religiously from B-12 deficiency. On the other hand you can live quiet will on an all meat diet. If you want to see heath care cost skyrocket just put everyone on a vegan and vege diet, not to mention all the mental health problems that will develop. Have you ever met a vegan or vege that was not mental?
RobD on October 27, 2009 at 10:56 AM
That is BS. I knew lots of people who were vegetarians, they were the most unhealthy looking people I knew. Our bodies were designed to eat meat and vegetables.
4shoes on October 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Hey Vegans. You’re entitled to your view, but until the lion lays down with the lamb, make mine a double quarter pounder.
donh525 on October 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
The people who hunted the buffalo to near-extinction would be champions of Al Gore’s movement.
hawksruleva on October 27, 2009 at 10:46 AM
umm, and what is to be done with the small woodland creatures such as the mouse and rabbit? There’s a lot of those buggers out there.
And what about the whale and other large sea mammals? They must raise ocean temperatures by a few nano-degrees. Eliminating them would alone save coastal Tennessee from Category 12 Super-Hurricanes!! WE MUST POISON THEIR SPAWNING GROUNDS!!
Jed_Eckert on October 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
How is it that these ‘experts’ are so blind? Lord Stern is basing his entire premise on the production of greenhouses gasses from a natural process without looking at the entire ecosystem.
The methane produced by animals can only come from the food they eat. No animal on the face of this earth produces any waste that is not a part of the system. The growing cycle of that food MUST be included in any discussion of the byproducts produced. In this example, ignoring the cycle of plant to farm animal back to plants is a futile effort in the big picture.
In fact, what this kind of poorly constructed, and often repeated, logic does is to expose ‘experts’ as the shills for a cause that at best, they do not understand.
Freddy on October 27, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Wow. Factual fail and a mental-insanity stereotype.
On B-12 deficiency:
Vegetarian Support Formula (Red Star T-6635+) nutritional yeast provides the recommended amount of vitamin B12 for adults. So does fortified cereal. Nature’s Path Optimum Power cereal contains vitamin B12 and about a half cup of this cereal will provide 2.4 micrograms of vitamin B12.
Other sources of vitamin B12 are fortified soy milk, meat analogues (food made from wheat gluten or soybeans to resemble meat, poultry, or fish), and vitamin B12 supplements that do not contain animal products.
Dark-Star on October 27, 2009 at 11:01 AM
Now that you mention it… no.
4shoes on October 27, 2009 at 11:01 AM
They are always looking for a way to control what you eat. It’s driving me nuts.
Oil Can on October 27, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Matthew Scully (born March 30, 1959, in Casper, Wyoming) is an American author, journalist, and speechwriter. He has worked as a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Dick Cheney, the late Governor Robert P. Casey of Pennsylvania, presidential nominee John McCain, and vice presidential nominee Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 11:03 AM
Oh bullcookies.
I thought moronic “they’re all crazy” attacks were the property of the libtards and media sock-puppets.
Ah well…you learn something new every day…
Dark-Star on October 27, 2009 at 11:04 AM
Sorry Dark-Star, the vegetarians I knew did not eat that stuff. They basically ate whatever the heck they wanted, junk food was a big part, because they justified it to themselves that they were more healthy than everyone else as they didn’t eat meat. Most of the vegetarians I knew were also overweight.
4shoes on October 27, 2009 at 11:05 AM
Sorry. Forgot to include this page that lists Matthew Scully as a vegan.
American vegans
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 11:05 AM
That all sounds lovely but I think I’ll have a ribeye.
thomasaur on October 27, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Wow, just wow…this can’t end well. He inmates are running the asylum used to be a funny phrase, but it’s hitting way too close to reality these days.
So, “they” want to get us to stop eating meat, but at the same time “they” are going to regulate and cap’n'tax farmers right outta business. Hannity’s report on the water being cut off to huge swaths of the “Salad Bowl of the US”, bankrupting farmers and putting tens of thousands out of work is infuriating to say the least. To “save” some little fish, “they” are destroying people’s livelihoods and killing a major source of food production.
I’m all for clean air, water and conservation of natural resources, but this is ridiculous.
