"Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler" by Mark Bittman...my comments

Mark Bittman in his article, "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler, NY Times, Jan 27, 2008
touches a nerve in American's love affair with meat. To live 'Green' today means somehow
'stepping lightly' with as little of a carbon footprint as possible. EATING MEAT does not do this. "Americans eat about eight ounces a day, roughly twice the global average, At about 5 percent of the world' s population, we process( that is, grow and kill) nearly 10 billion animals a year, more than 15 percent of the world's total."
Michael Pollan, in his book "Ominivore's Dilemma' followed his purchased heifer from calf to slaughter, and experienced first-hand the huge, unsanitary confined animal feeding plants, the assembly-line factories; and discovered that the stomachs of cattle are meant to digest grass, not grain, and that this diet causes enough health problems that administration of antibiotics is necessary. The feeding of grain to cattle is highly inefficient. According to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University, "about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption." Some "800 million people on the planet suffer from hunger and malnutrition, but the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens."
Then there is the growing demand for ethanol; if more crops are grown for fuel, then food prices (food crops) will be driven up, "last year, there was a 40% rise in the food price index calcuated by the United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organization." This could have tragic consequences for peoples of poorer nations.

messing with your mind....

**** I am saddened by the death of a young man, one year younger than my oldest daughter,
WHY I ask, someone so talented, so young...why this tragedy. I can only speculate there is something that does not make sense. Does success create stress, and tensions, does it make life more difficult to experience? After all, no man is mortal, but cheating death never works, I can only feel the loss, and his daughter who will never know her father..




Heath Ledger
Actor
Born:
April 4, 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Death:
January 22, 2008 in New York City, New York
Biography:Already something of an established actor in his native Australia, "Heath Ledger" first came to the attention of American audiences in 1999 with his winning turn in the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You". Playing the rebellious Patrick Verona in the update of The Taming of the Shrew, Ledger managed to arouse many an adolescent hormone with his thorny, charismatic performance.

Born in Perth, Western Australia on April 4, 1979, Ledger first became interested in acting while attending the all-boys Guilford Grammar School. He began his career performing onstage with the Guildford Theatre Company and was soon appearing in substantial roles on Australian television shows. The 1996 series Sweat featured him as a gay cyclist, while the following year's Roar cast him as a medieval Celtic prince--and also won him the beginnings of a fan base. After moving across the Pacific to Los Angeles, Ledger...
Full Biography

Heath Ledger
Actor
Born:
April 4, 1979 in Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Death:
January 22, 2008 in New York City, New York
Biography:Already something of an established actor in his native Australia, "Heath Ledger" first came to the attention of American audiences in 1999 with his winning turn in the teen comedy "10 Things I Hate About You". Playing the rebellious Patrick Verona in the update of The Taming of the Shrew, Ledger managed to arouse many an adolescent hormone with his thorny, charismatic performance.

Born in Perth, Western Australia on April 4, 1979, Ledger first became interested in acting while attending the all-boys Guilford Grammar School. He began his career performing onstage with the Guildford Theatre Company and was soon appearing in substantial roles on Australian television shows. The 1996 series Sweat featured him as a gay cyclist, while the following year's Roar cast him as a medieval Celtic prince--and also won him the beginnings of a fan base. After moving across the Pacific to Los Angeles, Ledger...
Full Biography

This blog is under construction and I will diligently work on it every day,
I guess the best way to describe me is I am an Aesthete, an athlete, and a gourmand...
Check out my webpage : http://webpages.charter.net/johge