I heard an interesting statistic last week that skipping just one serving a week of animal protein will save more in greenhouse gasses than buying locally grown produce for that week. (it was on NPR…based on a study done at Carnegie Mellon University)

I think this is a big reason for the price increases in Corn, wheat, etc. --> it's not that people are necessarily eating more, just eating different. Emerging 'middle' classes in China, India, etc. can afford animal proteins more and more, and the grains need to produce the animal proteins far outweigh the amount of grains they ate previously.

In coming years I'm guessing animal proteins will get more and more expensive, and we'll all consume less of them…which is good news for a lot of reasons. (not the least of which is animal welfare, and human welfare for that matter)

Either that or we'll just get a lot better at factory farming and genetic engineering…which is probably not good news for the animals.

This was a fun post to read. My family is mulling over the same issues re: locally-grown foods, love for meat (for my part, anyway), and just plain overall health. Michael Pollan recently published what he called a quasi-sequel to Omnivore's Dilemma, called In Defense of Food. He also had a fun speech at the TED Talks conferences earlier this year (do a search for him at www.ted.com; you won't be disappointed).

Back in the mid-70's, when a lot of people drove the small 4 cyl. cars and we waited in gas lines for our $5 limit, my husband (ex) and I thought we would attempt full "self-sufficiency" . We heated with wood that we cut/chopped/stacked, bought a couple of rabbits and geese, and much later a goat.

When it came time for "slaughter" or having the goat bred---neither one of us could do it. And we couldn't bear the thought of consuming anything we cared for, fed, and patted on the head. We managed to eat ocean/fresh water fish ,though. And he had long given up hunting. Failures, we were, I guess.

I always considered myself a proud omnivore, but in the past year I've been reading a lot about how food animals are treated (and not treated, they're exempt from a lot of cruelty laws). About 8 months ago I decided to go completely vegan. I figure, if something doesn't HAVE to die simply so I can go through the drivethru at midnight to get a big mac, it shouldn't have to.

My mind hurts contemplating that so many animals are bred, born, raised in various conditions, shipped, killed, and processed solely so I can enjoy one five-minute meal which isn't necessarily the healthiest thing for me anyway. Even a pig raised humanely, with a large pasture and room to nest and raise babies, has a personality of its own and to me it makes no sense to kill that sentient being when plenty of non-animal alternatives exist.

I never, ever saw myself having this mindset but I can't seem to shake it. It makes being vegan pretty easy, once you accept that you will never have good cheese again. :) But you don't really *need* cheese....look here I am getting preachy again. :)

I would love to see our food economy switch to a much higher vegetable/fruit/whole grains emphasis and have meat very, very expensive. If you can pay $20 a pound for a steak, maybe you'll be more grateful to the animal who died for your dinner, and value their contribution to both you and the planet. However this would necessitate making fresh foods affordable for everyone, easy to prepare, and I bet we'd need more farmland to boot. I think it's *possible* to convert most americans to veganism (I don't mention vegetarianism because milk and eggs are worse than meat to me), but it will take a huge public education campaign and quite a bit of government support.

anonymous: When I DO buy beef I pay about $20 a pound already. It's hard to find lean cuts of well-raised beef for less--unless I buy hearts for my dogs (that's cheap).

Another vote for "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle."

Funny, I was just talking about goats. Someone asked me if I got one, would I have milk and make cheese. I explained that I'd have to get set in my mind about what to do with the babies to get milk, and the person was surprised. Guess he thought animals gave milk just like a dispenser, unrelated to reproduction. Second round of such bizarre thinking, following the neighbor who thought eggs would hatch without a rooster.

On the blog I'm doing for my "day job," I find I've been writing a lot about food choices and the environment. Here's my book entry:

http://ourgreencommunity.org/livegreenly/?p=38

My chickens are doing great! All settled in and laying thee-four eggs a day now. And I, too, have been reading about small-scale agriculture almost non-stop.

I'm 3rding or 4thing Animal, Vegetable, Miracle-I liked it better than Omnivore's Dilemma.

