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Stop Eating Beef?

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General interest discussions, not necessarily related to depletion.

Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby bodigami » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 13:52:07

I currently eat only birds and fish. Chicken doesn't have much taste. And I'm starting to dislike fish, specially after remembering one video of a "fishing" net that take everything, rocks, corals, fish, and so on. I thought, enough with this! This is insane, disgusting and pathetic. If I live alone it will be easier... but either way I'm planning to make the new phase towards vegetarianism (nah, veganism... I don't use leather) and stop eating any kind of meat.

I started drinking soy "milk" when I stoped eating red meats and much seafood. Also, I made a blood test and I'm fine. Healthy enough to donate blood! ...but I will think twice if donating is actually wise if we're on the edge of a die-off; it may only prolong the pain for some (if our population was on healthy levels, donating blood is a "no brainer"). Now I will eat more nuts, linseed and other beans ("lentejas").
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby Pops » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 13:55:42

Mule is exactly right; cattle are ruminants - built to digest the cellulose in grass. Actually they are built to host microbes that digest cellulose, which the cattle then digest as their protein source.

Feedlots and concentrate feeds have only been around for 30-40 years. They were a marketing gimmick, an offshoot of cheap transport and the Green Revolution's cheap grains that allowed well-marbled (with white and not yellow fat) steaks to be sold at a premium with the label of Corn Fed.

Of course as long as grain is used for motor fuel its price will probably never be cheap again and so we will go back to grass-fed beef with perhaps a little distillers grains fed at the very end. But between here and there beef prices will certainly rise very high as marginal producers are squeezed out by very low or negative profits – I am selling ten calves between 450 and 550 pounds tomorrow and if I had not traded labor for the calves and most of their feed I would probably only realize $50-$75 profit per head.

Small guys are going to go down and the price of your burger is going to go up.


However, those with an aversion to beef should also note that much more grain is fed to poultry, pork, dairy and I suppose farm-raised fish than cattle and that vegetable farming is every bit as energy intensive as animal.

Oh, and as for health concerns like BSE, the simple fact that fertilizers of all kinds will continue becoming more expensive could lead one to the conclusion that vegetables will become more, not less, susceptible to contamination by E. Coli and other goodies as farmers attempt to cut corners.

Happy Motoring…
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby threadbear » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 14:12:48

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'I') currently eat only birds and fish. Chicken doesn't have much taste. And I'm starting to dislike fish, specially after remembering one video of a "fishing" net that take everything, rocks, corals, fish, and so on. I thought, enough with this! This is insane, disgusting and pathetic. If I live alone it will be easier... but either way I'm planning to make the new phase towards vegetarianism (nah, veganism... I don't use leather) and stop eating any kind of meat.

I started drinking soy "milk" when I stoped eating red meats and much seafood. Also, I made a blood test and I'm fine. Healthy enough to donate blood! ...but I will think twice if donating is actually wise if we're on the edge of a die-off; it may only prolong the pain for some (if our population was on healthy levels, donating blood is a "no brainer"). Now I will eat more nuts, linseed and other beans ("lentejas").


I'm allergic to most legumes, including soy, dairy products and numerous other foods, including uncooked carrots, celery. I have low blood sugar so have to watch carbs. Dieting is a complete nightmare. Meat is one of the few foods I can eat, without any problem, but have confined that to free range chicken and the occassional fish, partly because of what consumption of beef is doing to the planet.

It amazes me that more people don't have a more moral approach to their food and to the lives of others, both human and animal. Every mouthful of beef I have, I'm denying someone else several meals. It's just wrong. It's wrong for the cow, raised in agribusiness situations, wrong for the body, increased risk of heart disease, for starters and cow farts are a major contributor to green house gas problems.

