UCLA Ignorance – Beef-Less Thursdays
Thanks to @RayLinDairy (that’s Twitter ID in case you didn’t know) for pointing me to this complete ignorance gone to seed (thank you Derry Brownfield). You need to read the whole thing. It’s so filled with misinformation that the only conclusion you can draw is that the vegetarians are running the dining halls. I’d eat out if I went to school there.
UCLA Dining Services recently announced a new decision to remove all beef from the dining halls every Thursday beginning today for the duration of this quarter.
The move toward “Beef-less Thursdays” is meant to advance UCLA’s sustainability and wellness goals, said Robert Gilbert, the sustainability coordinator for Housing and Hospitality Services.
Beef is an environmentally unfriendly food item because cows require a great deal of water to raise and they produce methane, which is a greenhouse gas, Gilbert said.
The lunatics are running the asylum. I think I’ll go out and find some beef to eat for supper.
It's time to thank our farmers and ranchers for all their hard work to feed us.
7 Comments
Cam
Hey there. I gotta say the UCLA post seems pretty reasonable to me. What do you see as “misinformation” specifically?
Emily
I don’t think there’s much dispute over the fact that the production of meat has negative effects on the environment. The school’s not cutting out meat, its opening students to more sustainable ways of eating, once a week. How is that a bad thing?
Chuck
Oh but there is a huge amount of dispute over it. The GHG emissions from cows is so insignificant that you can only conclude that people who want to control other people’s diets are behind the misinformation.
Beef is a wonderfully nutritious product and there is a lot of research to document that fact. UCLA’s misguided decision is actually putting students at risk of not getting beneficial dietary requirements.
I think it’s a bad thing to take away a student’s right to choose the food they eat too. This is very divisive and just shows a complete lack of care for their students by people with an agenda who want to exert control.
PN
I agree with Cam and Emily’s comments.
The chart Good Magazine put together that visually represents how much water is used in the process of producing beef is remarkable. http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/trans0309walkthisway.html
I definitely eat meat, but think it’s a good thing to better understand what it takes to grow all the food we eat. This UCLA program is trying to create awareness. Sounds like a great idea. One day without beef is unlikely to put students at risk of not getting daily dietary requirements.
Sarah
Wow, Chuck,
I’d venture to say you’re the one missing information. GHG emissions are hardly the only factor to consider when examining the beef industry’s impact on the environment and public health. Global deforestation, ground water contamination, and air pollution are all serious issues given the scale of industrial meat production. Beyond that, to suggest that people are going to have their nutrition compromised by not eating meat one day a week (the fact that they could get it anywhere outside the dining hall not withstanding) is flat ignorant. Ask almost any physician or nutritionist in the country and they’ll say they recommend cutting down on red meat intake as a general method for disease prevention and overall wellness. The typical meat-eating American university student is not lacking for protein or iron, and one day without beef is only going to improve personal health, drive environmental improvement, and raise awareness in a public education facility about the connection between our consumption and the state of the world.
Chuck
You can find some good information on beef cows impact on GHG emissions here: Fact Sheet: Critical Analysis of Livestock’s Long Shadow.
When it comes to water use :
Myth: Amount of water needed to produce 1 pound of wheat: 25 gallons.
Myth: Amount of water needed to produce 1 pound of beef: 2,500 gallons.
According to statistics compiled by the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Kansas State University, the yield of wheat from irrigated land averages about 3 bushels per acre inch of water (27,168 gallons). So it actually takes 151 gallons of water to produce one pound of wheat – six times more than the amount this claim suggests.
Considering all factors in beef cattle production including direct consumption, irrigation of pastures and crops, and carcass processing, it takes 435 gallons of water to produce a pound of boneless beef, according to the CAST 1999 Animal Agriculture and Global Food Supply Report.
Craig
Good job Chuck !!
Keep the facts a-comin. The nay-sayers just can’t stand the facts.
What’s “fashionable” today, will not be tomorrow. Good sound science will always be in demand. Maybe we should alert UCLA to this fact?
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