I spot a "real tool" in there but it isn't the same one he's talking about! Whatta loser. Someone who wants to create a weak, malnurished species. Get outta here!! They can pry the steak from my cold, dead hands. LOL

until we create a culinary culture in which the meat-eaters must do the apologizing,

Best of luck with that...

"Genuine sacrifice". That's right - what counts is not human costs and benefits, or even the net outcome.

What counts is sacrifice, more or less for its own sake.

He's pushing religion, not science or ethics or even plain politics.

I have a short response to every proposal he's mentioned, and to him, and it involves a short Anglo-Saxon word as a prefix.

Professor of "Agrarian Studies", indeed.

Great, this idiot socialist would do for food what they've done for health care -- rationing, shortages, line ups. If it weren't for the market economies and their food production, starvation in the world would be even more widespread. The socialists did such a great job in the Ukraine, and in China during the "Great Leap Forward" It seems there are just never enough graves to keep socialists happy.

"We know that something has to be done to save our food from corporate interests."

Seems like another marxist dressed up in environmentalist clothing.

If they can ban peanut butter from schools, they can do anything.

What an a$$hole. This guy talks about "sacrifice", but once again he's demanding that others do the sacrificing because this sacrifice conveniently won't effect him.

I’m willing to bet this h0m0 takes great umbrage to the fact that social conservatives wish to dicktate who can and can’t be married while at the same time he chastises you for eating a renewable resource.

Furthermore, I'm waiting for the suggestion that a "meat tax" is the only way to promote such a necessary sacrifice. Fck poor families, let them eat KD!

If I had 24hrs to live, I would go on a tirade of minor assaults on every leftard I could find that presumes to manipulate my lifestyle to meet their standards. Then they truly would have something to b*tch about.

Long day, rant over.

We know that something has to be done to save our food from corporate interests.

Save me from these commies that think things always have to be saved...by Big Government.

Note to the commies: It isn't the corporate interests that cause famines, it's command economies and state control that lead to crop failures and starvation on a massive scale.

This twit should go to India where most of the world's vegetarians are, people are starving there and cows are walking around with nobody to eat them.

I'll stop eating meat when my body gives up it's mechanisms for tearing it apart and digesting it.

DrD and Woodporter, you are absolutely right. These eco watermelon wing-nuts would have us go back to the caveman days and that without delicious mammoth steaks.

What and how I choose to eat, drive, sleep etc. affects everyone else to some degree including how much I breathe.

But no one else should get to play god and decide which acts are wrong and which are right. Sticking ones nose into how someoneelse lives their life is one of those things that I think is wrong. Perhaps we should punish this guy for doing it.

When it come down to individual freedom versus collective good I come down on the side of the individual because defending the individual is in the collectives very best interest.

I pushed a Pompous Preaching Pansy while uttering an expletive in a Ralphs Grocery Store in California when he physically stopped my cart and lectured me on the ratio of meat to vegetables in my groceries.

The world has just about pushed the average person to snap with all the finger-wagging and "behavior modifiers" buzzing around your life like a bunch of black flies, all just taking little bites out of you, your wallet, and your time for what they feel is wrong with your choices. Time to start crotch kicking these lifestyle advocates again like we used to drop the PC crap and start treating them like the parasites they are sucking on veins of guilt that seem to define todays culture, go start a commune of sheeple all like you and leave regular folks alone.

Oh ya and no tax money or special status for your little exercise in utopia.

But these proposals all lack something that every successful environmental movement has always placed at its core: genuine human sacrifice.

Fixed it for him.

Here's a question.

I wonder how well Professor James E. McWilliams would eat corn-on-the-cob if somebody would punch him in the mouth and knock his teeth out?

In the "Reap What You Sow" category:

http://algorelied.com/?p=3114

Eat Vegetarians!!

Yeah, buddy, I've got your apology ...
Right.
Here.

What's that old saying?

"If God didn't want us to eat cows, why did he make them out of steak?"

Another "tenured" professor spouting statist control over our lives on the pretext of enviro-junk science. Until we replace liberal arts colleges with library cards (kudos to the late, great Les Bewley), it's only going to get worse.

I couldn't conceive of a more pompus idiot or figure out how he got that way, until I saw the word "Professor" before his name. I'll tell you what I will volunteer to do at my 70 years: I will knock out that idiot's canines and incisors and force him to eat nothing but grains and vegetables. Maybe, if he ever has children and he raises them that way, they will be 100 pound weakiings.

I would like to see that idiot do a real professoral research, instead of his charlatanary by comparing the environmental destruction of range grazing cattle and sheep to the environmental destruction of wheat, oats, barley, beets, carrots, cabbages, etc. The open field runoff, pesticides, diesal tractor usage, tilling. Gah, you overeducated POSs disgust me.

He can bite me.

