Excellent article, Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler, in The New York Times.
The Grumpy Vegan has always thought that there was inevitability to the demise of the meat and dairy industry because the planet cannot sustain it. This article confirms that view by making a link from animal protein consumption to our dependence on oil as an energy source.
Like oil, meat is subsidized by the federal government. Like oil, meat is subject to accelerating demand as nations become wealthier, and this, in turn, sends prices higher. Finally — like oil — meat is something people are encouraged to consume less of, as the toll exacted by industrial production increases, and becomes increasingly visible.
Global demand for meat has multiplied in recent years, encouraged by growing affluence and nourished by the proliferation of huge, confined animal feeding operations. These assembly-line meat factories consume enormous amounts of energy, pollute water supplies, generate significant greenhouse gases and require ever-increasing amounts of corn, soy and other grains, a dependency that has led to the destruction of vast swaths of the world’s tropical rain forests.
All of this is well and good, particularly highlighting how government subsidies are estimated by the United Nations to be 31 percent of global farm income.
The Grumpy Vegan likes the parallel made by linking meat with oil by why not throw in tobacco at the same time?
If only the world’s population were vegan, non-smokers, who used such energy sources as solar, wind and, of course, plants to live by.
Just make sure enough grapes, apples, wheat, barley and rye are grown organically to produce the elixirs of life.
