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Carnivores rejoice. It turns out, according to a recent study published in the journal, Nature, that cows may not be contributing to global warming by spewing forth methane gas after all. In fact, in some cases, they may be helping to stave it off by lowering concentrations of another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, through their grazing.  Admitedly, the study took place in Inner Mongolia, but according to the authors, the results may be applicable to grass fed cattle in other parts of the world. I can’t wait to tell all my self rightous vegan and vegetarian friends who have been hasseling me about my meat eating. Waiter, bring me another hamburger, broiled, medium rare, please, with a green salad on the side. I am a happy camper.

Man is an omnivore not an herbavore.  We don’t have two stomachs like cows and we need plenty of protein to service our big brains.  That’s why cave men went out hunting buffalo and mammoth. Animal protein is more dense and complete than plant protein and we have thrived on it since our beginnings as a species.

The Truth About Feedlots

There is no question that here in North America we eat too much meat, and in the United States, at least, much of our beef is mass produced on factory farms.  Cattle are not grazed, but ” finished” with corn, and crammed full of antibiotics and hormones in giant feedlots.   If you haven’t seen the film Food, Inc.  Check it out for a better idea of what feedlot life is like for your future hamburger.  You will never buy meat at the supermarket again.

But the answer, my friends, is not to give up meat( unless you want to), it is to eat less of it and pay the premium for grass fed, hormone and anti-biotic free organic beef, poultry, pork and lamb. Cows that live as nature intended do not, it turns out, pollute the atmohsphere with methane.  On the other hand, factory farms produce soybeans and vegetables using plenty of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, spread around by gas guzzling farm equipment, so don’t think that being a vegetarian is necessarily better for the planet. 

The bottom line is cows don’t cause global warming, factory farming does. I say, clean up agribusiness and you clean up the planet.