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PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

THE Energy & Meat Thread (merged)

How to save energy through both societal and individual actions.

Do you think meat consumption reduction could save oil and delay peak oil problems?

Poll ended at Sat 11 Mar 2006, 01:27:27

Yes, I'm a vegan and if everyone was, the world would be a more peaceful place.
14
No votes
Yes, but I eat meat. It doesn't matter what I do. It's what everyone does that matters.
6
No votes
No, Jevon's Paradox still applies.
9
No votes
No, there are other ways to reduce oil consumption than to deny people an essential food group.
14
No votes
No, I deny the facts presented in this post.
5
No votes
Yes, but the MEAT lobby will never let that happen.
7
No votes
No, it's too late to implement anything to stave off any peak oil effects.
6
No votes
No, it is a cultural possibility for people to stop eating something that has been the centerpiece of their meals.
2
No votes
No, meat will get more expensive as oil gets more expensive and the market will handle it.
18
No votes
 
Total votes : 81

Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby Doly » Fri 24 Feb 2006, 11:21:00

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('untothislast', 'H')ere's a useful rule of thumb:

If it's dead - eat it.

If it's alive - don't kill it.

Everyone happy with that?


Definitely not. Fruit is alive when you eat it (otherwise it wouldn't ripen in the fruitbowl).

And it would make OK to eat animals that other people have killed, which is what most people do anyway.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby untothislast » Fri 24 Feb 2006, 11:47:44

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Doly', 'D')efinitely not. Fruit is alive when you eat it (otherwise it wouldn't ripen in the fruitbowl).

And it would make OK to eat animals that other people have killed, which is what most people do anyway.


I thought we were back to talking about Peak Oil? Nevermind. This thread is a debate about the killing of animals - go start a 'fruit-killer' thread somewhere else, if the suffering of fruit and vegetables genuinely keeps you awake at night. By the way, 'fruit' is part of the propagative process employed by the tree (which stays alive). You eat an apple, the seeds pass through you - and you get a new tree. Have you got a problem with that? Show me someone who can eat bacon and shit piglets, and I'll bow to your superior wisdom.

It isn't OK to eat animals that other people have killed - for the same reason that people go to jail for employing hitmen. You still bear some responsibility for it happening - even if you didn't personally 'pull the trigger'.

Next? . . .
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby untothislast » Fri 24 Feb 2006, 12:01:50

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'T')here is nothing inherently wrong with killing.

Killing has been part of the eco-system for ... 3 or so billion years now. Bacteria consume other bacteria for nutrients. Plants kill organisms to protect themselves and to eat (Venus Fly Traps). Animals kill plants and other animals for nutrients and in self-defense.

Human beings are no different. You can take offense to how meat is produced in our society, but to take offense to killing is simply asinine. You don't lament the billions of bacteria killed each day by your immune system. You don't lament over the thousands of insects killed each day by your actions (direct or indirect).

Also, untothislast, you stated before that animals act on instinct and that they are also sentient. Which is it buddy, you can't have it both ways. Either the tiger understands the gravity of its actions, or it acts on instinct and has no control over what it does. To claim that the tiger doesn't understand what it does and call it sentient is having your cake and eating it too.


I thought we were going to talk about Peak Oil? Oh well . . .

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'T')here is nothing inherently wrong with killing.


Yes there is - at the end of the spectrum we inhabit, where we know our actions will cause distress to other species capable of expressing pain, sense of personal survival and emotion. Therefore I can walk on grass all day long without undue concern, but would draw the line at walking on puppies. Hopefully, so would you.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'Y')ou don't lament the billions of bacteria killed each day by your immune system. You don't lament over the thousands of insects killed each day by your actions


You're right, I don't. I wonder why? As to your second point though, it's valid - and I agree with you. I do take care not to cause harm to insects, on a personal daily basis, but my vegetarianism (unless strictly organic) obviously involves the use of pesticides, so I'm guilty as charged.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('0mar', 'A')lso, untothislast, you stated before that animals act on instinct and that they are also sentient. Which is it buddy, you can't have it both ways.


