Tell us how you like your steak!

[Josh]

The idea that pasture animals emit "greenhouse gas" emissions is an exercise in the absurd, because they are part of a sustainable ecosystem. They also have very beneficial effects on the environment.

When I've looked into it deeper, it's based on assumptions that pasture animals actually just eat nothing except corn grown using equipment and fertiliser based on fossil fuels. Which is not how many pasture animals are raised. I give my animals very little feed. They mostly sustain themselves from grass or from scratching in the soil for insects.

[Ken]

The idea that pasture animals emit "greenhouse gas" emissions is an exercise in the absurd, because they are part of a sustainable ecosystem. They also have very beneficial effects on the environment.

When I've looked into it deeper, it's based on assumptions that pasture animals actually just eat nothing except corn grown using equipment and fertiliser based on fossil fuels. Which is not how many pasture animals are raised. I give my animals very little feed. They mostly sustain themselves from grass or from scratching in the soil for insects.

Every animal emits CO2 (as do plants). That is part of cellular respiration that all cells do all the time.

However ruminants which includes cows also produce methane while they digest their food and methane is 28-times more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2. Also, the amount of methane depends on their diet and commercial agriculture feeds them a diet that produces more methane than would occur naturally.

Also, we have ENORMOUSLY distorted nature by raising absolutely enormous herds of ruminants that are far in excess to what they would be naturally before humans. So we are getting more methane than in a world without humans because there are vastly more cattle on earth (35% of the earth's biomass) than would exist before humans intervened in nature, and most of those cattle are fed a diet that produces more methane than would naturally occur.

This is the world that we have created. Are cattle alone going to cause runaway global warming? No, of course not. But the meat industry is certainly a contributor to greenhouse gasses and produces far more than would occur naturally.

[Neto]

Then there is all of that methane gas "emitted" by humans who have eaten too many beans.

What was that childish rhyme?
"Beans, beans, good for your heart.
The more you eat, the more you ...."

Too much hot air going around here.

[QuietlyListening]

Love how a post about how you like your steak turns into a 'discussion' about green house emissions before page 2.
How to take a perfectly fun post and make it controversial.
MN is as bad as FB. Just have to shake my head.

[barnhart]

Medium rare for me please. Although it has been years since I had a steak. Maybe it's about time to get the grill out.

[Ken]

Love how a post about how you like your steak turns into a 'discussion' about green house emissions before page 2.
How to take a perfectly fun post and make it controversial.
MN is as bad as FB. Just have to shake my head.

Well, people argue that you shouldn't like your steak at all, because eating steak contributes to global warming. So it isn't completely unrelated.

I like my steak and I'm not a vegan. But that doesn't make the argument invalid. But I do limit my consumption of red meat for mostly health but also environmental reasons. Life is complicated.

[Robert]

I had a guy last year ask me that during a question and answer period for the "new hires." I asked him if he was buying. He said yes. So I said "Let's go and you can see how I like my steak."

Everyone laughed, but I never got my steak, so I never told them how I liked it.

The way I like it is ... FREE!

[MaxPC]

What ? Christians indulge in steak ? How is this not living extravagantly ?

An additional thought - Beef is a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions: Its carbon footprint is eight times that of chicken’s and five times that of pork’s. From here - https://www.newscientist.com/article/23 ... in-the-us/

We don't eat steak, but not for the reasons you listed. Hubby is a hunter, so if there is any steak at this house, it is venison steak. I have a Salisbury steak recipe made out of venison. Baked in mushroom gravy, it is a family favorite.

My wife wants us to fill our freezer with the deer who ate her blueberry bushes.

[Josh]

Re-read what I said about pasture animals. I don’t raise animals in a feedlot and neither does anyone else raising beef around here.

[Grace]

What ? Christians indulge in steak ? How is this not living extravagantly ?

An additional thought - Beef is a significant source of global greenhouse gas emissions: Its carbon footprint is eight times that of chicken’s and five times that of pork’s. From here - https://www.newscientist.com/article/23 ... in-the-us/

We don't eat steak, but not for the reasons you listed. Hubby is a hunter, so if there is any steak at this house, it is venison steak. I have a Salisbury steak recipe made out of venison. Baked in mushroom gravy, it is a family favorite.

My wife wants us to fill our freezer with the deer who ate her blueberry bushes.

I don't blame her for wanting the blueberry bush eating deer in her freezer. You could always poison the deer with lead. Someone recently, said he poisoned a strange acting animal with lead. It took me awhile to figure out how he did that. Hubby figured it out right away.