Environmentalists and climate activists have become obsessed with promoting any protein source other than beef cattle.
Commentary
Environmentalists and climate activists have become obsessed with promoting any protein source besides beef cattle.
You may have come across this topic online from people sharing articles in which journalists enthusiastically promote eating insects. Maybe you have seen the shelf at the grocery store stocked with plant-based “meats.” Or, perhaps you’ve read
articles about lab-concocted abominations that, as far as I can tell, are probably about one lab accident away from metastasizing into some eldritch horror.
Recently, a
story made the rounds about how we could start python farms in Florida because they are apparently very efficient at converting their food into protein-packed meat and because they don’t fart or burp like cows do.
The greens’ and Western mainstream media’s fixation on replacing beef with bugs and faux meat is, of course, part of a climate-action agenda. Having said this, there is a darker part of my mind that wonders if certain elites don’t get a kick out of the idea of “us the unworthies” eating insects while they continue to dine on prime rib, chateaubriand, and bacon-wrapped filet mignon. They resent peasants eating well.
While the kneejerk reaction of many is to post a “come and take it” flag with a cow on it and leave it at that, it is worth engaging the argument if only to dismantle it so you can more easily stake that flag firmly on the rubble.
The argument, simplified, goes something like this: Cows and other ruminants (grazing animals with special stomachs for breaking down roughage) produce a lot of methane through their burps and other digestive processes, and methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide. Therefore, we need to limit or eliminate them as a common food source to save the Earth.
The problem is, even if you are concerned with anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, methane is not likely to be a major contributor to warming anyway, despite being a “more potent” gas.
Methane actually plays a very limited role in the atmosphere’s energy absorption spectrum. Its narrow absorption bands occur at wavelengths that are already covered by the most potent atmospheric greenhouse gas: water vapor. In other words, water vapor is already doing warming work that methane might otherwise do.
Methane is also a relatively short-lived atmospheric gas, with an
atmospheric lifespan of about 12 years. Methane is what is known as a “flow gas” or a gas that is destroyed at roughly the same rate of emission. This makes methane
practically irrelevant when it comes to supposed human-caused global warming.
The contribution by cattle to emissions is also grossly overstated. Even the hyper-climate-fixated
Environmental Protection Agency calculated that contributions of cattle-related emissions make up just 3 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, getting rid of cattle would have no effect on the climate whatsoever.
The creation of synthetic meat and plant-based substitutes is actually sort of funny because it is skirting around what nature does well (turning green stuff into delicious cow), attempting to simulate that process on an industrial scale. However, research indicates that the production of synthetic meat is almost certainly using
more energy and thus producing greater emissions than natural meat.
Regarding insects (and also snakes), defenders of insect-eating often point to countries in Asia or South America, where those kinds of foods are more common. In many of those places, eating insects is necessary for nutrition and survival, and in many cases, it is part of a local culture. That is fine for them. In fact, it is a testament to the fortitude of human beings trying to survive. But it is not what I would call desirable. I would venture to guess that most of the world’s poor would prefer steak over mealworms.
For survival, local flavor, or novelty, there is nothing wrong with dining on insects or snakes. Indeed, it has become a pretty common novelty in the United States, especially among virtue-signaling elites. Some might remember those candies with the scorpions or crickets inside. You can get them at pretty much any candy store, but that is what I am talking about when I say novelty. The upper-class version of this is having a Michelin-quality chef come and prepare some kind of insect-based meal as an “
experience.” But again, this is pure novelty.
Eating beef is not killing the planet, and avoiding it will not prevent so-called climate change, whether you replace it with python meat, insects, or lab-grown horrors beyond our comprehension. So, go out and enjoy a burger this weekend, guilt-free.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
