| Guybrush |
02-08-2010 07:59 PM |
I wonder why Vegangelica hasn't posted in here yet?
Anyways, vegetarianism makes perfect sense from a sustainability point of view - as pointed out by others like Jackhammer. Put very simply, the energy you get from eating beef comes from the sun. It was first harvested by grass which does photosynthesis and then the cow ate it and turned it into cow meat. The thing is the cow uses a lot of that energy to do other things, like power all it's cellular processes and so on. In the end, you need many kilograms of grass to make one kilogram of cow. Cutting out the cow and eating the grass is much more economical.
We can't eat grass, of course, but just switch if for veggies.
A cynical argument against the sustainability point of view is that the world human population is doomed to grow way beyond the carrying capacity of our planet no matter what we do. It is inevitable and the more people we are when that happens, the more will suffer and the more damage we'll do to our planet and it's ecosystems.
On a more optimistic note - for those who are vegetarians because of animal suffering, I'm quite confident it's just a matter of time before we start growing our meat in petri dishes. Stem cell technology food! First someone has to do it and then it will have to get really cheap so that the industry will make the switch and then the big meat industries can grow meat in factories while some small farmers can possibly stay afloat in the meat market if they can make products that are able to compete in regards to taste etc.
It'll take a while, but I believe it's the future. ;)
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