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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

#31

Post by verisimi »

virtue3 wrote: post #22
Qem wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Beef in itself is not bad for the environment. It's the scale of demand that is bad. Wasting crops feeding cattle is inherently worse than the alternative, feeding directly on the crops and avoiding the wasting of calories when going up one trophic level.

"A large amount of beef is grown in areas that are not suitable for crop farming in the United States. In fact, 85% of the land used to graze cattle in the U.S. is marginal land, which means it's not suitable for growing crops. Marginal land is either untouched or used for grazing livestock, mostly cattle" Grain finishing is another matter. But it's not a 1 grain : 1/10th beef type situation. Now chopping and burning…

> Now chopping and burning down the amazon to create grazing land for cattle? yeah that's going to probably kill us all.

How?

I mean, I'm not a fan of destroying forests, etc, but around here, there is no unmanaged land so presumably all the forests were already burnt etc for farmers... But we're all around, right? I don't get how burning the Amazon for food people want will actually kill us.

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

#33

Post by _3u10 »

brabel wrote: post #26
_3u10 wrote: post #15

[flagged]

Yeah, because crossing a border completely changes the flavour of the meat.

It’s more the feed. If you’re getting factory farmed stuff yeah it’s all going to taste roughly the same.

But the Amazon, Chaco, and Pampas are wildly different ecological regions.

Will Argentine Chaco and Paraguayan Chaco taste roughly the same, yes.

But the pampas, that is where real beef comes from.

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

#34

Post by ljf »

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 idea about what the deer actually ate in it's life.

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

#35

Post by _3u10 »

wk_end wrote: post #13
DasIch wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beef is extremely inefficient compared to plant-based food. We could sustain a far larger population with no loss in standards of living without it.

Most people would argue that not eating beef would lower their standard of living.

[flagged]

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

#36

Post by adrianN »

verisimi wrote: post #31
virtue3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A large amount of beef is grown in areas that are not suitable for crop farming in the United States. In fact, 85% of the land used to graze cattle in the U.S. is marginal land, which means it's not suitable for growing crops. Marginal land is either untouched or used for grazing livestock, mostly cattle" Grain finishing is another matter. But it's not a 1 grain : 1/10th beef type situation. Now chopping and burning…

> Now chopping and burning down the amazon to create grazing land for cattle? yeah that's going to probably kill us all. How? I mean, I'm not a fan of destroying forests, etc, but around here, there is no unmanaged land so presumably all the forests were already burnt etc for farmers... But we're all around, right? I don't get how burning the Amazon for food people want will actually kill us.

The Amazon is pretty important for the global climate

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

#37

Post by BoingBoomTschak »

emptysongglass wrote: post #19
b800h wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That's essentially what we do with cows. Do you see the hypocrisy? We don't inflict this on humans so why do it to other creatures which can know terror and pain just as we do?

Because empathy being applied to other species is an evolutionary bug, not a feature. Bug probably triggered by the luxurious abundance and the accompanying decadence acting on brains a bit too disconnected from the reality of the animal kingdom.

And if you want intellectual justifications: because we're the apex predators and we do what we want when we want; that includes raising and eating beasts that are of no other value to us. The other carnivorous animals wouldn't act in any other way, in our position.

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

#39

Post by jterrys »

verisimi wrote: post #31
virtue3 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"A large amount of beef is grown in areas that are not suitable for crop farming in the United States. In fact, 85% of the land used to graze cattle in the U.S. is marginal land, which means it's not suitable for growing crops. Marginal land is either untouched or used for grazing livestock, mostly cattle" Grain finishing is another matter. But it's not a 1 grain : 1/10th beef type situation. Now chopping and burning…

> Now chopping and burning down the amazon to create grazing land for cattle? yeah that's going to probably kill us all. How? I mean, I'm not a fan of destroying forests, etc, but around here, there is no unmanaged land so presumably all the forests were already burnt etc for farmers... But we're all around, right? I don't get how burning the Amazon for food people want will actually kill us.

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 and why people needed clean air to not die from lung cancer (among other things). The loss of biodiversity, air quality, etc. already occurred. You are a survivor. What's more, your survival was in part supported by the air quality of other virgin forests further away from you that weren't yet cut down. But now that they are being cut down, there's less left to support you.

In short, you're asking yourself why you shouldn't shoot yourself in the foot again, because you managed to survive the first shot and it looks to you like it healed just fine (it didn't).

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

#40

Post by chasd00 »

ljf wrote: 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…

Isn’t selling venison against the law?
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