So every time he passes McDonalds and sees the xx billions served he realizes he is wrong?

Save the Planet... eat Greens!

I should SO put this on a T-shirt.

Goreacle Report: WUWT?'s Arts Report.
...-

"Reading this you might think I am an evil horrible woman."

urlm.in/dnxw

What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me.
Especially when it's beans.

How about Obama eating humble pie.

Just desserts

If we were meant to be vegetarians we would have eyes in the side of our head.
Isn’t that the truth.

Until we make that leap, until we create a culinary culture in which the meat-eaters must do the apologizing

In other words until they can force us by gun or police, what we can & cannot eat by Elitists. Ideologues with just the Kapo's, those folks who like to bully people by pretending moral superiority. De-Normalize as Ezra Say's the eating of Protein in meat. All for a fringe group of fanatics who think themselves pure of heart. While most of the World has a problem finding enough food. Insanity from the moral degenerates disguised as good progressives. Liberals are a stain on thinking if not a immoral disease.
JMO

Vegetables ain't food.

Vegetables are what food eats

Fascists make me sick

It probably won't surprise the readers here that I encounter more than my share of this (it would be even worse if I lived in, say, San Francisco, Berkeley, or Santa Cruz). What I now say to those who want to convert me to vegetarianism is, "I tried it, but the diet seemed to fill me with an uncontrollable urge to preach to people about things that are none of my business."

This pretty much sums up the green agenda;

Spin Assassin said, "green is all about power and control over YOU!"

"... making a move for your fork" They'd better be quick, because I won't hesitate... and as a bit of a side note, I'm certain my kids wouldn't either, having heard the stories from the Ukraine (in particular) of how government was the problem.

I think they may be overlooking the fact that much of southern Alberta and anywhere else where large scale animal raising is ongoing, doesn't really support much in the way of grain agra business. I speak with southern ranchers here in Alberta on a nearly daily basis, I don't ever hear them complain that they need more direction from the government, or environmentalists. Once the global warming folks catch on that their agenda isn't going anywhere, will they all bail out in order to support the next cause?

hmmm, why did grocery stores in Canada stop selling "soy burger"?

*agrees with much of what Illiquid Assets said... Behavior modifiers and black flies.
Really, it's the left's cause of the day, anything to control you, to dominate your behavior to suit their agenda. Leftism = Loss of your humanity.

a short historical view of "meat riots" ... Chile 1905.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meat_riots

"I tried it, but the (vegetarian) diet seemed to fill me with an uncontrollable urge to preach to people about things that are none of my business." (6:41 pm)

*Perfect*.

You can have my steak knife when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

Of course I regard this as moronic.

However, let me use this opportunity to make a broader point.

Everything that becomes the province of the public sphere simply becomes another part of the common banality. Once its domain has transferred from the private sphere to the public sphere it is simply one more issue for ravenous wolves to endlessly argue about and tear apart.

Used to, a lot of things were in the private sphere. They were nobody's business but your own.

Today almost everything has become part of the public sphere. Very little is left that is universally understood to be your own business and no one else's.

What you eat, what you kind of light bulbs you use, your medical records, your credit reports, how much you have in the bank, possibly your sexual practices, your philosophy of life probably needs to be corrected. Even religion is now just one long argument by politicians, reformers, sociologists, scientists, policy makers and on and on about how you should feel about God or the lack of God.

The exaggerated public sphere is one of the qualities of postmodernism. And it is turning everything about us into something socially reconstructed by idiots who have some pathology for insisting that others follow their rules. Soon there will be nothing left of our lives that is truly our own.

Damn fool he is

I want to live, not just exist

Meat eating is illogical and irrational: it simply makes no sense. You eat a cow but not a horse, you eat a pig but not a dog or cat...it's all a matter of cultural traditions and mores that you have blindly accepted at face value - i.e. - as a result of not being able to think for yourselves.

Vegetarianism, however, has been recognized as the single most important thing a person can do to combat global poverty and global warming (sorry, I know here at the Flat Earth Society such talk is verboten).

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2234585

Seal meat to be served at Hill restaurant

'Good Opportunity'

Tom Spears, Canwest News Service

The Parliamentar y Restaurant will soon serve seal meat to anyone with a taste for game -- and controversy.

Hull-Aylmer MP Marcel Proulx confirmed the addition to the menu is just awaiting hunting season, and should arrive in the new year.

This is the second time the restaurant has tried to carry seal meat, he said.

"In 2008 there had been a request [for seal] from a couple of senators. The problem was they could not find a supplier.

"Now the chef, I understand, has found a supplier in the Magdalen Islands. I think, because of the hunting season, they will be able to get some meat in the early part of 2010. Then they will be able to offer it in the Parliamentary Restaurant."

Mr. Proulx brushed off any question of possible protests.

"To start with, seal hunting is legal in Canada. Seal meat is therefore legal. There are processes to be followed according to the law, rules and regulations.

