Beef; I'll miss you most of all....

[mspohr]

Too much soy can be bad.
Could Eating Too Much Soy Be Bad for You?
What Are the Dangers of Too Much Soy?

I ended up with some Thyroid issue... Maybe too much soy + fluroide, and not enough idodine...?
The body is complicated.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the Scientific American article, you'll find a bunch of articles extolling the benefits of soy.
Weak science on soy issues.

 

[ohmman]

All I can say is "try it, you might like it".
And by "try it", I don't mean a few days or weeks. It takes your body a little while to get used to a different diet.

I was vegetarian for 9 months at one point. During that time, I was training for a century (100 mile bike ride). The hardest thing, because I was training, was how much I had to eat. Meat is calorie dense. The other hard thing is that I do most of the cooking for a family of four, and they weren't joining me in my switch, so I was cooking meat for them but not eating any of it. That can get old. But I managed the ride, and the lesson I took away was that it's not that hard. We have reduced dramatically the amount of meat we eat, and I shoot for vegetarian or near vegetarian meals as often as possible.

There's also a useful benefit to be had from the reduction in energy consumption (and therefore pollution / CO2 / etc.)

Looks like Vegetables or Chicken would use 90% less land than Beef ...

View attachment 341601

Partially that's because industrial agriculture contains pigs and chickens, but allows beef to roam (at least during the initial growth period). I do think they need less, even when raised humanely, but perhaps that chart is a bit skewed by the current model of raising animals.

People are mentioning organic a lot here, but remember that certified organic agriculture allows for plenty of dangerous pesticides. Copper based stuff as a fungicide, for instance. I haven't seen any good science that backs up the idea that organic on it's own is truly better. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I haven't seen it. Organic coupled with soil health measures and land-centric agricultural practices, sure. But organic yields less per acre.

 

[mspohr]

I was vegetarian for 9 months at one point. During that time, I was training for a century (100 mile bike ride). The hardest thing, because I was training, was how much I had to eat. Meat is calorie dense. The other hard thing is that I do most of the cooking for a family of four, and they weren't joining me in my switch, so I was cooking meat for them but not eating any of it. That can get old. But I managed the ride, and the lesson I took away was that it's not that hard. We have reduced dramatically the amount of meat we eat, and I shoot for vegetarian or near vegetarian meals as often as possible.

Partially that's because industrial agriculture contains pigs and chickens, but allows beef to roam (at least during the initial growth period). I do think they need less, even when raised humanely, but perhaps that chart is a bit skewed by the current model of raising animals.

People are mentioning organic a lot here, but remember that certified organic agriculture allows for plenty of dangerous pesticides. Copper based stuff as a fungicide, for instance. I haven't seen any good science that backs up the idea that organic on it's own is truly better. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I haven't seen it. Organic coupled with soil health measures and land-centric agricultural practices, sure. But organic yields less per acre.

Meat is only calorie dense because of the fat. If you need more calories, vegetable oil is just as calorie dense and much healthier (particularly olive oil).

 

[SageBrush]

Looks like Vegetables or Chicken would use 90% less land than Beef ...

While Pulses are about 1% of beef. That word is not widely used around here, but I think it is mostly synonymous with legumes. Tofu is also in this category, as are some of the beans.

 

[SageBrush]

remember that certified organic agriculture allows for plenty of dangerous pesticides.

Sometimes. Organic is a very YMMV. You have to read the label

 

[SageBrush]

I was vegetarian for 9 months at one point. During that time, I was training for a century (100 mile bike ride). The hardest thing, because I was training, was how much I had to eat. Meat is calorie dense. The other hard thing is that I do most of the cooking for a family of four, and they weren't joining me in my switch, so I was cooking meat for them but not eating any of it. That can get old. But I managed the ride, and the lesson I took away was that it's not that hard. We have reduced dramatically the amount of meat we eat, and I shoot for vegetarian or near vegetarian meals as often as possible.

Very reasonable.