But some keep saying they have to eat beef, that the human body was designed for it. No way. Look at your canine teeth and compare them to a gorilla's canines....and gorillas have a predominately green diet. We aren't meant to eat a great deal of meat, just a little bit.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby hubbertspeak7777777 » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 14:20:53

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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby Pops » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 16:10:06

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('threadbear', 'I') can eat, without any problem, but have confined that to free range chicken and the occassional fish, partly because of what consumption of beef is doing to the planet.

Read the bottom of the label and tell us who raises those “wild” chickens and fish and from where your rice pilaf and sourdough bread, butter and garlic comes.

Probably if it comes from the market it comes from where everyone else gets their's and is no different except in packaging.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby jboogy » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 16:49:28

You are indeed wise Pops, I've heard more and more processors don't want to put any grain into steers at all, too expensive. They want them delivered ready to go at slaughtering weight. Grain fattening will be a thing of the past. Eventually large scale livestock production may cease; as fuel, grain and all overhead costs rise while unemployment goes up and wages stagnate, we may see the market/demand for factory meat disappear.
I was reading an e-zine article that had a bunch of people that were struggling, tell their stories. A recurring bit of info was them telling how their meat and milk purchases had diminished while their visits to the gubmint' cheese depot had increased. Meat will be for the rich, and eventually the numbers of rich will decline as they are eaten in turn.
Evil-G , what you need to look out for is eating human brains. When the earth finally succumbs to the human "virus", and our atmosphere, soil and water are unable to sustain human life, then our main concern will be avoiding contamination of our main food source ( dead human bodies ) with brain matter during butchering. Sleeping sickness or laughing sickness, (I forget which) is a real concern for those who dine on people. And I believe if you contract this disease it is always fatal, so beware and only eat muscle and trunk organs. (kidneys, heart, liver, etc.) Good luck!
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby threadbear » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 17:32:06

JBoogy, There is a theory I read somewhere recently that BSE didn't actually come from sheep, it came from human remains, infected with CJD, dredged up with the remains of everything else that gets retrieved from the rivers, in India, processed into fertilizer, and bone meal. People have made cows sick, not other cows, nor sheep, originally anyway.

Here's an article from BBC.

The first cases of BSE or "mad cow disease" could have been caused by animal feed contaminated with human remains, says a controversial theory.

Some raw materials for fertiliser and feed imported from South Asia in the 60s and 70s contained human bones and soft tissue, the Lancet reports.

Bone collectors could have picked up the remains of corpses deposited in the Ganges river to sell for export.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4201072.stm
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby jboogy » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 17:43:51

Yeah!, me and Threads discussing brain eating disease, now that's what I'm talkin' about!!!!
I thought MadSPG disease was different from what those jungle cannibals got, the same type of disease, but different enough for it to be classified as a separate strain? Enlighten please?
Perhaps the population would be less swayed to socialism if we had fewer examples of socialism from our "Free Market Capitalists". -----fiddler dave
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby threadbear » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 18:03:22

"According to Dr. Colm A. Kelleher, author of Brain Trust: The Hidden Connection Between Mad Cow and Misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease, reports in medical journals state that approximately 5-13% of vCJD cases were misdiagnosed by physicians as Alzheimer's disease. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, it is estimated that 4.5 million people suffer from the disease. If 5-13% of these patients have vCJD, that number amounts to between 225,000 and 585,000 potential misdiagnoses. According to the science journal, Med-Research America (2005) 64, the number is in fact higher and is thought to be 5-30%."

http://cjdtalk.blogspot.com/2006/05/its ... eaten.html
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby BigTex » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 18:17:50

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'M')ule is exactly right; cattle are ruminants - built to digest the cellulose in grass. Actually they are built to host microbes that digest cellulose, which the cattle then digest as their protein source.

Feedlots and concentrate feeds have only been around for 30-40 years. They were a marketing gimmick, an offshoot of cheap transport and the Green Revolution's cheap grains that allowed well-marbled (with white and not yellow fat) steaks to be sold at a premium with the label of Corn Fed.