"This is a good opportunity for the industry. More often than not, you try to sell a product and the first thing people ask you is, 'Is your government using your product?' In this case they'll be able to say, 'Yes.'"

"It's good for the restaurant, it's good for the [hunting] industry, good for the fishermen, good for the entire picture of what the seal hunt is all about."

Cheers

Hans-Christian Georg Rupprecht, Commander in Chief

1st Saint Nicolaas Army
Army Group “True North"

How does the Food Professor feel about cannibalism? Can humans be considered meat if they are raised on a vegan diet? Just don't eat the organs, very bad karma. Bon Appetiit!

I've spent time around someone with anorexia nervosa,
It was all about obsession with, and denial of, food. A lot of Vegetarians I've met have the same mindset.The ranting about eating things with faces seems to cover a deep need for bloody gobbets of meat.
Maybe it's time to treat Demonstrative Vegetarianism as a mental health issue.

.

bleet

Shhhh, adults are talking.

But keep chewing your cud, it's really all your opinion is good for.......

ConAgra, Cargill, Tyson and the rest aint grampa's farm. So El Dorko gets it part right. Just because a loon holds some beliefs which are utterly stupid doesn't men there isn't some merit to his concerns about industrializing food production. if one believes in free markets I would hope you would accept that as fewer player come to dominate a field choice becomes limited and prices tend to go up. It's called price fixing. I don't know about you guys, but i NEED to eat, it's not a hobby or a choice.

So the thinking goes...

"If you do something that - directly or indirectly - effects all of us then the state has the right, nay the duty, to control it."

Pretty much a recipe for totalitarianism.

I think cannibalism is going become more fashionable in the near future . . . what could be more environmentally friendly than soylent green?

bleet, I have eaten cow, horse (tastes like moose), pig, dog (in Korea, tastes a little like beef) and cat (a lynx trapped in Northern Ontario, tastes like and had the texture of a pork chop). By your logic, I can think for myself. Does this mean I do not have to become a vegetarian?

So the perfessor goes to Texas, the home of the Longhorns, and Bar-be-cue and wonders why his granola speech didn't go over well? The term "Stuck on Stupid" comes to mind.

Damn, an overpowering urge for some Texas brisket from Goode's (Houston) or Stubb's (Austin) just swept over me.

He can kiss my ass if he doesn't want to bite it.

"you are what you eat"

well, tonight that means I'm a plate full of green beans I grew in my own garden this year and 2 BBQ spiced sausages.

and a couple swigs of diet cola.

BUURRRRRRPP. I still wish you could get wild venison on the menu or supermarket.

what a freakin' wuss.

Living in a Northern climate, I'm darned well going to EAT MEAT.

Besides, beef, chicken, pork, and lamb taste great -- especially in curries.

Now, my dad would strenuously disagree. He always said when you put a roast beef on the table, dripping with dish gravy, aka blood, "Good beef needs no decoration."

RIP, Daddy! And pass the beef.

My 90 yr old (now)friend became a vegetarian over 10 yrs ago. Her son had become one several years before that and had graduated to a vegan diet.

Not to make light of any of this, you understand. But, last year he died of a massive heart attack the evening of his 65th birthday.
He might just as well have had a steak for dinner, or at least an egg.

I always keep Dr. Atkin in mind. You might remember, after years of dieting he fell on an icy step and died shortly afterwards, many years younger than I am. What's the use of being a healthy corpse?

I didn't claw my way to the top of the food chain top eat vegtables.

In Canada, home of the free, cosseted veal calves are fattened by attentive hand-feeding in loving, carefully selected and closely monitored foster-farming situations, the humane production of delicious, positive-karma pale meat products being an almost universal top-of-mind concern among the compassionate citizens of this septentrional nation.

Why, the photo albums - complete with ribbon-tied locks of hair - of the cherished veal calves that have passed through our house alone fill several shelves. We often, of an evening, curl up cosily in front of a crackling fire, flip through the pages of one or another of these treasured tomes, and fondly recall how dearly we loved each and every one of those sweet, tender, juicy young animals.

Overheard at a takeout-restaurant window:

"Mr. McWilliams, would you like a knife and fork in the bag?"

Do it, I say.

'Vegetable' eating is illogical and irrational: it simply makes no sense.

There, fixed it for you bleet.

Let me take a guess. You like to sneak into a MacDonalds now and then, don't you. Probably sit in the corner, hands shaking as you unwrap the double cheese burger. That delicious odor causing your taste buds to salivate with expectation. Your fake moustache falling to the table. You quickly try to paste it back on, hoping no one you know sees through your disquise, sees you inside the golden arches. A crazed and demented look comes into your eyes as you take that first bite, instantly fueling the rush. Like a junkie searching for a vein, then finding the release he so needs.