We need a meat-eating common-sense conservative in the White House to reverse this insanity.
Palin 2012.
ornery_independent on October 27, 2009 at 11:06 AM
I concede vegans their choice of food. Can they concede me mine? Oh, and me thinks their END products surely pollute more than mine. They sure smell worse!
donh525 on October 27, 2009 at 11:09 AM
Remember the bio-fuel craze that drove up the price of tortillas? And now some loon in the UK wants us to stop eating meat? Uh, what the heck are we supposed to eat? I’m guessing: nothing!
Sooo, as we all die off and the earth returns to it’s pristine pre-human purity, who’s gonna be around to applaud the great success of this experiment?
Barb Dwyer on October 27, 2009 at 11:10 AM
I’m sorry, but if God wanted us to eat yeast powder, fortified cereal and meat analogues he wouldn’t have created real food.
BigD on October 27, 2009 at 11:10 AM
Loxodonta
Nope Sorry never met them.
If you have to supplement with exotic man made garbage like yeast and fortified soy milk(can you say man boobs) it isn’t a diet fit for man.
RobD on October 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Why are crazy people in charge and making the rules?
Cindy Munford on October 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM
Ever wonder what the carbon footprint for the industry that produces this adjunct you have to add to your deficient diet in order to survive on it?
More adjuncts, produced artificially (even though the label says all natural, it’s still artificial through it’s production and extraction and later added to the product). Do you wonder where they’re getting the B12 to fortify with? Cheapest path is through extraction from animal sources.
What about the footprint to create those faux-meats you’re so fond of. Care to compare those footprints for the veggie burger versus the ground round?
Jason Coleman on October 27, 2009 at 11:12 AM
As delicious as a tofu McRib sandwich sounds, I’ll stick with steak…but thanks for your concern.
ornery_independent on October 27, 2009 at 11:14 AM
I’m sorry, but you can take your John Wayne complex and stuff it.
They’re experimenting with vat-grown beef, is that ‘real food’ according to you? Are the food animals we’ve jacked up with all manner of hormones ‘real food’? Are Roundup-ready corn and similarly “god-modded” plants ‘real food’?
‘Real food’ is anything that nourishes your body. End of story.
Dark-Star on October 27, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Also, there are approximately one billion Hindus in the world who practice vegetarianism for religious reasons. Many of them are in the United States. Are all Hindus mental? No. Absolutely not. Furthermore, there are many incredibly brilliant Hindus that are much smarter than 99+% of those reading and posting in this blog. And brilliant or not, any Hindus who are US citizens, I want on our side.
So, whether it’s because we’re not religious bigots or simply for pragmatic political purposes, Let’s make it clear that those comments about vegetarians aren’t worth the paper they aren’t printed on. Thanks.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Just as an FYI beforehand, I am NOT myself a vegan.
As soon as I can find fair, verified and reliable sources of information on those topics, I’ll get back to you on that.
And as soon as I get back home. Gotta run now to catch the city bus; have a good afternoon all!
Dark-Star on October 27, 2009 at 11:17 AM
This is as bad as the piece last week about your pet being your dinner. These people are nuts! Who do they think they are, and why do they think God put these animals on the earth? First they want my cats and my dog, bird etc., now they want me to give up all meat because they say so?
All I have to say is; over my cold, dead body.
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 11:18 AM
There’s a rule governing that. I believe it’s called Catch 22.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 11:19 AM
For everyone else, enjoy your beef…
While you can.
TXUS on October 27, 2009
Obama certainly enjoys his, at $100.00 per pound.
SKYFOX on October 27, 2009 at 11:20 AM
The best stewards of the land are farmers and ranchers. They are far better at taking care of their land, domestic animals, and wildlife than anyone residing in a city. I’m grateful I can enjoy fresh produce, meats/poultry and fish all grown in the U.S..turning this important job over to 3rd world countries is not going to be accepted by the general populace.
24K lady on October 27, 2009 at 11:22 AM
Omigod, I am like John Wayne. Groovy.
