[PLUG-TALK] Vegan diets do not benefit the environment...

[Michael Robinson]

Supposedly, if you don't eat meat you reduce dependency on foreign oil.

That would be great if it were true.  It isn't, all mass agriculture
uses internal combustion based farm and delivery equipment.  That
means biodiesel or diesel based tractors and trucks.  How much
biodiesel?  Well, only the portion that the tractor uses most likely.

There is also the issue of getting all your nutrients without eating
meat and eggs.  There is many an anorexic vegan.  This is not healthy
and I hope noone is suggesting that everyone should become anorexic.

"Therefore, an HIV-positive individual may need additional protein,
calorie and vitamin B12 supplementation (since vitamin B12 is found
primarily in animal foods). "

from 

http://www.jamaicaaidssupport.com/information/nutrition/diets.htm

Look also at:

http://www.chetday.com/strictvegandiet.htm

http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/vegetarian.html#link1

Okay, the argument that only cows and sheep and buffalo 
( grazing animals ) can make use of a significant portion of the earth's
surface is true.  Try to plough shallow soil that has volcanic rock
under it.

As far as the runoff from the feed lot problem, that shit can be used
to produce hydrogen.  Yes, hydrogen.  Methane gas is a feedstock for
producing hydrogen.

The visitor's fiancee was vegan, don't know why, and everyone wants
to commend her for doing something good for the environment.  I don't
buy that vegetarianism is good for the environment at all.

How does vegetarianism address the problem of irrigated land becoming
covered with salt?

Try to grow grain in the high plateau region of the Andes.

Want to do something good for the environment?  Encourage the
development of factories that turn waste into ethanol, hydrogen,
and other biofuels.  At least biofuels don't put carbon dioxide
into the air that wasn't already there if you can remove fertilizer
and petroleum based fuels from their production.  The corn subsidies
for ethanol need to stop and a move to cellulosic ethanol needs
to begin in earnest.  Tractors need to be converted from diesel
to be fully electric or fuel cell based.  A tractor doesn't need
to go 200 miles, so the range problem goes away.

And as far as there being enough food, it's time people accepted
genetically modified food.  Don't freak out so much, plants have
been genetically modified for years.  Tomatoes that can grow in
brine, corn that is a complete protein, tomatoes that last longer
on store shelves.  Yes, it's possible to create something dangerous
through a genetic modification, but it's also dangerous to assume
that all the necessary nutrients can be gotten from plants.

I think the biggest difference for the environment though would be
eliminating the 30% of oil imported that goes to agriculture 
replacing it with something clean.