Reply #6: It's not just beef

[Dogmudgeon]

Beef seems to be becoming the whipping boy of the environmental movement (or at least PETA), but all forms of agriculture and animal husbandry are FAR more wasteful than they ought to be. A lot of this was accomplished by destroying the family farm system and replacing it with a quasi-industrial system of factory farming. You would think someone would have said, "gee, they tried that in the USSR in the 1920s, and as soon as they ran into an energy shortage, a famine killed ten million people in Ukraine", but why learn from history when money (supposedly) solves everything?

My primary complaint (such as it is) about the "beef-is-bad" movement is that it ignores the crisis that is overtaking all agriculture -- the increasing energy and water draw that comes from the use of the cheapest, dirtiest, most inefficient machine techniques we have. In a couple of years, that cheapness is going to lead to both a capital sink and potential food shortage -- or at least escalating food prices. And the humanitarian concern for the food animals is also substantial. Although I eat meat and don't suffer from "Bambi guilt", I'm quite willing to pay a penny a pound more to assure that my food isn't tortured to death by poorly- (read: cheaply- ) designed killing devices. On family farms that produce meat, trained hands who also raise the animals learn to kill the critter quickly and with minimum pain. The factory system has always been abominable, but has only reduced the price of meat by a few percent.

Speaking of whipping boys, the ethanol advocates' current enfant terrible, David Pimentel, is probably the most outspoken scientist on this issue of water use and agricultural sustainability. (Caveat: I don't agree with P on all issues; but it's rare I reach 95% agreement with anybody.) We need a major change in the entire system; the word "holistic" has to become more than a buzzword. We need to start planning for real sustainability, not just a disconnected bunch of ideological hobby-horses ranging from Ayn-Randianity to Voluntary Human Extinction. Ethanol production will have to become part of our overall agricultural planning. Optimizing our return should be a strong concern of any modern approach to environmentalism and agriculture.

You say you want a revolution? Let some affluent Americans go hungry. I'd prefer to act now and avoid trauma later. If I may be forgiven the atrocious mixed metaphor, hamburger may be the canary in the American food mine.

We have no shortage of intelligence, but action is at a premium. We're having enough trouble just getting a few windplants set up -- what do you think the chances are for an intelligent, sustainable agricultural policy?

--p!