The runoff from most factory farms is also a significant source of pollution to the environment surrounding the farm. Pig farms are notoriously horrible on this count. In many developing countries in South America the rainforest is clearcut in order to make grazing land for cattle.
The conditions for the animals in these factory farms is also pretty terrible. I'm not a particularly large advocate of animal rights, but some of the conditions are just horrible. I don't believe that you should abuse animals, but I also don't think a rational person can make a moral case against eating animals except as it relates to the conditions of these factory farms.
Sounds like a pretty airtight case for vegetarianism, right? Not so fast. My wife likes to eat MorningStar brand "hippy-food" as I like to call it. They make many products like veggie burgers, chicken (not really) nuggets, and a whole host of meat-imitation products.
Why, if you're a vegetarian, do you have to eat a bunch of stuff designed to look and taste so similar to the meat you have forsaken is beyond me... but I am straying here.
All of these products share one thing: where they come from. That's right. All of these products are derived from the soy bean. Now how much processing (and thereby energy) do you think it takes to make something that looks like this...
... look like this...
Hmmm? Those beans have to be processed six ways to Sunday to make them look like a hamburger! I can't think of any way I could determine how much energy and pollution is behind one pound of this MorningStar stuff. It's a shame, too, because I bet it would still show that one pound of beef is responsible for more pollution than one pound of "hippy-beef."
I would be interested in knowing simply for comparison's sake.
Let's just make a safe assumption, since the hard data escapes me for now. The assumption would be that a pound of veggie burger is responsible for a good deal more pollution than, say, a pound of the soy bean it is derived from.
So if you're really serious about vegetarianism as an environmental concern, then you should probably give up the fake meats as well. All of those veggie burgers and chikkin nuggets that imitate the meat you scorn are doing slightly less damage than the factory farmed meats. But why go half way?
As you might have been able to guess, I am not a vegetarian. I am an omnivore, as Nature intended us. All of the strictly vegetarian branches of our evolutionary tree have died off. Since evolution makes no mistakes, we have to believe this was for a reason.
The route I have chosen goes like this:
- Consume less meat - Honestly, Americans eat too much meat anyway. Too much of anything is unhealthy. That's doubly true for red meat.
- Eat local and organic - When I do eat meat, I try to get local and organic whenever possible. It costs a bit more, true, but the taste is fantastic. The added cost will help reduce consumption and the better taste will make it hard to go back to the other stuff. Locally produced food is fresher and wasn't transported long distances to land on your plate.
- Buy from Mom and Pop - wherever possible I buy from a non-chain, locally owned company. Money spent in a locally owned establishment turns over an average of three times within the local economy. Buying from Wal-Mart often sends your money directly to their corporate headquarters with little to no turnover in the local economy.
I think of this as a holistic approach to my diet. By moderating the amount of meat I eat I am practicing healthier habits and contributing less to the environmental impact of meat. I reduce this impact even more by buying local and organic. If I buy this meat from a local butcher who sources his meat locally I am not only reducing environmental impact, but providing a boost to the local economy and taking money out of the hands of the worst environmental offenders.
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