Yes you can. You and I are both sentient - yet, in certain instances, our instinct will govern our actions before rational thought can take control. It's up to humans, having developed moral and ethical references by which to judge our behaviour, to apply them. Other animals, apparently not having reached this level of introspective insight, have an excuse for not doing so.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby eastbay » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 08:12:28

Actually, this thread is about the energy wasted by harvesting animals. But the discussion about the ethics of the cruel and disgusting practice of harvesting animals for food is relevant to peak oil because if people didn't participate in this slaughter this huge waste of energy wouldn't occur.

Eating meat is the same as thing swiping your credit card at a gas station and pumping the fuel directly into the sewer.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby untothislast » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 08:54:30

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')ctually, this thread is about the energy wasted by harvesting animals.


Quite correct. Anyone want to take up the discussion on that basis?
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby TheTurtle » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 09:07:28

That humans are bioloically developed to eat meat is a fact.

Vegetarianism, as I see it, is therefore a religious tenet.

To respect untothislast's religious beliefs, I agreed to abstain from further discussion. I thought untothislast had agreed to the same thing.

Apparently not.

I, for one, will no longer contribute to this thread.

Peace.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.” (Ted Perry)
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby 0mar » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 13:22:47

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('untothislast', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')ctually, this thread is about the energy wasted by harvesting animals.


Quite correct. Anyone want to take up the discussion on that basis?


No more so than vegetable production or grain.

The problem isn't meat, it's overpopulation.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby untothislast » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 15:20:46

Despite all my repeated pleas to get this thread back on track (and if you follow the postings back, you'll note that one of these was followed by a couple of gratuitous anti-vegetarian rants, which couldn't pass without reply), it's still being used as a forum for those deeply guilt-ridden, to offset their personal failings and inadequacies, by belittling one of the noblest and respectful undertakings humans can enter into with their fellow species.

The counter arguments have been getting increasingly desperate and illogical; all killing should be considered part of the natural order (although for some reason, murder remains a crime on the statute books); next I'm a fruit murderer - or I have no respect for microbes; now I'm being derided as being part of some sort of religious cult - even though I'm a lifelong atheist. Face it friends; I'm not a hippie, a Jesus-freak, a Scientologist, Buddhist - or part of any other faction you can lazily employ to justify my strict adherence to a code of behaviour you can't even begin to understand.

So, once again with feeling . . . can we please get back to Peak Oil?
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby smallpoxgirl » Sat 25 Feb 2006, 15:38:52

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'N')o. It is about suburbanization. You live in a car-based suburban ghetto removed from the land. The United States is very underpopulated


First of all, I can't imagine how on earth you would think the US is underpopulated. Compared to India maybe it's underpopulated, but why on earth would you feel any sort of drive to live at that population density. If you really feel this insatiable need to be packed in like a sardine with other humans, then there are places in the US that you can go to live like that: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc. I'll pass thanks.

Secondly, to try to explain population as being a lifestyle problem, is doomed to failure. "The population" as I'm writing this, is significantly more than "the population" was just a few minutes ago when you wrote your post. There is no concievable way that human existance will ever be sustainable unless we figure out how to stop and reverse our exponential population growth. I don't care if you are living the most simplified lifestyle posible. Wearing all hemp clothes. Living in a hut made out of sticks and leaves, if you don't stop population growth, you are going to outstrip the planet's life support systems. If everyone totaly simplified their lifestyles, maybe we could ignore the problem for a few more years, but eventually it's going to have to be dealt with.

That is the fundamental problem with the energetics arguement for veganism. It is a bandaid that just allows you to temporarily ignore your gangrenous leg. Trying to coerce everyone to eat granola three meals a day so that we can pack more people onto the planet is just dumb.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby smallpoxgirl » Sun 26 Feb 2006, 03:39:04

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I')t is. We are below the mean.


