Re: The Methuselah Factors - most long lived peoples partly or completely vegetarians?

[Guest guest]

> another poster made the old argument about how it's more eco-friendly

> not to eat meat because for every 1 lb. of meat eaten " x " amount of grains

> can feed that many more people, yada, yada, yada.

>

> Any online articles that are good refutations of these points?

>

Dr. Byrnes made some good points in this article:

THE MYTHS OF VEGETARIANISM

http://www.powerhealth.net/selected_articles.htm

Bruce

[Guest guest]

> Also, another poster made the old argument about how it's more eco-

friendly

> not to eat meat because for every 1 lb. of meat eaten " x " amount of

grains

> can feed that many more people, yada, yada, yada.

>

> Any online articles that are good refutations of these points?

>

> TIA :-)

That argument is naive. A large proportion of the earth's surface is

not arable, at least not every year. It would take a huge amount of

effort and inputs to grow a significant grain crop on land that is

rocky and/or hilly or gets insufficient rainfall. How sustainable or

eco-friendly is that?

Besides, cows are supposed to live on grass, not grain. They're

healthier living on grass. Grain messes up the microflora in their

rumen.

We have some cattle on three different pieces of land. One piece is

native grass. Another group is on a piece of land that we've done

some work on by overseeding ryegrass and fertilizing and watering

it. Right now, dh is trying to get the bermuda to spread more. The

third piece of land has been in wheat, and dh is wanting to sow some

kind of forage on it. So one piece has been/is monoculture, another

has less variety than native, and the third is native (in other

words, has a mixture of plant species growing on it). The best group

of cattle this summer is the group on the native grass. Their

reproduction is best, too. It's our opinion that feeding cubes and

grain has a detrimental effect on their reproduction, not unlike what

happens to humans when we try to live on chips and soda and candy

bars.

I know I've read articles that refuted the naive argument above with

facts and figures, but I don't have a link handy. I suspect research

on http://www.acresusa.com or http://www.eatwild.com or reading the

GrazersEdge list or the Grassfedbeef list on would be helpful

in dredging up support. There would be resources through

Stockman/Grass Farmer as well (http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.com).

That's just off the top of my head. I've also seen online course

syllabi for introductory ag courses at OSU that included similar

facts (http://www.okstate.edu).

From a farming point of view, well-managed pasture can _net_ a better

return than monocrop agriculture. And it's more sustainable.