BigD on October 27, 2009 at 11:26 AM
That figure is based on a misapprehension. What Obama almost certainly served was “American Wagyu,” which is dramatically less expensive, and lower quality, than the Japanese stuff, though produced in a similar fashion.
Bleeds Blue on October 27, 2009 at 11:27 AM
If you want to read about the vegetarian myth check out
The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability(search amazon for it). Written by an ex vegan.
RobD on October 27, 2009 at 11:28 AM
Erosion figures, the massive use of fertilizers and pesticides and the destruction of critical watersheds in the west suggest that this is not always the case. Not that I’m not in favor of cheap and plentiful food, but let’s be a little realistic. Given that the “best” way to conserve land would be to leave it uncultivated, city dwellers do a pretty good job of conservation for their part. It’s those darn suburbanites…
Bleeds Blue on October 27, 2009 at 11:31 AM
You can take a series of pills that can “nourish” your body. All of the essentials can be delivered through artificial means (pills). Is that “real food”? Of course it isn’t, it’s crap. But it can work, and it’s REALLY expensive, in dollars and boogey-man-carbon.
Is “vat-grown” meat “real food”? Of course not, it’s vat-grown protiens and fats, it’s artificial, and it will probably provide nourishment one day. It may even be cheaper in dollars one day, but not cheaper in boogey-man-cabon anytime in any of our lifetimes.
Are the “jacked up with hormones” products “real food”? Of course not. They are inflated foods, yielding more mass for less nutrient benefit.
In all of your examples, you’ve gone both apples and oranges, and created strawmen. No one is arguing against a vegetarian diet and leaping headlong into the virtues of vat grown proteins. Only you are making that dishonest leap.
What about GMO (genetically modified foods)? Are they “real food”? Again, NO, but without GMO crops, a vegetarian diet for the masses cannot exist.
Everything you are arguing for Dark Star is either A) destructive to your own support for vegetarianism/veganism or B)more destructive to the planet in terms of boogey-man-carbon than conventional/traditional methods of food production.
Don’t hold up a malnourished society (vegetarian Hindu’s) as your example for the rest of the world. When the Indian nation can feed all of it’s people, then you MIGHT be justified in lifting them up.
Poor Americans are fat because food is cheap. Poor Indians die of starvation because their religious culture prevents them from using the resource that is most dense in the nutrients they are deficient in.
Lemme point out also that the U.S. and North America in general is a net carbon absorber, Asia is not. Who’s doing what right?
Jason Coleman on October 27, 2009 at 11:34 AM
This has nothing to do with saving the planet or anything else…it’s a political power grab by nut job global statists exploiting the soft-headed morons who need a religion. This is just one more data point in that proof…as if any more were needed.
AUINSC on October 27, 2009 at 11:34 AM
You didn’t read your own source very carefully. It says that Hinduism has “approximately one billion adherents, of whom approximately 905 million live in India”, and “Estimates of the number of lacto vegetarians in India (includes adherents of all religions) vary between 20% and 42%”. There is no way that there’s a billion Hindu vegetarians in the world.
jic on October 27, 2009 at 11:36 AM
umm, and what is to be done with the small woodland creatures such as the mouse and rabbit? There’s a lot of those buggers out there.
Jed_Eckert on October 27, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Bunny stew! My favorite!
katy the mean old lady on October 27, 2009 at 11:37 AM
Say that to Rajiv Srinivasan, 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army, a West Point graduate.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
Right now, meat and its feed are subsidized in the U.S., while vegetables and fruits are not. This would merely reverse the situation. Acting as though the current system is incentive-neutral is a tad disingenuous. Getting nutrition from plants rather than animals is far less wasteful, so this would be a natural outgrowth of such global warming measures. You might oppose it, but neither is it surprising nor is government meddling in food costs new.
calbear on October 27, 2009 at 11:40 AM
I live in the UK. God knows that the country is hugely overtaxed, and the government has completely bought into global warming, but there is no such thing as a global warming tax on barbecues.
jic on October 27, 2009 at 11:42 AM
When a conservative wants to be a vegetarian, he stops eating meat. When a liberal wants to be a vegetarian, he tries to enact legislation that forces everyone to stop eating meat.
