News media promotes ridiculous story about meat and climate change

[asmallplanet]

He publishes no results and is an animal scientist not a climate scientist. Stupidity follows:

EDIT: Funded by the beef industry

Comments

[joshthevegan]

Developing countries "should adopt more efficient, Western-style farming practices, to make more food with less greenhouse gas production," Mr. Mitloehner added.

Wow, that's just. . .wow.

[asmallplanet]

No shortage of stupid in the story.

Unfortunately his headline could sway quite a few people. It's spread to other news sites already. Stupid sells!

[joshthevegan]

His whole argument seems based on the fact that the animals themselves aren't responsible for the greenhouse effects, but fails to take into account the shipping of food to the animals, the shipping of the animals to the slaughterhouses, and then the shipping of the animals to the butchers, etc. (which is done on refrigerated trucks which are pollute more than the average trailer).

Just another stupid omni argument that doesn't think things through and jumps to stupid conclusions.

[asmallplanet]

Too true. That was the gist of my first reply when I saw this posted.

A very old friend of mine runs a carbon credit trading company. Despite sending him link upon link but he remains omni and proud. He said he wanted to believe this story and yet had doubts. Hope I blew it out of the water for him. Wish I could have further luck on the topic with him!

[complexzeta]

How does someone write an article that's just a series of (false) claims with no justification at all for any of them? Remarkable.

[asmallplanet]

And get published while having no credentials in the area he's discussing? His research is about dust and odours caused by cattle, not climate change ffs!

[deimos_dagny]

I just replied to that article in a community this morning!

My first question was this:

He says doing smarter farming will stop (or slow down) the climate change. Therefore, what we are doing now (stupid farming, I suppose) causes change. Therefore, stopping stupid farming (by not eating meat) MUST also stop the change.

Right?

[asmallplanet]

I like!

Which community out of interest? I want to see this story scorched to ashes. :)

[deimos_dagny]

The article was actually only posted in the comments to a question about happy meat, so I'm not sure how many people besides the commenter followed the link.

Here's the full post though:
http://community.livejournal.com/ask_me_anything/26573963.html

[asmallplanet]

Yahoo news has bitten. :(

This is so sick.

Thanks for your reply there. Don't need to write and repeat it. Liked your other replies also.

[affectionjunkie]

can someone please respond to this comment left on the national post site:

Commonly Qualified
2:45 PM on March 22, 2010

Clearsky,
A person can only 'go vegan' if they live in a city with enough of a market to support that kind of diet. Furthermore, veganism is an unnatural alternative for humans, because if you stop taking B12 supplements, you die of massive nerve damage and muscle atrophy after a few years. I wonder how many acres of rainforest must be cut down to grow soy, then? At least I can raise chickens in my backyard."

I would leave one but I am so enraged I think it would only come out as "OMG SO STUPID, YOU SUCK AS PERSON!!!" or soemthing to that extent.

[joshthevegan]

I never understand this "I don't live in a major city, therefore I can't be vegan" attitude. Where the hell are you living that you can't buy produce and dried/canned beans? You may want to consider moving, because I hear that Antartica is really cold.

They also bring in the classic "all vegans subsist on nothing but soy" myth. *facepalm* I'd be willing to bet just about every vegan I know eats a more balanced diet than this tosser.

[monkey_goose]

'if you stop taking B12 supplements, you die of massive nerve damage and muscle atrophy after just a few years'

omg....just....omg.