Food For Thought: Meat-Based Diet Made Us Smarter!

DaltheJigsaw

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128849908

Zayl

Pretty much yeah. I knew all this from way back by watching PBS programs as a kid. We started essentially as scavengers and eventually we got good enough to hunt on our own. We ate more meat, but still ate fruits, vegetables, and grains/nuts when available. This also allowed us to survive colder climates where fruits/vegetables could not grow, as animals provided food instead. We also used their skins and furs to adapt to the climates.

federica

I also guess the meat was purer then....bovine farmed meat is way different to the meat you'd get from say, a wild buffalo...

Invincible_summer

In the developed world, much of our meat comes from a source of enormous suffering and harm - not just to the animals, but to the environment as well. I think for those of us who live in the industrialized world, we have the responsibility to relieve the suffering of the animals which end up on millions of plates, either by choosing a (more or less) meat-free diet, or changing the way we do agriculture.

So basically, a meat-based diet may have been somewhat more acceptable back in the days when our societies were developing. Nowadays though, the meat industry is quite inexcusable in its treatment of animals.

seeker242

Most likely true, for the past

"Ultimately, of course, what makes us intellectually human is our brain," he says. "And I think that comes from having the highest quality of food in the animal kingdom, and that's because we cook."

So, as the Neanderthals liked to say around the campfire: bon appetit.

Maybe still true, if you are still a neanderthal with a small brain. Don't see many of them walking around these days though.

zombiegirl

My girlfriend and I had a conversation the other day about how you can buy an ENTIRE rotisserie chicken, cooked and seasoned and all, for $5 at most grocery stores around here. That just doesn't seem right somehow... The price of the life of that chicken, including price to the farmer, shipping and handling, cooking, etc... $5.

And this is why the meat industry continues along it's horrible path of suffering. When it all comes down to the bottom line of the price to the public, people cannot deny that $5 for an entire chicken is really cheap. Same reason Walmart exists. People vote with their money.

I_AM_THAT

Pink Slime...

Dakini

Wasn't it FDR's slogan: "A chicken in every pot"? He wanted everyone to be able to afford chicken, at the very least, meat-wise. Being able to afford meat was considered middle-class, an economic achievement if the populace could at least afford chicken. Those rotisserie chickens are $8-$9 where I live.

B5C

Wasn't it FDR's slogan: "A chicken in every pot"? He wanted everyone to be able to afford chicken, at the very least, meat-wise. Being able to afford meat was considered middle-class, an economic achievement if the populace could at least afford chicken. Those rotisserie chickens are $8-$9 where I live.

Well note that most chickens around that time were locally owned and you got them from your local butcher. Yet today. Most chickens are grown hundreds or thousands of miles away and not from your local butcher.

Eating meat is not bad. It's the amount of meat you eat.

person

Well note that most chickens around that time were locally owned and you got them from your local butcher. Yet today. Most chickens are grown hundreds or thousands of miles away and not from your local butcher.

Eating meat is not bad. It's the amount of meat you eat.

The use of the word grown is appropriate, because animals are no longer raised they are indeed grown and treated much the same way as any piece of produce might be.

Dakini

There are organic grocery stores and co-ops that specialize in locally-grown food and meat, free-range locally grown chickens, buffalo, etc. Meat raised by humane methods.

Invincible_summer

Pink Slime...

http://www.snopes.com/food/prepare/msm.asp

There are organic grocery stores and co-ops that specialize in locally-grown food and meat, free-range locally grown chickens, buffalo, etc. Meat raised by humane methods.

The terms "organic" and "free-range" are not very useful, as they aren't regulated very well, if at all. An "organic" bird has to meet certain regulations regarding the type of feed and how many injections it can have or something, but organic birds can still be treated poorly.

"Free-range" usually just means that the animal has "access to the outdoors." That's so ambiguous that many farmers just use that to mean there's a window or a door or something, but the animals won't really get to go outside.

But if you can get meat that comes from a small-scale farm that you can actually TALK to (as opposed to these massive, faceless factory farms), I think that's much better.


I recommend everyone read the book "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer. It's a very good insight into the ethics and economics of the meat industry.

Dakini

One of the grocery stores I shop at carries locally grown meat and veggies, exclusively. They support local farmers. Customers can visit the farms.

And then there's Whole Foods, which insists everything meets their strict standards. Their farmed salmon is disease-free, they say, farmed by advanced methods, blah blah. It would be great if someone did an investigative report on this to see how true it is.

DaltheJigsaw

My girlfriend and I had a conversation the other day about how you can buy an ENTIRE rotisserie chicken, cooked and seasoned and all, for $5 at most grocery stores around here. That just doesn't seem right somehow... The price of the life of that chicken, including price to the farmer, shipping and handling, cooking, etc... $5.

And this is why the meat industry continues along it's horrible path of suffering. When it all comes down to the bottom line of the price to the public, people cannot deny that $5 for an entire chicken is really cheap. Same reason Walmart exists. People vote with their money.

Right on the money!

DaltheJigsaw

Pink Slime...

Ewww!

zombiegirl

Wasn't it FDR's slogan: "A chicken in every pot"? He wanted everyone to be able to afford chicken, at the very least, meat-wise. Being able to afford meat was considered middle-class, an economic achievement if the populace could at least afford chicken. Those rotisserie chickens are $8-$9 where I live.

Fascinating bit of history, thanks Dakini! Growing up in this fast food generation, it's hard for me to imagine such a time...

Dakini

Growing up in this fast food generation, it's hard for me to imagine such a time...

ha, yeah, it's hard to imagine there was a time before fast food. I think the first MacDonald's opened in the 1950's around L.A.? I think I read that somewhere. Before fast food, there were only slow-food restaurants and diners. Maybe the first true fast food were hot dogs. They've been around a long time.

robot

One of the grocery stores I shop at carries locally grown meat and veggies, exclusively. They support local farmers. Customers can visit the farms.

And then there's Whole Foods, which insists everything meets their strict standards. Their farmed salmon is disease-free, they say, farmed by advanced methods, blah blah. It would be great if someone did an investigative report on this to see how true it is.

Check this out
http://alexandramorton.typepad.com/alexandra_morton/2012/03/chinook-collapse-and-salmon-feedlot-viruses.html

Dakini

Good article. I've heard BC salmon farming has caused a lot of problems. Whole Foods gets their salmon from Norway and Iceland. Supposedly those countries have better practices.

robot

Good article. I've heard BC salmon farming has caused a lot of problems. Whole Foods gets their salmon from Norway and Iceland. Supposedly those countries have better practices.

I would like to hope so. But I doubt it. Here's more.

http://www.farmedanddangerous.org/solutions/industry-reform/about-the-industry/