It works with everything…
When a conservative doesn’t like a talk show, he changes to another station. When a liberal doesn’t like a talk show, he tries to get the host fired and the show taken off the air.
Etc.
Daggett on October 27, 2009 at 11:44 AM
I’m all for linking veganism to global warming believers.
In fact, you are a total hypocrite if you say you believe man is causeing rising temperatures and still eat any type of animal products, play energy sucking CO2 creating video games, use cell phones, own a auto, buy Christmas ormanments, use air conditioning ….. Their is no such thing as being carbon neutral…No way to buy your way out of your evil carbon creations….watch how the support for this phony theory plummets when personal sacrifice enters.
LeeSeneca on October 27, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Spot on Daggett!
RobD on October 27, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Too bad our federal government chooses to bury the true cost of building suburban roads via federal funding. I would venture to guess that there would be a lot less suburban sprawl if there was no federal funding for roads (even if just interstate roads).
So, I make the deduction that liberals that want more road infrastructure projects are anti-environment.
WashJeff on October 27, 2009 at 11:58 AM
There is a solution. If you believe in ‘global warming,’ and want to save ‘Gaia,’ kill yourself.
It really is that simple.
PimFortuynsGhost on October 27, 2009 at 11:58 AM
And then there’s Famous Vegetarians and their Favorite Recipes, including Leo Tolstoy, Leonardo da Vinci, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (inventor of cornflakes), and Killer Kowalski, among others.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Sorry. My bad. Does that mean it’s okay to call the 500 million or so people who practice strict vegetarianism for religious reasons mental and unmanly? Including the Hindu West Point graduate? Is this really a “conservative” position? Where is it in the platform?
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 12:11 PM
And remember some are pondering the carbon footprint of a cheeseburger. Sweden is already putting the carbon footprint of food on the packaging. All this talk about “credits” for this or that ought to concern us. Soon there may be a limited amount of “food credits” per family.
Blue Collar Todd on October 27, 2009 at 12:13 PM
The sooner all the moving meat on this planet is eliminated, the vegetables can evolve and bring real hope and change….except the beans. In the future all beans must be aborted since tomatoes, corn or even ferns created too much carbon digesting beans.
Hening on October 27, 2009 at 12:15 PM
NOT the point. Lt. Srinivasan has most probably (and certainly throughout his time at West Point) had access to an array of supplements, adjuncts, fortified foods and artificial ingredients that produce an extermely balanced diet.
IT IS RIDICULOUS to say that his diet was in any way shape or form less carbon intensive than my omnivorous diet which includes wild fish and grass fed beef as major components.
To extrapolate further that Lt. Srinivasan’s diet over his life be applied to the 6 billion plus on the planet is insanity if you wish to not have severely synthesized plant products and GMO’s.
I long for the day when the real PETA/VEGAN/Enviros fight breaks out because they realize they are antithetical organizations.
Jason Coleman on October 27, 2009 at 12:16 PM
I agree. Though, as I’m sure you know, it’s not quite that simple — some level of “roadage” is necessary and population growth inevitable brings some justifiable increase in road building. Traditionally, though, the liberal call is for more public transportation funds and fewer roads, and for the now fashionable “infill development” which takes advantage of existing transportation infrastructure.
You’re not one of those “smart growth” leftists, are you?
Bleeds Blue on October 27, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Agreed. So, I take it that this must mean anyone who claims all vegetarians are mental or unmanly must be a liberal and can’t be a conservative. Hmmmm… Yet another class of RINO’s. The Meathead Class.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 12:20 PM
I think that may be the idea actually….
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 12:23 PM
I’ve advocated two positions in this thread:
1) The policies proposed Lord Stern are not rational, but are elitist and harmful to the world’s poor and children; and
2) Calling all vegetarians mental and unmanly is ignorant at best and bigoted at worst.
Is there a problem with either of these positions?
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 12:27 PM
No. I don’t think that, and I wasn’t supporting the person who did. But I couldn’t let you claim roughly 200-800M nonexistent Hindu vegetarians to back up your point, even if you probably didn’t do it on purpose.
jic on October 27, 2009 at 12:28 PM
No No No.
