Discuss: The Only Way to Have a Cow

Homegrown shrimp from local growers is a clean protein. There are many freshwater shrimp farming operators in the US, but this is a niche business that has huge demand and more growers are needed. Consumers, like the author and those who have made comments, are demanding clean food. You can learn how to start a shrimp production operation at our site.

Three words:  The Vegetarian Myth.  Handles morals and ethics and the how-to’s as well.  By the awesome and eloquent Lierre Keith.

Studies have shown the obvious-that animals raised in their natural environment, eating the foods they evolved to eat are healthier and this benefit transfers to anyone consuming these animals. Corporate raised meats-grain and junk food fed- are not healthy for you-but naturally raised meats are. This is so because just like other animals, humans eating the foods they evolved to eat will be healthier. For most of the last million or so years humans have been hunter gatherers-and hunter gatherers, for the most part, got more than half their diet from naturally raised animal products. Hunter-gatherers also did not have chronic diseases (obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels) that universally afflict the elderly in western societies.

http://iontheworld.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/paleo11.pdf
Our analysis of the Ethnographic Atlas data
showed that the dominant foods in the majority of huntergatherer
diets were derived from animal food sources. Most
(73%) of the world’s hunter-gatherers obtained >50% of
their subsistence from hunted and fished animal foods,
whereas only 14% of worldwide hunter-gatherers obtained
>50% of their subsistence from gathered plant foods. For all
229 hunter-gatherer societies, the median subsistence dependence
upon animal foods was 66 – 75%.

The demand for wholesome organic food will only increase with time. The dangers of pesticide residue in food is becoming more apparent the world over.

Leaving aside the environmental considerations, it does seem like there are valid health concerns about feedlot beef.  But it also seems unlikely that we could produce enough beef to meet market demand by other methods, which would tend to push people toward more vegetarian diets. But is modern Factory Farming really any better than Factory Meat production?  There are some who believe that modern strains of dwarf wheat, which were breed (genetically engineered using more primitive engineering methods) for yield and protein content are also bad for you, in ways that ‘more natural’ strains of wheat were not.  The truth is that ‘natural’ food gathering methods that produce ‘traditional’ quality foods cannot feed 6 billion people.  Speaking for myself, I’d rather eat poorer quality foods than starve to death.