I see. Sort of like feeling like you're underdiseased because most people have a worse case than you?
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby seldom_seen » Sun 26 Feb 2006, 04:36:38

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '
')Clods!

Omega 3 is available from vegetarian sources, such as flax. Vegans and vegetarians don't eat fish oil, you know, because fish are animals.

Doofuses!

Umm, sorry to bust in on your rant, but the Omega-3 from vegetarian sources (ALA - alpha-linolenic acid) is not the same as the long-chain Omega-3s from meat and fish (EPA - eicosapentaenoic acid and DHA - docosahexaenoic acid)

If we just needed the ALA, we'd probably all be vegetarians by nature and wouldn't even be having this conversation.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby Clouseau2 » Fri 03 Mar 2006, 17:25:35

Meat, especially beef, is an incredibly inefficient way to feed people, both in terms of energy used and water used.

To raise 1 pound of beef in an arid climate like California or Arizona takes about 5000 gallons of water.

This means that if you skip eating one pound of beef you will save more water than not taking a once-per-day 7 minute shower with a low-flow showerhead for an ENTIRE YEAR.

You can feed 20x the people with the same resources if they don't eat meat.

As energy becomes more expensive meat SHOULD become more expensive too, but people will complain and the government will massively subsidize it so the price will remain cheap until China & Japan stop lending us trillions of dollars and the whole fairy tale collapses in a rather nasty fashion.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby smallpoxgirl » Fri 03 Mar 2006, 17:48:37

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Clouseau2', 'Y')ou can feed 20x the people with the same resources if they don't eat meat.


Exactly my point. Why would you want 20x the people?

If you have a reasonable population, they can eat what they want.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby untothislast » Sat 04 Mar 2006, 07:31:22

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Clouseau2', 'Y')ou can feed 20x the people with the same resources if they don't eat meat.


Exactly my point. Why would you want 20x the people?



Clouseau2 isn't saying you'd get a 20x increase in population - the point is, you'd free up available resources to feed 20x more of the existing people.
This debate is about resource wastage. The inefficient use of water, as with oil, will become much more crucial a consideration as time goes by.
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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby mididoctors » Mon 06 Mar 2006, 09:16:53

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('eastbay', 'A')ctually, this thread is about the energy wasted by harvesting animals. But the discussion about the ethics of the cruel and disgusting practice of harvesting animals for food is relevant to peak oil because if people didn't participate in this slaughter this huge waste of energy wouldn't occur.

Eating meat is the same as thing swiping your credit card at a gas station and pumping the fuel directly into the sewer.


you do get to eat the meat....

if you eat the meat then forced yourself to throw it up and not digest it you would be engaging in a process of no merit and flushing it down the sewer

the argument that eating vegetation directly rather than converting it to
meat is more efficient is obviously correct thou when it comes to waste I know plenty of vegans who smoke hydroponic cannabis "skunk" which... using the 20 miles per 1/4 pounder figure given at the start of the thread infers that by weight skunk has 4 to 8 times the energy foot print of a Big Mac

so the promotion of a low energy diet better go in hand with abstinence from hydroponic cannabis.. there is nothing more ridiculous than a dread-locked skunk smoking anti-globilisation protester smashing up a macdonalds

my own dietary habits are I only buy vegetarian foods but eat meat if I am offered it at other peoples houses

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Re: Biggest Waste of Oil=MEAT

Postby Doly » Mon 06 Mar 2006, 09:26:55

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mididoctors', '
')so the promotion of a low energy diet better go in hand with abstinence from hydroponic cannabis..


Agreed. In fact, most drugs (including tobacco and coffee, but with the exception of laboratory drugs) are transported from long distances to the user, and often in very fast transportation. So one should abstain from them. In fact, to be completely peak-oil aware, one should abstain from any drug that one hasn't manufactured at home, because you never know where drugs come from.
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