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Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

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Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#61
post #34

I grew up on a (very) small farm - so I knew where all the meat we ate (and eggs, apple, plums and jam) came from. One of the things I find most disconcerting as an adult is the disconnect with the food I eat. Even the local 'farmer butcher' - I don't actually know if the meat they sell me is what they say it is. I buy a lot of deer from a friend of a friend as it feels slightly more known to me - even if I have no i…

I grew up similarly and it's part of the reason I've cut back on my meat.

Shoving 100 cattle into a 1 acre feed lot for their entire lives is unfortunately how a lot of beef is produced. They spend their lives covered in shit, sleeping in shit, and trapped with no where to roam.

And instead of addressing this problem, my state (Idaho) made it illegal to take photos of the issue. [1]

[1] https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title18/t...

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's an uneeded "optimisation". There is nothing wrong with eating meat and breeding cattle. Again, the issue is that the environment has a limited, finite capacity, which we exceed when we are 10 billion with good standards of living. To reduce quality of life (because it's not limited to meat, it's comprehensive restrictions) simply to accomodate ever more humans on the planet is madness and unsustainable, anyway…

> There is nothing wrong with eating meat and breeding cattle. You're not doing a whole lot to explain why there is nothing wrong with eating meat and breeding cattle. I can think of a whole host of reasons why it is wrong in matters of ethics and mercy. Who is there to advocate for the cow? We know cows feel a gamut of emotions just as we do. They are not insensate. Most humans, when given a knife or a captive bolt…

There is nothing wrong or unethical with eating meat. It is a natural behaviour, which we are evolved for, and in fact a necessary animal behaviour within the environment at large.

If you do not wish to eat meat for personal reasons you are free to do so of course but I object to the current trend of minority groups trying to impose their views to the whole of society and to paint those who disagree as 'wrong'.

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#63
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t selling venison against the law?

That should be the last concern of any decent human being. If they outlaw breathing, will you stop? Hunting is something our species has done for over a billion years by this point.

Hunting isn't illegal. Selling hunted meat is. It combats overhunting and poaching.

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#64
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Read the first one. The second has a lot of spin that is obvious once you have the context from the first article. The entire planet is greener. Everywhere. The planting did little. > Results showed that carbon dioxide fertilization explains 70 percent of the greening effect One of those Inconvenient Truths.

Exactly, the US and Europe are free to reforest but choose not to for some unexplained reason. Brazilian beef is frankly way less deforested than anything from the U.S. or Europe. The three most forested countries in the world are Russia, Canada and Brazil in that order. In all honesty I’m perfectly fine with the bans / boycotts it keeps farmers here poor and beef cheap.

I agree with you on reforestation. As a matter of fact, Northern Europe was almost completely deforested only 100 years ago, and is now one of the greenest parts of the planet. Looking at old photographs from that time, you won't recognise places. It is disgusting listening to these Germans and French sitting on their high horses and trying to impose their will onto a country on the other side of the world, while not planting any trees in their own deforested nations.

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#65
post #32

[flagged]

and Brasillians will have nothing to sell to us

I believe you are misinformed. Brazil is the top exporter in the world of several agricultural products and metals. Beef is not even in the top 10 exports from Brazil to the US.

https://tradingeconomics.com/brazil/exports/united-states

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#67
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the rainforest is important in regulating global temperature and oxygen production, much more so than the (probable) temperate climate forests you are from. You are living in a post destruction area, with new forests planted to supplement the destruction that was there before. Most of these forests aren't more than 70 years old, that's about when we finally made an effort to fix how badly we totally fucked up…

I didn't shoot myself in the foot. Someone around here did clear the forests for farmland... and people are doing ok. Its not that everyone died, as the comment I responded to said.

[deleted]

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That should be the last concern of any decent human being. If they outlaw breathing, will you stop? Hunting is something our species has done for over a billion years by this point.

Hunting isn't illegal. Selling hunted meat is. It combats overhunting and poaching.

Sincere question - how does one "overhunt"?

If I were to use a huge trawler with a big net to catch hundreds of fish I would call that overfishing. But is that even fishing?

Thwres nuance between artisanal and industrial, and both get caught with the same word

Re: Tracking Illicit Brazilian Beef from the Amazon to Your Burger

#70
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t selling venison against the law?

That should be the last concern of any decent human being. If they outlaw breathing, will you stop? Hunting is something our species has done for over a billion years by this point.

>> Hunting is something our species has done for over a billion years by this point.

Sustenance hunting yes, but the rules about selling wild meat are to prevent market hunting. There are more humans by weight than any other land animal. If the general population started eating hunted meat, any wild population would be wiped out. So we have careful rules to ensure hunters do not hunt simply to sell the meat.

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