I would be happy if the federal government handle only INterstate highways. States takes care of the US Highways and state highways. Countys and\or towns take care of all other roads.
My town of Frankfort, IL has be begging the federal government for funds to widen US Highway 30 that runs through town. That’s ridiculous. Widening this road serves to the benefit of the residents of Frankfort and bording towns. Ideally the money comes from the residents of the towns or country. I can live with IL providing money, but the feds as teh key funder? Stupid!
Growth should be organic. If the residents\developers want to flip the bill for the roads and infrastructure in an area, have at it.
WashJeff on October 27, 2009 at 12:30 PM
In other words, we need to give up everything human.
Screw that. While I love my veggies, there aren’t enough.
Mommynator on October 27, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Excuse me!! I live in the Desert Southwest. I was born and raised here, left for awhile to attend college, sow my wild oats and came back, got married and had kids. I live here because my family and our business are here.
We have horrible bus service here, it takes an hour to get downtown (15 min in a car), etc. We have no rail or subway because everything is too spread out. There is a mountain in the middle of our city for heavens sake!
YOU SNOBBISH, ELITIST, URBAN DWELLERS, WHO THINK WE SHOULD ALL LIVE JUST LIKE YOU, NEED TO GET OVER YOURSELVES. I AM SICK OF YOUR POMPOUS COMMENTS ABOUT THOSE OF US THAT LIVE SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN THE INNER CITY! OUR CITY IS SPREAD OUT DUE TO THE WAY THE LAND IS. THERE IS VERY LITTLE DECENT HOUSING IN OUR DOWNTOWN AREA, AND EVEN THERE, THE BUS SERVICE SUCKS! I HAVE TO DRIVE TO WORK BECAUSE NO BUS GOES THERE AND I DRESS IN OFFICE ATTIRE, SO OVER A MILE IS TOO FAR TO WALK, AS THERE IS NO SHOWER THERE. MY KID PLAYS THE CELLO, AND CARRIES A HEAVY BACKPACK, AND THE SCHOOL BUS DOES NOT COME HERE, SO I HAVE TO TAKE HER!
I don’t want to hear anymore about those darn suburbanites from elitist “city dwellers. You have no right to tell us how to live or criticize us for where we live. IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Not so much, Cork. Eating meat allows a smaller digestive tract and less time spent looking for food, a net energy gain. The big brain helps find food, and helps stop us becoming food.
I tend to thing it’s responsible for human sentience as well, for one simple reason: How smart do you have to be to sneak up on a plant?
mojo on October 27, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Can we please try to remember that there ARE conservative vegetarians in the world? My husband and I happen to number among them.
We are not vegan–we are lacto-ovo vegetarian, so we get plenty of B-12. My husband just ran his umpteenth marathon two weeks ago, so I don’t think his health is in jeopardy. We are raising our children vegetarian (oh noes!) because it would make no sense to us to raise them eating meat when we don’t. How would that even work? Seperate meals? They are very happy and healthy and that’s all that I care about.
We have taken great pains in the raising of our girls to stress to them that a person’s food choices are their own, and that it makes no difference to us if people eat meat or not, that it has no impact on how we think or feel about that person. We also know that the day may come when one or both of our children may decide to eat meat and that will be okay, we will just ask that they don’t eat it in our home. If they want to go out with their friends and have a burger, that will be fine with us.
I understand when people’s hackles get up because some idiot extremist makes some stupid let’s-all-go-vegan statement, but please don’t lump all vegetarians in with them.
Niere on October 27, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 12:27 PM
Well said. The premise that because you are a vegan/vegetarian you cant be conservative is nuts.
catlady on October 27, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Niere on October 27, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Amen!
catlady on October 27, 2009 at 12:53 PM
There may be many individual vegetarians who are perfectly rational, intelligent people–believing a few myths here and there is common to all. But beware those who are on a mission to convert others: they are liars. And they count on the fact that most people will not check their citations.
VerbumSap on October 27, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Veggies give me gas…isn’t that just shifting the problem?