Of course as long as grain is used for motor fuel its price will probably never be cheap again and so we will go back to grass-fed beef with perhaps a little distillers grains fed at the very end. But between here and there beef prices will certainly rise very high as marginal producers are squeezed out by very low or negative profits – I am selling ten calves between 450 and 550 pounds tomorrow and if I had not traded labor for the calves and most of their feed I would probably only realize $50-$75 profit per head.

Small guys are going to go down and the price of your burger is going to go up.


However, those with an aversion to beef should also note that much more grain is fed to poultry, pork, dairy and I suppose farm-raised fish than cattle and that vegetable farming is every bit as energy intensive as animal.

Oh, and as for health concerns like BSE, the simple fact that fertilizers of all kinds will continue becoming more expensive could lead one to the conclusion that vegetables will become more, not less, susceptible to contamination by E. Coli and other goodies as farmers attempt to cut corners.

Happy Motoring…


Pops, I listened to a piece on NPR a while back about the life of a cow from birth to slaughter and I was really surprised at how corn is not only not one of their favorite foods, but their digestive system CAN'T digest it without getting inflamed and that's part of what the antibiotic and other regimens they give them are for--to counteract some of the bad effects of giving them corn in the first place.

The punchline, of course, is that (at that time anyway), it was the extra weight from all of those shenanigans that represented your profit and if you didn't do it it was hard to stay in business.

After that story I set out to find some grass-fed beef to purchase. I drove around a lot and finally found some grass fed beef at the very back of the freezer in a health food store. When I saw how long it looked like it had been in there, I just gave up.

Let me know if any of my information above is incorrect.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby jboogy » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 18:26:27

So they are both spongy, encephalo.

Kuru is a disease which affects the brain. It was endemic among the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea and was universally fatal. It is characterized by headaches, joint pains and shaking of the limbs. It is believed to be caused by prions and is related to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.[1] It is best known for the epidemic that occurred in Papua New Guinea in the middle of the twentieth century.[2] The word kuru means "trembling with fear" in the language of the Fore people, those most commonly afflicted with the disease.[3] It is also known as the laughing sickness due to the pathologic bursts of laughter the patient displays when afflicted with the disease.[4] Trembling is present in almost all patients with transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.


[edit] History
Kuru was first noted in native people of New Guinea in 1957–1959. It was in the late 1950s that the full extent of the disease was realized, after it had reached large infection rates in the South Fore of the Okapa Subdistrict, though the agent was unknown.[5]

The disease was researched by Daniel Carleton Gajdusek who was awarded (with Baruch S. Blumberg) the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1976 for his work on it.


[edit] Transmission
The disease spread easily in the Fore people due to their cannibalistic funeral practices. The dysmorphism evident in the infection rates—it was more prevalent in women and children—is due to the fact that while the men of the village did not participate in the eating of the flesh of the deceased, the women and children divided up the body based on family ties.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby Pops » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 19:14:52

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', 'T')he punchline, of course, is that (at that time anyway), it was the extra weight from all of those shenanigans that represented your profit and if you didn't do it it was hard to stay in business.

No, I feed mostly grass and sell into the market that is.

I would be happy to work a deal with you to sell you a side of beef fed only on grass.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('BigTex', 'A')fter that story I set out to find some grass-fed beef to purchase. I drove around a lot and finally found some grass fed beef at the very back of the freezer in a health food store. When I saw how long it looked like it had been in there, I just gave up.

Hanging beef allows the decomposition process to do a little of the work of digestion so we don’t need to go to the trouble of chewing or the expense of feeding corn. It was common a generation ago.

Ever seen a hanging country ham, a round of aging cheese or the scum on a pickle barrel?
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby davep » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 19:23:10

On the organic farm where I recently did my training they just feed the cattle on grass. It's gorgeous (Charolais cattle).

Apparently cattle love eating twigs and stuff as well as grass, and their digestive tract has no problem with it. This is due to their original diet including low-hanging branches and shrubbery as well as grass.

