NEWS: Saving the Earth Through Cannibalism, Chuckle Chuckle

CULTURE: Saving the Earth Through Cannibalism, Chuckle Chuckle

You know it's bad when the best the HuffPo can do is crack lukewarm jokes about cannibalism. Apparently the Animal Science Journal—the official journal of the Japanese Society of Animal Science—features in its most recent issue an article on the environmental destruction caused by raising cattle. What did the research paper conclude? Oh, just that the production of beef typically contributes more to global warming than cars do.

So, in (not so) easy-to-digest terms, nine McDonald's Quarter Pounders® cause the same amount of environmental damage as driving your gas-guzzler for 160 miles and leaving a 100-watt light bulb on for 20 days.

Beef, apparently, is what's for dinner in hell.

Considering the environmental problems caused by cattle production, as well as the growing problem of overpopulation, Greg Gutfeld blogging over at the Huffington Post proposes that we eradicate both threats through cannibalism.

What about the fava beans, Greg? You can't have People Pot Pie without a side of fava beans, can you?

Greg suggests we launch this new, worldwide environmental practice of cannibalism by eating Al Gore.

Who do you think should comprise our first course?

hmmm....knew there was a reason i was craving steak tonight! thanks for the push.

i, for one, look forward to a future where humanity has overpopulated to the point of having to subsist only on blue-green algae, farmed en-masse from the ocean.

side note: now that there's even more cold, hard science behind the argument that eating meat is unsustainable, does that mean i can be an extra preachy vegetarian? is this like the dietary equivalent of leveling up in a videogame?

cue the vegetarian/vegan propaganda

Who needs propaganda when there are published facts backing you up?

It's been known for years that producing beef in such quantities is extremely bad for the ecosystem and a terribly inefficient foodsource. It's always good to add more reports to the long line of evidence, but really, what does it matter? No one ever takes it to heart and actually changes. Many of the people who would be first in line to call out the SUV drivers would read this report, go "Huh", then forget it and eat a hamburger.

Nothing changes.

Between the environmental damage, the prion thing as well as the association with the spread of other disease through contamination, the negative health impact of consuming beef, the inhumane conditions of industrialized agriculture, and the abuse of hormones and antibiotics, it seems that it should be an easy conclusion to reach that consuming beef (dairy, too, for most of the same reasons) is a bad idea.

ah, yeah, that was a good rib-eye...now where were we???

Doesnt really say -that-, more that the mass-production of one specific meat(beef) in the current system is very damaging to the environment, just like the system for many things. Not that im trying to lessen the significance, its just this is more a criticism of the system than of beef eaters specifically, or meat eaters in general.


Man I just got a flash of a new genetic designer product: Low-emission cows thats kind of scary.

This, makes perfect sense..but, in order for everyone to truely profit from cannibalism, we must do it the way Jonathan Swift describes it in A Modest Proposal. This way, we will still have huge gaps between rich and poor and society can continue being the way that it is.

maybe not so much with the blue part then...

this specific study, yes. there is however a wealth of information out there regarding the pollution caused by any and all factory farming. such as this.

So, then the solution that people should be speaking of is not consumption of spirulina (that FACTORY FARMED blue-green algae), but a destruction of the capitalistic system (which says nothing is more important than profit) which led to the kinds of farming that one sees along I-5 in California's Central Valley. Don't blame meat eaters, blame greedy bastards trying to make as much money as they can.

There's a reason why God gave us Veggie burgers.
Mmmmm, veggie burgers....

Baby eating time!

Oh no doubt, factory farming is a very poor system of, well im not sure what the entire process of raising and butchering cattle is called specifically, no arguments here.

They're already working on it. Amazingly they've been doing it for some time...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/06/010611071759.htm
Man, this is a weird world.

now you just need to convince monsanto and a few other companies that it is a bad thing. hmmm cant see that happening.

O if we killed of say half the human race it might have a detremental effect on what way things swing.

Modern grain farming probably isn't sustainable either. Standard tillage and chemical practices lead to erosion and pollution. Those veggies your so fond of require irrigation that's draining aquifers FAR faster than they can be refilled. Water will be a crunch before food.

Baby eating time!




mmm, baby.

how about we eat everybody that lives or works in the White House? except the servants.
i don't even eat meat, but i'd get in on that.

I'd eat the Bush twins...

Yeah, no shit. I'm totally vegan and 80% of what I eat grows in California. The growing season here in the northland is short, and you can't produce a decent sweet potato to save your life. So what do you think my environmental impact is to eat 1,000 pounds a year of vegetables planted and harvested in the San Joaquin Valley, trucked 2,000 miles to Minneapolis, stored at 59º in a refrigerated warehouse, trucked to the co-op, etc.??

I'm not trying to challenge anyone who's concerned about these environmental issues. I'm with you. I imagine that eating beef has a helluva impact. But I'm just trying to point out that so does consuming ANYTHING else. The best way any of us can lessen our impact on the environment is to drop dead.