Wyznowski on October 27, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 12:42 PM
I agree with the sentiment, though not the exact phrasing. The fact is, most city dwellers have no real experience with farm and ranch living. And they get too “holier than thou” about it. From growing up in the midst of farming / ranching clan, yet living in a city for most my life, there is a big disconnect in perception from the two sides.
So you urbanites should not generalize about the “evil” of ranchers and farmers, and the country dwellers need to realize that libtard urban dwellers have been conditioned to have these knee jerk reactions.
catlady on October 27, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Thanks. Doing reading and math together, while trying to disprove a couple of claims from somebody whom I’m otherwise supporting, is haaaaaaard!
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 1:06 PM
And you know this how, exactly?
It was reported to be Japanese, and therefore probably was. If you have to make things up to support your idol, you are probably not to bright to have that idol in the first place.
tcn on October 27, 2009 at 1:06 PM
No, it was Kobe beef from Japan, the most expensive in the world.
As to Wagyu, current retail for filet mignon will cost the restaurant about $150 per pound.
TXUS on October 27, 2009 at 1:06 PM
I figure the reason so many vegetarians want to make everyone else be vegetarian is the same reason most liberals want to legislate how many sheets of toilet paper you use to wipe your butt. They really don’t believe this nonsense themselves, but if everyone is doing it, they will feel vindicated in being so pushy and obnoxious. Honestly, how insecure do you have to be in order to be a liberal?
And why is it that vegetarians make their veggies look like meat, if they are against eating meat? Anybody see anything screwy there?
tcn on October 27, 2009 at 1:09 PM
And on the same vein of thought, if we are truly conservative isn’t part of our ideology the fact that all people are free to live their lives as they see fit, with of course the proviso that no laws are broken? If someone is a self sufficient vegan not taking government handouts (i.e. welfare) who are we to say jack about their lifestyle? If they try to convert me all I have to do is reply “sorry not interested.” The same applies to urban dwellers who are against suburban sprawl. How is this your problem? Let the market dictate the demand for suburbia, not government nor you!
catlady on October 27, 2009 at 1:09 PM
I don’t think anyone here really has a problem with someone choosing not to eat meat. It’s the idea that eating meat is bad, or somehow worse for the environment that is just ridiculous.
I’m sure you conservative vegetarian types don’t presume to do either, but it’s a fine line. Especially when you call yourself out as lacto-ovo (super-concentrated animal product) or start lauding those who had the exceptional vegetarian diet as examples.
And if you take some sort of supplement? Then you really should back off on the claims to vegetarianism, because it’s only because of food science and husbandry that you have many of these supplements.
Jason Coleman on October 27, 2009 at 1:11 PM
TXUS on October 27, 2009 at 1:06 PM
You are correct, it was reported as Kobe beef from Japan.
As an affirmation of what you said earlier – farmers and ranchers do more with less than any other group of workers in this country. They work harder, longer and with less “vacation” than most anyone else. It takes guts and determination to be one. Everytime we go to a grocery store and see the variety of vegatables or beef we should thank a farmer. The problem now is we are regulating our family farms out of business and foreign competition is unfairly given a free hand.
catlady on October 27, 2009 at 1:14 PM
I’m assuming you are being sarcastic in that last remark. But just in case you aren’t, having lived in a city most of my life, suburbia some of my life, and visited rural and wilderness areas for extensive periods, I don’t see evidence supporting your point at all.
We live in a smaller and smaller world. Everything seems to be everybody’s business.
I’ve encountered wonderful and horrible people from all different backgrounds, educational levels, living situations, etc. It really doesn’t matter if you are rural folk or suburban or urban or a thousand other characteristics, people can be just as ignorant, elitist and bigoted, or just as wise, egalitarian and hospitable.
It’s what resides in your head and heart that makes the difference, not where you reside. May peace be with you.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 1:25 PM
What is that supposed to mean?
Niere on October 27, 2009 at 1:30 PM
If people want to be vegan, they have that right.
If people want to drive golf carts to work, they have that right.
But once these nuts try to push their lifestyle choices onto others, they need to be stopped! I don’t care what people do, as long as the govt does not try to tell me how to live my life.
jeffn21 on October 27, 2009 at 1:37 PM
It means you’re still an omnivore. You just don’t like the texture of meat.
