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268 comments on DrumBeat: September 19, 2007

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btu on September 19, 2007 - 9:27am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I agree with some of what you say but much of the world grain production is used to feed livestock which could do just fine on a grazing diet although weight gain would be slower. For cattle and other livestock this produces a more heathful product (apologies to vegans) with less impact to the land due to a grass cover vs the production of grain and all of the environmental problems (chemical use, soil loss) that go with it.

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mcgowanmc on September 19, 2007 - 9:39am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The West is becoming a desert now thanx to livestock overgrazing.

There is no more grass to feed except on a "seed corn"
one off basis.

And cows are limited in what grains they can eat.

Pigs can eat junk food though. Saw an article somewhere.

And 3/4 of the world live on a vegan diet, BTW. ;}

Arkansaw of Samuel L Clemens

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praetzel on September 19, 2007 - 1:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Just quibbling - but I don't know of any vegan population the world except in recent times. Much of the world is vegetarian or nearly so (Chinese according to the China Study eat on average 1/10 the animal protein we do - so they're not close to being strict vegetarians like some Indians I know).

As an interesting aside my family was looking into organic / local beef just before going vegetarian. We're vegetarian primarily for the planet; but also for our health and lastly for ethical reasons. When peak oil hits all bets are off! Some land is best grazed; but the world has too many people and it would be best if we in the "first" world started having a one-child policy and not taking in immigrants. We're the biggest energy users and it's time we lead by controlling our own bloated population and also by reducing our energy use by 1/4 per person or much more.

Right now I'm kind of miffed that I upgraded our failing natural gas water heater with a 19 gal. electric one and it's cheaper to keep the tank hot and it's cheaper to run and it was 1/3 the cost to install; except it's about 15% higher in terms of CO2 emissions (yea our electricity is provided by a green company - Bullfrog - but dirty energy was used to put up those windmills ....).

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JN2 on September 19, 2007 - 3:32pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

praetzel, are you saying the CO2 from windmill construction, amortized over the life of the turbine, is greater per kWh than the CO2 from burning nat gas (and the nat gas plant construction CO2)? I find that unbelievable.

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paal myrtvedt on September 19, 2007 - 9:47am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

btu, as in British Thermal Units I presume
-I’m taking a wide-angle & zoomed out snapshot of “the bio-fuels” live or let die here, I’m not counting a calorie here and two there ..

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