apple juice

I get a fair amount of my internet oddities and goodness from kottke.org — you should check him out.

And this recent post of a post about meat eating is very interesting…

From the Guardian, a review of a book called Meat: A Benign Extravagance by Simon Fairlie. In it, Fairlie argues that meat production isn’t actually that inefficient when done properly and veganism as an ethical response leaves something to be desired.

“But these idiocies, Fairlie shows, are not arguments against all meat eating, but arguments against the current farming model. He demonstrates that we’ve been using the wrong comparison to judge the efficiency of meat production. Instead of citing a simple conversion rate of feed into meat, we should be comparing the amount of land required to grow meat with the land needed to grow plant products of the same nutritional value to humans. The results are radically different.

If pigs are fed on residues and waste, and cattle on straw, stovers and grass from fallows and rangelands — food for which humans don’t compete — meat becomes a very efficient means of food production. Even though it is tilted by the profligate use of grain in rich countries, the global average conversion ratio of useful plant food to useful meat is not the 5:1 or 10:1 cited by almost everyone, but less than 2:1. If we stopped feeding edible grain to animals, we could still produce around half the current global meat supply with no loss to human nutrition: in fact it’s a significant net gain.”

(Via kottke.org.)

The Kindest Cut on Slate is filled with mind-boggling statistics about food production, for example:

35 pounds of manure incurred per pound of saleable beef.

and

The poultry-broiler industry consumed some 240 billion megajoules of energy in 2005, or the equivalent of 42 million barrels of crude oil. That’s more than the entire country of Sri Lanka consumed the same year—all to keep us well-stocked with wings and drumsticks.

and

The livestock industry as a whole consumes a whopping share of the world’s crops—at least 80 percent of all soybeans and more than half of all corn.

and

food writer Michael Pollan recently suggested that if Americans went meatless one night a week, it would be equivalent to taking “30 to 40 million cars off the road for a year.”

I do like eating meat, but we’ve tried to cut back a bit. Maybe we should look in to raising some chickens in the back 40.

friday dinner – hamburger with bacon

saturday breakfast – nothing

saturday lunch – hamburger with bacon

saturday afternoon – beef jerky

saturday early evening – beef jerky

saturday dinner – steak, bratwurst patty

saturday after dinner snack – beef jerky

saturday pre-storm snack – bratwurst patty

sunday breakfast – chorizo (and eggs)

sunday brunch – ham

sunday afternoon snack – hamburger

sunday dinner – hamburger

it’s safe to say that i don’t need any meat in my diet for the next 2-3 months

(i want to start off by noting that 98% of the time, I love the food at my school. there is a wide variety of soups, entries, salads, and desserts. it’s tasty, and it’s free. this post is in no way meant to criticize our food service, which truly does a tremendous job.)

however, about once a month, horrible rhyming words pop up on my calendar. brunch for lunch.

brunch for lunch consists of: deep-fried french toast sticks, eggs, and sausage links.

i’m sure this combination is wildly popular amongst our youngest students, and i understand why it makes a regular appearance on the menu, but from my perspective, it’s a good excuse to try and take lunch off campus.

even though i had no invitations for a strategy meeting at chipotle, lady luck shined on me.

I left my seat in search of croutons. on days like these, it is important to be creative. since i was only receiving minimal satisfaction from the breakfast items, i also had a bowl of chicken soup. however this soup was lacking something, and that something was croutons.

as i strode towards the salad bar, i immediately became distracted. what is this big bowl of green? i spied a new addition. guacamole!

new plan. grab a bowl and load it up with guacamole and chips before anyone else sees this delicacy.

i returned to the table extremely pleased with myself. steve looked up slowly upon my return. the other members of the table looked over. “what is that. . .?”

without any further words, all six of my table-mates slowly stood so as to not attract attention and headed towards the salad bar. all six returned with guacamole.

i finished the day with a happy belly.