Egg and milk are highly concentrated animal products.
Why do you even try to cling to a vegetarian label if not for the food politics involved in it?
Jason Coleman on October 27, 2009 at 1:38 PM
I just get sick and tired of libs in New York, Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco telling those of us that live in what they call “fly over country”, why we should not drive our cars, and why we should ride a bike instead or take public transportation like they do. That would be great, if it was possible, but it is not happening right now in this part of the Country. When it does, if ever, it will be much more difficult and expensive as our landscape is a spread out, mountainous, high desert.
I lived in San Francisco and rode the Muni trains, buses and BART all the time, but those are workable solutions there, not necessarily here in our area. Maybe one of these days, but this area is very property poor and we just don’t have the tax base to afford that type of infrastructure at this time.
And lastly, they have no right to lecture us on anything.
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 1:41 PM
So does this mean humans around the world will have to reduce legume consumption, which causes human flatulence? No, I refuse to take government Beano.
yoda on October 27, 2009 at 1:44 PM
If the producers of some of these products had a sense of humor, they’d just make them in the shape of little animals. Can you imagine your Soy Bacon in the shape of a pig, or your veggie burger in the shape of a cow’s head?
To quote a comedian whose name escapes me at the moment, “If God had not intended for us to eat animals, he wouldn’t have made them out of meat!”
UltimateBob on October 27, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Yeah, Greenland used to be called “Geenland” for a reason. The environmentalist-leninist-maoists are screaming about geenland’s ice sheets melting. They were far more melted during the midevil warm period than today.
nazo311 on October 27, 2009 at 1:51 PM
***
Does this mean that I have to cram a catalytic converter up my Chihuahua’s rear end to save the planet? She eats a lot of beans!
***
And stay away from me with one!
***
John Bibb
***
rocketman on October 27, 2009 at 1:52 PM
LOL! Guess I’m a “bitter clinger” in more ways than one now.
I do believe not eating meat is healthier for me. I have never been a big meat-eater–when I was a child I would trade my meat for my sister’s green beans. It was always just a natural preference for me.
Eggs and milk are not meat. So what, they are animal products. I never said I wasn’t fine with ingesting animal products.
I don’t give a crap about the politics of it. Being vegetarian means not eating meat. I don’t eat meat. Simple.
Niere on October 27, 2009 at 1:52 PM
I know I know!!! I made a hasty statement based on the people I knew in high-school and college who were vegetarians. I apologize for that. I always get myself in trouble when I generalize, I must say though that the people I knew who were vegetarians were weird and preachy about it. I can appreciate individual choices. Personally I like meat, but with the exception of the person/s breaking and entering my house, I don’t like the thought of having to kill anything. So I can understand a person’s personal choice, just don’t try to force me into it. That’s all.
4shoes on October 27, 2009 at 1:52 PM
Ain’t none of us getting out of this alive.
May as well enjoy ourselves a bit and eat more than weeds and berries.
Even vegetarians have diseases that make them linger on and add to government medical expenses.
Without a doubt, All vegetarians eventually get sick and die of something.
marybel on October 27, 2009 at 1:58 PM
This is still America, I hope, and we still have the freedom to be like peas in a pod, if and when we freely choose to be so, or as odd as any American can be, if and when we freely choose to be so. And Americans can be downright odd. Weird sense of humor. Darn bunch of cats nobody can herd. Going around the world telling dictators to tear down their walls and respect freedom. But nobody can tell us what to do! No! Often, not even our own president. Isn’t it wonderful?
Here. Take this. It’s a gift. Mushy peas be with you.
What you do with it, I leave up to you.
Loxodonta on October 27, 2009 at 2:08 PM
Didn’t you read the post the other day about keeping cats and dogs as pets? No more cats and dogs! You need to have pets like chickens or other edible animals! A medium size dog has the carbon footprint of a car, and causes global warming! Don’t you know anything?!!!!
Save the planet!
/sarc
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 2:14 PM
Yuck!! LOL!!
Susanboo on October 27, 2009 at 2:16 PM
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