• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

I Don't Think So Bill

Quetzal

A little to the left and slightly out of focus.
Premium Member

Regiomontanus

Ματαιοδοξία ματαιοδοξιών! Όλα είναι ματαιοδοξία.
I can see why. Beef production is pretty damaging to the environment.

Yes, very much so. And I think that, for your average person, stopping the consumption of commercially raised beef (and meat in general) is probably the single most positive thing you could do for Mother Earth.

"The average annual greenhouse gas and reactive N emissions associated with beef cattle production over the past five years were determined to be 243 ± 26 Tg carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) and 1760 ± 136 Gg N, respectively. Total fossil energy use was found to be 569 ± 53 PJ and blue water consumption was 23.2 ± 3.5 TL. Environmental intensities expressed per kg of carcass weight produced were 21.3 ± 2.3 kg CO2e, 155 ± 12 g N, 50.0 ± 4.7 MJ, and 2034 ± 309 L, respectively. These farm-gate values are being combined with post farm-gate sources of packing, processing, distribution, retail, consumption and waste handling to produce a full life cycle assessment of U.S. beef. This study is the most detailed, yet comprehensive, study conducted to date to provide baseline measures for the sustainability of U.S. beef."

Of course, any alternative will have an impact too but not as much as beef.


Data from: Environmental footprints of beef cattle production in the United States | Ag Data Commons
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Einstein believed that too much meat production would be the single greatest threat to Planet Earth in the distant future. Why? Too inefficient for production of foodstuff, which could lead to there not being enough food to feed the world's population; plus the effect of methane gas, which is 20 times more heat retentive than CO2.
 

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
I can see why. Beef production is pretty damaging to the environment.
Especially excessive water usage as cows consume enormous amounts of water. Sheep and goats need only about half of what cows do, and poultry only a small fraction of that.
 

icehorse

......unaffiliated...... anti-dogmatist
Premium Member
Seems that Bil Gates thinks that rich countries should not eat beef, just synthetic beef. What's next, synthetic bacon?
Oh by the way it seem's that Bill is invested in 'synthetic meet' startups.
Synthetic meat investor Bill Gates calls for rich countries to shift entirely to synthetic meat - Beef Central

If the beef industry wasn't heavily subsidized, beef would cost maybe $35 / pound, +/-. I think that would substantially shift the demand / supply scale. As someone who eats - maybe - one pound of beef a YEAR, I'm not thrilled that some of my tax dollars go to propping up the beef industry, because I know it's a big factor in destroying our environment.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Culture grown meat is synthetic meat as in it's not meat from an animal.
It is real meat from an animal. Its grown from the animal's stem cells. Its also known as tissue engineering.


Cultured meat - Wikipedia

It's pretty facinating and potentially lucrative, givin people's passion for meats. I like it because it will eliminate slaughter and one animal alone can feed thousands of people.
 

Quetzal

A little to the left and slightly out of focus.
Premium Member
It is real meat from an animal. Its grown from the animal's stem cells. Its also known as tissue engineering.


Cultured meat - Wikipedia

It's pretty facinating and potentially lucrative, givin people's passion for meats. I like it because it will eliminate slaughter and one animal alone can feed thousands of people.
There are some things we deal with that really suck. On the other hand, things like this give me optimism. How cool is it that we have figured out how to do this? If it works out, we can be in a position to end world hunger with this technology and a bit of political willpower. It's a win/win.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
There are some things we deal with that really suck. On the other hand, things like this give me optimism. How cool is it that we have figured out how to do this? If it works out, we can be in a position to end world hunger with this technology and a bit of political willpower. It's a win/win.
Me too. I never liked the idea of having to kill an animal to survive. This way it's definitely a win win and from what I hear the meat in general is undistinguishable from slaughtered animals.

There might be taste variation from grain fed meat but I suspect it can be rectified with spices and sauces.

Once I see it , I'm definitely trying it out and will post my experience.
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
I can see why. Beef production is pretty damaging to the environment.
So is having homes the size of Bill's 66,000 sq ft mansion.
Bill Gates's house - Wikipedia
I love it when celebrities talk the talk, but don't walk the walk.

Now for some fun...
iu
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
So meat has now been singled out as the new cultural battleground in the theatre of American politics?
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
So meat has now been singled out as the new cultural battleground in the theatre of American politics?
Not yet. It's only beginning to make noise.
But as over-population becomes more of
a problem, it will some day loom large.
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Not yet. It's only beginning to make noise.
But as over-population becomes more of
a problem, it will some day loom large.
My understanding is that the scientific nature of Malthusianism has been mostly discredited, and that particular school of thought seems to be largely sticking around in the pseudoscientific periphery.

As far as I can tell, what we commonly refer to as "overpopulation" seems to be a largely an inability or stubborn unwillingness on our part to properly distribute existing resources to everyone who needs them.
 
Last edited:

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
What we commonly refer to as "overpopulation" seems to be a largely an inability on our part to properly distribute existing resources to everyone who needs them, an issue which has been going on for quite some time.
Solving that problem will mean spreading more wealth, which will
exacerbate the environmental damage done by people exploiting it.
The great extinction of the anthropocene era will blossom
 

Kooky

Freedom from Sanity
Solving that problem will mean spreading more wealth, which will
exacerbate the environmental damage done by people exploiting it.
The great extinction of the anthropocene era will blossom
That's an interesting contrast to your earlier musings over the environmental impact of a billionaire's villa.

I was actually going to agree with your earlier assessment that the greatest environmental damage probably originates in the greatest concentrations of wealth, but you seem to have made an argumentative turnabout. Was that on purpose, or a result of your rhetoric entanglement with Malthusianism (which originated as a moral panic against the overly procreative urban poor)?
 

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
That's an interesting contrast to your earlier musings over the environmental impact of a billionaire's villa.

I was actually going to agree with your earlier assessment that the greatest environmental damage probably originates in the greatest concentrations of wealth, but you seem to have made an argumentative turnabout. Was that on purpose, or a result of your rhetoric entanglement with Malthusianism (which originated as a moral panic against the overly procreative urban poor)?
Wealth concentration isn't an environmental problem.
I pointed out what Bill & so many other celebrity greenies
do...they preach at us, but are hypocrites in their own acts.

The cumulative effect of all mankind using resources is
the problem. If we raise the standard of living planet-wide
for the poorest, it'll mean increasing that effect.
 
Top