And I have a goat I'm milking now. I'm making 'interesting' cheese and actually getting enough cream to make butter! Her kid he was a c-section baby and I tell him he's too expensive to eat. But I realized the other day if his sister had lived I would have had no problem butchering and eating him. Maybe it's because I've eaten chickens that I was fond of(cornish/rock roosters in town) but I like meat and I'll raise them myself or eat less meat and buy grassfed.

Rabbits are next-to the horror of some friends......

I lived in Germany working on 3 different organic farms for a year before starting vet school, and the practically self-sufficient family I lived with were so inspirational to me. They had 2 Jersey cows and 25 milk sheep. All the animals had names, even the lambs. They had a May festival while I was there and slaughtered one of the lambs, Mozart, to eat for it. He tasted lovely, and their four-year-old (who could recognise all the sheep, unlike me) was asking who it was, and then was saying "Mmmm, lecker Mozart!" quite happily (lecker is German for tasty). Those animals had a fine life, and were used well in their death, every part of the body was used.

I understand why people become vegetarians/vegans but the problem with that related to self-sufficiency is that it'd be nearly impossible to do without getting a nutritional deficiency in the winter months. Also, the more vegetable orientated a farmer's crops are, the more likely it is he's going to shoot the rabbits/birds wrecking those crops-I personally think it's a crime NOT to eat them when they're still getting shot. I personally eat fish about once a week, meat a bit less-but I eat a lot of dairy products.

An option for those who do not want to forego meat...but still eat local. Purchase a 4-H or FFA raised market animal at your local county fair. These animals (mostly sheep, hog or steer) were intended to be market animals from the get go. Their quality of life is probably the best that an animal destined for the dinner table could have. They have been well taken care of and even loved.

Slate.com's "Human Nature" column has printed several articles in the last year or so about how engineering meat in laboratories could eliminate factory-farming (as a spinoff on their reporting of genetic engineering already under way to develop in-vitro proteins). I know some are queasy about eating anything produced in a lab...except that many of us unknowingly do. I think it's a a viable alternative - once fully developed, costs could be reduced and no animals would have to die. Salvation through science! :)

Anne, I'm where you are on this. Of flesh product, I eat only poulty and salmon. With the salmon, it is easy for me to find wild-caught, if I look and am willing to spend more. But with poulty, it is impossible for me to find "certified humane" poulty at the major grocery stores near me (safeway, giant). I don't think I've seen it at whole foods, either.

I hear that Harris Teeter carries it now, but there is not any Harris Teeter near me.

Apparently, Harris Teeter started doing this after pressure from PETA.

This is why I say I really do give PETA credit for SOME things. This is one of them. Although they may have abolitionist end-goals, a) we will never get there (to the abolitionist state, that is) and b) they have learned to push for progress, even small progress, along the way. They have played a big role in getting McDonalds to buy from less disreputable suppliers, etc. How much we can trust that, I don't know.

Here is a website that is supposed to allow you to find stores that sell "certified humane" products

http://www.certifiedhumane.com/where.asp

Thank you Stefani, that was a good link, mostly it lists Whole Foods stores but I was in last weekend and looking for some kind of humane label on the chicken and couldn't see any. I guess I have to ask the butcher. The more we ask, the more aware they will be.

We eat a paleolithic diet here... no flour, no grain, no sugar, just veggies, nuts, oils, fruits, and moderate amounts of meat. Hunter-gatherer diets.

I feed my dog a species-appropriate diet, along with the cats, and the birds, and the bunnies... and us too. We're lucky that we know a dairy farmer who's "old-school" and uses only the most humane practices with his animals. When an animal gets past peak production age, the animal is slaughtered, and not one piece goes to waste. People eat the people parts, and the dogs get the rest. (although occasionally there are arguments between the dogs and some of the old timers what constitutes a dog part or a human part... eww). But regardless, it's hormone, antibiotic, cruelty-free beef, and although it may not be AAA Prime Rib, it's still delicious by our standards, and meat that other large-scale dairy farmers would have sent for rendering after milking the poor thing practically to death.

I have a few uneasy bits about my meat eating habits, but I will never be vegetarian/vegan. I know very few in good health... I find my meat-stuffing artery-clogged friends to be of better health, in fact, and until someone can prove to me that a) we evolved to eat plant matter only and b) it's beneficial to our health, then bring on the riblets.

Good idea. I'll address hunting soon--I promise.