OT: US civil liberties under attack again!

[Gandalf Parker]

Most of my newsGroups are tech Groups. Often it comes up how dismaying it is to see technology progress too fast for us techies to keep up with it. Depressing threads.

I tell them that if they wish to celebrate the age they live in, consider food. We live at the peak of the food age. Any meal we eat is made up of things which, at one time, was the entire diet of some group of people who thrilled at a rare bit of something else. A meal might have 3 or 4 dishes and each of those made up of a dozen things from all over the world.

New foods are unlikely to be discovered. Bananas as you know them are likely to disappear within 10 years, foods and drinks removed from the market for various reasons as each one becomes the newest "most harmful" choice. Foods which are the most damaging to the environment will be controlled by laws or prices. Beef and Wheat are highest on those lists, to be replaced by goat and soybeans.

Enjoy your meals because from here on its pretty much downhill.

[Renegade 13]

Gandalf Parker said:

foods and drinks removed from the market for various reasons as each one becomes the newest "most harmful" choice. Foods which are the most damaging to the environment will be controlled by laws or prices. Beef and Wheat are highest on those lists, to be replaced by goat and soybeans.

Speaking as the son of a cattle rancher, I can tell you right now that the beef we produce is not unhealthy in the least. As with all things, if you eat too much meat, perhaps you will gain weight due to fat content, but that can be said of many things. Beef in and of itself is not bad at all for you. At least, before it goes to the feedlots I know it is, I'm not sure what they do to the meat before the animals are slaughtered and butchered.

[Gandalf Parker]

Renegade 13 said:

Speaking as the son of a cattle rancher, I can tell you right now that the beef we produce is not unhealthy in the least. As with all things, if you eat too much meat, perhaps you will gain weight due to fat content, but that can be said of many things. Beef in and of itself is not bad at all for you. At least, before it goes to the feedlots I know it is, I'm not sure what they do to the meat before the animals are slaughtered and butchered.

I meant those to be seperate things that would happen. I dont agree that beef is unhealthy. Im as much a carnivore as my wife is a vegetarian (both fairly extreme). To me a good meal includes the 5 basic food animals (beef, pork, foul, fish, mutton). I am the LAST person to jump on the "unhealthy meat" thing.

But some foods are bad for the environment. As much as I love beef (and REAL veal when I can get it instead of the fake crap in stores) I do have to acknowledge that its not an efficient meat. In terms of the use of the land, water, more land and water for the necessary feeds; it produces very little in return. We use everything a cow produces but it still doesnt balance the books and can be replaced by other more efficient animals. Also much of the encroachment of man into wilderness areas is due to cattle and it would not happen to that extent with any other meat crop. Wheat is also a rather obnoxious and damaging crop in its useage of land.

There are many SciFi books which bring it up because anyone who studies such reports knows that if we dont fix the population growth problem and some shortages, that changes will have to be made and those are fairly high on the list. I detriggefinetly do not plan to voluntarily give up anything in my diet.

[Gandalf Parker]

Renegade 13 said:
Speaking as the son of a cattle rancher, I can tell you right now that the beef we produce is not unhealthy in the least. As with all things, if you eat too much meat, perhaps you will gain weight due to fat content, but that can be said of many things. Beef in and of itself is not bad at all for you.

As a seperate response I totally agree with you. I think the new healthy diets are just people learning to eat correctly. Herbivore, omnivore and carnivore which seem to be referred to presently as vegan, vegetarian, and american.

The vegans say you can live on fruit, vegetables and water which was argued for a long time but then they added things like "5 or 6 small meals a day and lots of exercise". Decades ago in school I learned that herbivores diet was not as efficient and they had to eat all day to sustain themselves. No problem, they are figuring it out.

The vegetarians say fish, fowl, fruits, vegetables, milk eggs. 3 meals a day and light exercise. Very ittle red meat. OK thats basic omnivore rules. The basic habits that sustain rats or bears or apes. Pretty much what Man was expected to be.

Carnivores eat one big meal. Once a day or less. They have little physical activity. Some roughage at other times of the day (in other words plants make ok snacks).

Health problems IMHO are from people trying to mix and match. Its difficult to try and mix the meal arrangments with the exercise arrangments with the food arrangments from different Groups.
(patent pending, book in the works)