They're still a massively inefficient use of agricultural land though.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby Ludi » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 19:24:54

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', '
')They're still a massively inefficient use of agricultural land though.


A fine use of grassland though, in the absence of bison.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby davep » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 19:30:31

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', '
')They're still a massively inefficient use of agricultural land though.


A fine use of grassland though, in the absence of bison.


I disagree, unless used in a rotational system with other livestock following on behind (geese, chickens etc).

What is grassland apart from a successional cycle that has been artificially kept at the ruderal opportunist species stage by grazing? It should ordinarily end up as forest (in most cases) if left to its own devices.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby kmann » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 22:29:51

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', 'W')hat is grassland apart from a successional cycle that has been artificially kept at the ruderal opportunist species stage by grazing? It should ordinarily end up as forest (in most cases) if left to its own devices.

Not in the Great Plains. That's where most cattle grazing occurs.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby TWilliam » Tue 01 Apr 2008, 23:39:55

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('zensui', 'I') started drinking soy "milk" when I stoped eating red meats and much seafood.


I really wish people would do more research before buying into the soy lobby pap. Soy is not a healthy thing to ingest in large amounts, and especially not products made from various refinements of it. It is very high in phyto-estrogens which can play havoc with the body's endocrine system, induce hypothyroidism and possibly thyroid cancer; it is higher than just about any other grain or legume known in phytates, anti-nutrients that bind with minerals in the digestive tract and prevent their absorption, particularly zinc, and is especially resistant to most methods that remove phytates from other grains and legumes (they all contain them); processing of soy produces MSG and processing of soy protein results in the formation of toxic lysinoalanine and highly carcinogenic nitrosamines, and soy foods contain high levels of aluminum.

Bottom line, soy should be used only in very small amounts, and only in the forms that were used traditionally in the East, such as miso, tempeh and slow-ferment soy sauce. It should absolutely not be considered as a substitute for high-quality animal protein, and especially not any of the fake soy 'meats' or soy 'milk'...
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby hubbertspeak7777777 » Wed 02 Apr 2008, 00:19:04

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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby Pops » Wed 02 Apr 2008, 11:18:07

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', 'I') disagree, unless used in a rotational system with other livestock following on behind (geese, chickens etc).

What is grassland apart from a successional cycle that has been artificially kept at the ruderal opportunist species stage by grazing? It should ordinarily end up as forest (in most cases) if left to its own devices.


Do you mean woodland is the best use of agricultural land or just that beef and dairy are of no use?

The area of the US where I live was prairie before Europeans came and began suppressing wildfires. Now quite a bit of the marginal land is scrub woods that produce nothing - not even very good cordwood.

But you are right about free grazing. Cattle will eat what they like first then move on leaving the less desirable species to flourish, they will hang out at the same shade tree and watering hole and deposit most of their manure in a small location.

Management intensive rotational grazing addresses those problems. I posted some stuff here:
http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic14556.html+farming

Just a side note, lots of stuff is toxic to cattle, wilted cherry leaves for example. Also, too much rough stuff isn't good either. There is a small opening at the entrance to the intestines which prevents particles larger than a certain size passing. If they fill up on too much really rough stuff it just sits there taking up room. You can tell a lot about how your cows are eating from the stuff you step in in the pasture - cream pies are good, wedding cakes are bad.
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Re: Stop Eating Beef?

Unread postby BigTex » Wed 02 Apr 2008, 14:30:48

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'I') would be happy to work a deal with you to sell you a side of beef fed only on grass.


My wife is a vegetarian, so that's probably not going to work. However, what would something like that cost today and how many pounds would you expect and which cuts would be included?

I haven't bought a side of beef before (though I have been to a meat dressing place with my dad when I was a kid to have deer dressed and packaged--I'll always remember because I walked into the freezer without shoes and my feet stuck to the floor. I was about 7 years old. I'll never forget that).
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