21 Apr 2008
McCartney urges vegetarianism to fight climate ills

Well, ya know, Sir Paul, the reason more environmental groups don't support going vegan to help the environment is because it wouldn't. It just doesn't work - you cannot get the same human food energy output from the vegetation that grows naturally on rangeland.

Livestock is the most efficient way to get food energy out of marginal land - cattle, sheep and goats browse and eat vegetation that humans cannot, in areas where plants that human can eat will not grow.

Does factory farming livestock contribute to the problem? Definitely! But that practice is widespread only in the West - developing countries don't have the luxury of stuffing their livestock with feed grain.

The end result of more vegetarians would be the destruction of tens of millions more acres of rainforest and other sensitive habitat to grow food for humans - is that what you're really after?

Reuters - Former Beatle Paul McCartney is urging the world to go vegetarian in a bid to fight global warming and is surprised more green groups don't promote it.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

21:36 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link