No Meat Diets Will Not Solve Environmental problems

A piece in my semi-local newspaper (yes I still get one delivered!) posited: "If we all did it (i.e. switch to a plant based diet), it could save us" and even if we "just befriend them" (cows are her main focus), we're part of the problem."  That argument is naive.

The negative environmental impacts associated with meat are caused not by the act of eating it, but by the animals themselves...think cows, yes, but all ruminants. I get the simplistic idea of a demand-supply solution but this is a much more complicated scientific, social and economic issue. 

If we all stopped eating cows what would happen to the estimated 1-1.5 billion cows that are alive today? Do we just kill them and make the species endangered if not extinct? The naturalists wouldn't much like that!. And, I doubt that Hindu folks would tolerate a world cull as cows are held to be sacred by many.  If we don't kill them all - and more particularly all the bulls -  then surely they'll have even more cows over time...unless we sterilize them all or let them all have abortions. And if cow families are still around, do we continue to feed and care for them? And if we do,won't there will still be the land use, water and methane gas producing belching and pooping problems? 

Canada has about 12 million cows. Brazil and India are of order, 200 million each! And if we were to go 100% plant based, what about the 22 billion chickens, and the 2 billion pigs and the 1+ billion sheep that share our world? We surely can't adopt them all, and they'd still graze the land, eat, drink, be merry...burping and pooping and emitting tons of methane all the while.

There are many other initiatives being tried that we don't seem to read about. Only the loudest lobby seems to get the ink. There are several different experiments  aimed at decreasing the amount of methane the ruminant actually produces and many others which attempt to harvest the methane and put it to good uses. 

Eating less meat sounds like a good idea, but it won't "SAVE us".

"Baaa (Moo or Oink) Humbug" to the exaggeration proffered by the Stop Meat Eaters Movement. It is full of methane.

Driving (Miss) Canada

I read a good article about some car journalists driving some Mercedes Benz vehicles in each province for a Canada 150 "event". (See: Oh Canada, What a Road Trip by Norris McDonald. Saturday July 1, in Wheels section of the Toronto Star). Made me think about my own experiences, hence a comment or two... 

I agree with Norris. Seeing the country by car is the way to “do” the country and doing it with the top down is extraordinary. For 3 years when in Vancouver on business, I bought an old car (MGB, VW Beetle and TR8, each a convertible with many kms and standard transmission) so that I could drive home (to Toronto) rather than fly.  The convertible opens the experience. It allows you to be swallowed up by the majesty of our mountains and awed by the Living Skies (as they say in Saskatchewan). You just feel and smell the air in a way that puts you at one with the country. (And in the older car, you drive a bit more slowly allowing you to see more while hoping that it won’t give up the ghost somewhere north of Superior!).

Norris’ story also reminded me of a contest my association* ran some years ago, called Test Drive Canada. We represented the manufacturers and dealers of the 6 Japanese car brands. There were 5 winning families. They were flown to Victoria where they met a 6^th family (the wagon masters for the trip) and were introduced to 6 different Japanese cars. Each family was to drive each car as they tripped across the country to St. John’s. A thorough itinerary set out hotels, car switch points, and several special presentations to the group by local dignitaries along the way. They were Hatted, Screeched, feted and entertained. More importantly, they met 5 other families from different parts of Canada, with whom they shared a pretty unique experience. I am in periodic touch with them still. I feel good that we helped them see Canada in a special way.

As I continue to contemplate another X Canada trip, I hope the car industry will do more to promote trips like this for individual Canadians and families and respectfully, let the scribes and pundits find their own wheels.  

* The Canadian Association of Japanese Automobile Dealers aka CAJAD)