RE: Why Steemians Should Choose Grass-Fed Beef
It's nice that you give the cows a happier life before you slaughter them to death and eat their flesh :)
As far as health goes, I'm sure you might be right that it's an improvement over regular beef. But is it really sustainable? How many people in the world can eat grass fed beef before you just run out of space? If it's not a food we (everyone) can enjoy in abundance, it's probably not a food.
Arguments about what's healthy and what isn't are really tedious. But if you just trust your heart, and we know cows are sentient beings with many emotions that are similar to our own, does it really seem right that nature would design it so that this is healthy for us to eat? That's just installing a loop of suffering into the world.
I realize you're mostly just saying it's healthier than the alternative of corn fed beef. But I just want to implore you to think about whether beef is something you even want in your diet at all.
To me, this seems like the future of how to eat meat: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/lab-grown-meat-is-in-your-future-and-it-may-be-healthier-than-the-real-stuff/2016/05/02/aa893f34-e630-11e5-a6f3-21ccdbc5f74e_story.html
Lab grown meat. That's the only way to eat meat with the animal's happiness in mind, and for that matter the only way that's sustainable for the planet. And it would seem you can tinker with it to produce the right ratio of Omega-3s. Presumably as time goes on and techniques improve, you could keep making it better and eventually safer than regular meat.
The article says they aren't there yet, but that was in May. Seems there's a crowd-funded startup who will be making lab-created chicken: http://supermeat.com
Nicely written article @biowealth. I do probably agree that grass-fed is an improvement over conventional, but I think it's important not to trap yourself in that dichotomy, just like being better than Trump doesn't mean there's actually something good about Hillary Clinton.
Thanks for your thoughts. I believe there is actually a lot land that is currently being used to grow grains (corn, wheat, soy, etc.) that could be turned into pastures to raise healthy animals. Regarding the idea of eating animals, evolution shaped that one. Look at where eyes on a human being sit... on the front of the head, not the side, such as in the case of a zebra or cow. Humans are predators, not prey animals. However, I believe in the future we will be able to bypass these innate processes with cultured meat. I am part of an organization that is carrying out research on stem cells and their applications to growing meat in a lab. It is only a matter of time before this science goes mainstream.
That's great.. I don't even care to be right about what's healthy and whatnot.. lab creation seems like a win-win that will do so much good for the planet and the animals, good luck with it.
I think the problem with the evolution argument is that we can always we evolve things that later on we don't need anymore. (The appendix would be a lame example.) In certain environments it was an advantage to hunt animals, but that doesn't mean it's best for us now in this environment.
If nothing else I'd try to keep the meat to a lower amount. My feeling is that through evolution we never ate it in abundance, cause food is scarce. Nowadays with everything at our fingertips we're only recently consuming animals products in abundance, and I think it has a lot to do with all the disease.
Without government subsidies to the meat and dairy industry the price would be much higher and people would naturally not eat meat so often .. so I mean, if they want you to do it I feel like it's a good rule of thumb not to do it lol.