Today a report was released saying essentially that greenhouse gasses are increasing due to having too many cattle. I think this is tosh. What do you think?
In the nineteen hundreds Buffalo were slaughtered to near extinction from population estimates at their height ranging from 30 million, with some estimates as high as 60 million. I know a buffalo breeder in the states and she has told me that from as few as 500 Buffalo, stocks are now just short of a million. Here is a picture of 'Noah' one of their old bulls.
Photo courtesy of: David & Marlene Groves, Buffalo Groves, Inc.
I've chosen to use the US as an example as to my knowledge they are the highest national consumers of beef worldwide. Today there are just short of 88 million cattle (this figure includes dairy and breeding stock) in the USA, this is the lowest total since 1951. The price of beef due to falling numbers has indeed pushed the price of beef up to record highs. The news report is blaming cattle for releasing damaging methane even though the planets population has exploded and yet cattle numbers have not hugely increased since the mid eighteen hundreds due to the massive slaughter of Buffalo. So the only conclusion one can draw from these figures is that we are eating less beef. This information was found at the link below.
However todays ludicrous report that we are damaging our planet with the methane that these cattle are producing. Forget the huge natural methane vents in the oceans that we have no control over. Forget the insane car production just so we can drive the latest technology when most cars these days can last 10-15yrs before a need to replace them. Forget the crazy new gas mining method of 'Fracking' which along with other nasties releases methane for powering our homes. Forget the now hundreds of years we have been burning coal to power our homes and cities, and with third world nations being brought into the modern world, they quite rightly want the same wasteful living conditions that those of us in the west enjoy!
I am not a 'Green' warrior although granted with age, generally I have become more aware of how our planet is being destroyed at an incredible rate, and all so that big business can increase their profits year on year. No other reason! The report blames the huge increase in burger restaurants, again I go back to the decrease in cattle numbers.
Is this an attempt by governments to decrease obesity rather than a genuine attempt to decrease greenhouse gasses? Why are we being told to eat red meat sparingly is this because the oil companies do not wish to research renewable energies with as much energy as they do in ensuring that we still drive antiquated oil powered cars instead of hydrogen powered cars which incidentally Honda have made available and on trial in California?
In the UK beef is so expensive that many families cannot afford a beef joint and so have to use these cheap burger restaurants, not in all cases granted, in most cases I would suggest that many families are just too lazy to cook! I find it incredulous that the report discusses the increase of methane due to the deforestation to then be able to feed livestock to supply demand. The Brazilian rain forests have been laid waste for decades now, nothing to do with feeding cattle, much of it has just been burned, and the rest has been legally and illegally exported due the wealth of western societies want for the hardwood timbers being stripped from these rain forests.
Yes our children are becoming obese. This IS the fault of parents, and one of the major reasons is that of computers and computer games. Before these technological gadgets arrived in our homes, children would go outside and play football rugby or even just have a foot race between each other. No I am not looking at my own childhood through rose tinted glasses. Kids actually did these things in years gone by. I remember arriving home freezing cold and soaking wet, because we had been playing outside. I am struggling to think of a child that was actually overweight at my comprehensive school. There must have been one or two amongst the thirteen hundred or so that went, but I genuinely cannot think of who they were.
I appreciate this has travelled from a poor report (news or researched) on greenhouse gasses to now addressing obesity, but I cannot see any other reason and certainly not greenhouse gasses, to release such a report!
Information regarding Buffalo can be found at the following link.