We have meat in our house too. The cats are rather demanding in that way. However, now that I know about LDS from the above post I'll ask them if they want to convert. Dried cockroach doesn't sound so bad, right ?

 

[mspohr]

Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown
Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown

 

[SageBrush]

Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown
Huge reduction in meat-eating ‘essential’ to avoid climate breakdown

This has been know for a long time, but watch what happens even in this forum if people comment. There is even more denialism than wrt AGW itself.

 

[mspohr]

Soy destruction in Argentina leads straight to our dinner plates
Soy destruction in Argentina leads straight to our dinner plates

Environment destruction to grow meat.

 

[mspohr]

Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet
Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet | George Monbiot

Interesting proposal to grow food directly from electricity, water and CO2. A Finnish company, Solar Foods, is building a plant that uses 20,000 times less land than soy to grow food. This avoids the environment destruction of industrial farming.

 

[mspohr]

Taxing red meat would save many lives, research shows
Taxing red meat would save many lives, research shows

Tax meat to improve health and the environment. It could happen...

 

[mspohr]

75% of people think they are eating humanly raised meat. Only 1% actually is (sort of) humane.

There's no such thing as humane meat or eggs. Stop kidding yourself
There's no such thing as humane meat or eggs. Stop kidding yourself

 

[wk057]

Nope. I'll do what I can do on the technical side of things with EVs, solar, and the like to help out the environment... but I've no qualms about eating cow, nor do I much care about the start to finish of that process. Sorry, cow tastes too good. Give me steak or give me more steak. I'd be all for some synthetic steak, though, if it actually was the same end result and not an imitation made out of other substances and such. (I think I read something about a company making synthetic ground beef that was actually beef, but not from killing a cow...). But until then, steak it is.

 

[mspohr]

Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet
Electric food – the new sci-fi diet that could save our planet | George Monbiot

Interesting proposal to grow food directly from electricity, water and CO2. A Finnish company, Solar Foods, is building a plant that uses 20,000 times less land than soy to grow food. This avoids the environment destruction of industrial farming.

More on food from electricity, CO2 and water:
Scientists Create Sustainable Vegan Protein From Water, Electricity, and CO2

Cost competitive with soy and less environmental damage.
50 to 60% protein
You could have a home appliance that you just plug in and it makes food!

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

More on food from electricity, CO2 and water:
Scientists Create Sustainable Vegan Protein From Water, Electricity, and CO2

Cost competitive with soy and less environmental damage.
50 to 60% protein
You could have a home appliance that you just plug in and it makes food!

Lots of deceptive bull there.

They are breeding microbes.
They have to add trace elements.

Nice idea in principle, but I really wish people would promote it with less woo.

 

[mspohr]

Lots of deceptive bull there.

They are breeding microbes.
They have to add trace elements.

Nice idea in principle, but I really wish people would promote it with less woo.

Microbes that live off of H2 (from electricity) and CO2.
Who can argue with calcium, sodium, potassium and zinc trace elements? These are essential to life.
The big advantage here is the reduction in land and fertilizer use.
Pretty woo, if you ask me.

Here's another different use of electricity to produce more food:
China has made a shocking food production discovery – electro culture

Is "woo" like "cowbell" ? I'd say we need more cowbell

 

[wk057]

I'd say we need more cowbell

Yeah, need more cowbells to put on those cows that will eventually land on my plates.

 

[ohmman]

Is "woo" like "cowbell" ? I'd say we need more cowbell

Maybe you are joking here, but woo is a term typically used disparagingly towards hand waving pseudoscience.

 

[mspohr]

Maybe you are joking here, but woo is a term typically used disparagingly towards hand waving pseudoscience.

Sorry, not familiar with the term.

 

[SageBrush]

They are breeding microbes.

More to the point, electricity is the fuel to reduce CO2 into building blocks for carbs (CHO), fats (CH2) and protein (reduced nitrogen and carbon.)

The idea is not so much different than electrolysis of water into oxygen and hydrogen molecules so the important question becomes the efficiency of the bacteria.