Latest Q&A

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2. why is eating less meat better for the environment? or is it just better for the animals? ;) 5 answers

   Asked by jackobee about 1 year ago

   1. Dallas

      Livestock is responsible for 18% of all manmade greenhouse gas emmisions, a bigger share than that of transport. For more information read 'Livestock's Long Shadow' United Nations FAO report 2006

      If we want to cut down our carbon emmissions, eating less or no meat would make the biggest impact.

   2. 
      TheRaizins

      hmm, food must be grown to feed the animals destined for slaughter, water must be used for animals destined for slaughter not only for them to drink but to irrigate their food, medicines/drugs are used to keep the animals destined for slaughter 'healthy', it seems the 'swine flu' was influenced my the pig slaughter industry but I could be proven wrong by those wacky 'global warming' scientists, and BIG trucks congest the highways as they deliver animals to slaughter houses

   3. 
      Anthill

      A 2006 UN report ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’ found that meat product is responsible for more global warming than transportation due to animal diet, manure and the clearing of forests for grazing land.

      It is better for the animals too!

   4. 
      jackobee

      cool, thanks for the info guys.

   5. Cian

      However, are diet and manure issues not more or less still present in a imagined vegetarian world?
      I imagine there are differences in feeding to live, and feeding to be food, but I imagine large change could only be made by massive population control/extermination due to a failure in the meat industry. Which would mean culling/abandonment, and not be good for animals.
      I don't think my sense of arithmetic is off here, but am I missing something else?

3. I heard someone say once, that it's best to leave kitchen style strip lights on rather than turn them on and off on entering and leaving the cooking arena. Apparently they use a lot of leccy to boot them up, thus negating the effect of flipping the switch off when leaving the galley. Any truth in this or have I been mislead? 2 answers

   Asked by Trainsurfer over 2 years ago

   1. VMeldrew

      Kitchen strip lights are usually Fluorescent Lights. Fluorescent Lights need a higher voltage to start up than their normal operating voltage. To create this higher voltage the power requirement is higher over a very short period of time. This increase in power has no noticeable effect on its total power consumptions.
      However, switching fluorescent lights frequently on and off reduces their live cycle.

   2. 
      Trainsurfer

      Good to know. Thanks.

4. Apart from beans, lentils, and tofu what are other good replacement-type foods to eat instead of meat? Any good vegetarian recepies??? 3 answers

   Asked by Tinii over 2 years ago

   1. 
      clagnut

      Mushrooms and cheese. Speaking as a meat-eater, the best vegetarian recipes to my mind as those which feature vegetables as the centre-piece.

      In otherwords they are not *vegetarian* recipes so much as vegetable recipes. No pretending fungus is meat for me thank you - I like mushrooms for what they are (likewise aubergines, peppers, courgettes, brocolli and Jerusalem artichokes).

      The likes of Jamie Oliver has loads of non-meat (as opposed to 'vegetarian') recipes, particularly due to his fascination with real Italian food which lends itself perfectly.

   2. 
      Busybee

      Hi Tinii This looks like a good topic to start up in Natasha's group over er! http://www.edenbee.com/groups/health-living-food-fo-26

   3. 
      TrevorGerzen

      The only reason I would say to "not" make Tofu a center piece in your diet is because of the high levels of estrogen or phytoestrogens. For women, the high levels of phytoestrogens can affect their cycle in gnarly ways that us men would never want and for men, well, you just plain don't need a lot of estrogen unless you're thinking of getting something removed in the near future.

      If you really can't eat meat, you still need to get protein. Hemp protein is a great way to do this. You're body makes good use of it and it also has many other health benefits.

      One of the biggest issues for vegetarians is getting the good fats and enough protein. So, just remember the right nuts can give you both. Some people like seitan but I think the texture is just strange

5. IS there anyway for indivudal like us to generate power ? 5 answers

   Asked by mryap over 2 years ago

   1. 
      martin

      Sure. On a bike or a treadmill. C'mon, your hamster can do it! Or through body heat in your passive or zero-energy house (if Americans would ever turn air conditioning off). Unlikely through body currents, Matrix style.

   2. mryap

      I was think generating enough energy to power my laptop or PC to surf the net for a couple of hours a day...

   3. 
      clagnut

      Interesting question, not much to do with eating less meat though. Or is it?

   4. mryap

      Now I see that I have put a question in the wrong category....(well this website is confusing for me!!!)

   5. 
      Trainsurfer

      Ohw. I've just done the same thing as myrap - a kitchen light query in the meat section.

6. In terms of environment impact, is chicken less 'bad' than beef? Is pork equally problematic? 5 answers

   Asked by clagnut over 2 years ago

   1. 
      redbeard

      I'm not sure about the carbon impact, but I've heard that chicken is by far the worst meat health-wise, because of the way the growth is accelerated by hormones.

   2. 
      Busybee

      It depends if its organically reared then it ain't half bad! But you are right the average processed chicken is none to healthy. Jamie Oliver did a great program on it check it out at www.jamieoliver.com/jamiesfowldinners/

   3. 
      BeePositive

      If you need a motivator check out the Peta website. I don't think things are as bad in Ireland but I've certainly cut down on the chicken in my diet. Red meat was never high on my list of 'love to eats' but if I feel like a burger our treat is to go to the wonderful 'Real' Gourmet Burger in Dun Laoghaire. The meat is all organic, delicious and close-sourced.
      I think if Americans were more aware of how their food is produced there would be far more vegetarians..do you know they have an FDA approved allowance for pus and blood content in their milk? AGH! Scary farming.
      http://www.peta.org.uk/factsheet/files/FactsheetDisplay.asp?ID=120

      I am NOT a radical vegetarian. Healthwise soya is just better for us, women especially as we get older, than dairy. We don't need calcium from dairy. It's better to get it from fish, water and vegetables.

      And yes we are losing water and valuable environment through intensive farming practices which waste water and feed to produce beef.

   4. 
      QUE-VA

      I spent 11 years as a vegetarian without any negative impact on my health but eating out was boring food wise however food in our days is far more interesting! I have fallen in love with sushi, fish and oysters now not sure I can easily give those up but I'm not very interested in red meat it takes so long to digest!..when buying meat though I decided only to buy organic meat for the family and only once or twice a week mostly for the benefit of the meat eaters in the house who have all got used to a mainly vegetarian diet. I would have major problems with eating non organic chicken due to the herendous life of battery farmed chickens. A note to all Irish milk drinkers there is a high % of pus and blood in Irish milk as well according to an article on the front cover of the Irish Times 5 years ago....I can't face drinking dairy milk but I do buy Glenisk organic milk for the family!

   5. Cian

      To think I used to drink over four litres of Avonmore's best a day five years ago...
      Admittedly, it probably kept my immune system in training - I say that jokingly but it is a factor forgotten betimes. Who'd have thought you could be too sanitized?
      A friend did target me with his radical soya-missionary ways [sic], but what had me kick the habit was watching the News and seeing a report of a young man dead from calcite poisoning, which closed blood vessels to the heart. Now, it never mentioned how he got such poisoning, but when you proudly drink four litre cartons (atop milk in breakfast cereal and an Irish tea drinking habit) and thus intake something like twelve times the RDA of calcium, you worry.
      I do still have bones so hard and edged (why edged I don't know, but my fore-arms or shins could probably cut things) that when I was mugged recently, by a past schoolmate-turned-heroin user at that, who used to box locally he broke his wrist punching me in the nose! Some comic relief to a a traumatic experience...

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