Ring any bells bleet?

I have three comments.
First, as for the McWilliams, fork him!

Second, that in less-populated areas, such as, say, Newfoundland or Alaska, it is sensible to eat meat (moose for example)
that range on scrubland which can't be farmed - the moose must be shot first, of course - they object if you just take
a bite out of their leg. As Sarah Palin noted, it's cheaper and healthier to eat moose (or caribou) than to ship in meat from elsewhere.

Third, re the post by "gellen": remember James Fixx and Richard Burton. James Fixx lived a healthy life style, jogged
(which he popularised), and died at age 52. Richard Burton never saw a gin bottle, nor a lady, that he didn't fancy, and lived 'til he was 56.

[But these proposals all lack something that every successful environmental movement has always placed at its core: genuine sacrifice. ]

Hello Al 'exec jet' Gore and Dave 'lotsa houses' Suzuki.

Let's have some fun and list the animals we have eaten. Here's my list:

beef, moose, buffalo, deer, springbok, crocodile, kudu, pork, lamb, snake, rabbit, dog, countless types of fish, frog (legs), various game birds, and the usual farm birds of all kinds.

Lamb is still king for me.

Let's have some fun and list the animals we have eaten. Here's my list:

beef, moose, buffalo, deer, springbok, crocodile, kudu, pork, lamb, snake, rabbit, dog, countless types of fish, frog (legs), various game birds, and the usual farm birds of all kinds.

Lamb is still king for me.

Just a FYI for Mr. McWilliams: It's not "sacrifice" when you make someone else do it.

As posted above there are vast land tracts in North America that are only suited to animal grazing. The soil type or climate will not support grain production.
The absolute best utilization of that land is to turn the grass into beef (meat)...that humans can consume.
And as an added note there is alot of grain that does not make the grade for human consumption. For one reason or another people can't eat it. But animals can. Would it suit the environnuts better to waste that feed grain or is it better to convert it into a nutrious foodstuff namely meat? The answer is easy.

Hey TJ, you can add kangaroo, elk, caribou, bear, alligator and beaver to your list for me. No jokes about the last item though:-)

I wonder if someone is keeping a list of all the things that we need to sacrifice to 'save the world for the sake of your children and grandchildren'.

First, ironically, you must sacrifice children by having have fewer or none at all. Then give up the following: meat, cars, suburban homes, full flush toilets, air travel, reliable and affordable electricity, staying at a comfortable room temp all year round and most important...more of your paycheck to fund social and environmental justice.

So, basically, the worst of the pre-industrial lifestyle combined with the modern welfare state. All accomplished by simply submitting to the unending dictates of control-freak nannycrats. I can't imagine why any self-respecting adult would reject this wonderfully planned utopia.

Good additions Texas Canuck.

I feel like I've left some off my list, but cannot remember what they are.

Dog was awful, ate that in Korea, don't need it again. Everything else I'd eat again, although frogs legs are overrated - had them in Paris years ago, tasted like chicken.

Some wild African game is very good indeed if it is prepared right.

This whole business about consumption of meat being bad for the environment is never properly explained.

It's got nothing to do with those of us who like to put a good quality steak on the grill once in a while.

It's about companies like McDonald's who want to sell an unhealthy greasy burger for a few bucks to a million people a day.

This is was gets me annoyed with people like McWilliams. They oversimplify things, and they paint everyone as evil in order to get attention.

I have to wonder if we have enough high end agricultural land, in North America, to grow enough grain and vegetables, to feed everyone. The reason you see all those cows out there, is because the land is not suitable for cultivation. Do you suppose these nutjobs even care about that?

TJ: dolphin, spotted owl, koala, chimpanzee (the hands only), chihuahua, flamingo, goldfish, shetland pony, bald eagle, cockatiel, and baby panda.

All were quite tasty, with the notable exception of the chihuahua, which had too many bones.

Nevermind the dairy cattle, past their milking years, ya think we've been burying them in the back 40?

Seriously the only thing that concerns me is these wankers _JUST _NEVER _ STOP_ It sounds ridiculous now, but in 20 years of incrementalism it'll become recieved wisdom amongst the great and good, and thus legislation for the rest of us weenies.

Ya don't think Great Britain become the gun hostile paranoid stuper stupid soft facist state it is today overnight, right? Took a 100 years of whack jobs like that slowly pushing their agendas one comma at a time.

I ate chili for supper this evening. The only thing I apologise for is that there wasn't enough to go around.
If you want "responsible eating", ect, encourage eating fruit, paying a proper price for chocolate, coffee, sugar and tea and stop paying illegal migrant workers crappy wages for doing dirty work (better yet, encourage Canadian teen-agers to do that work or at least get migrants to become legal residents so then they could be treated properly).
Just my thoughts.

I am astonished at the reaction to this gentle saint of a man trying in his own way to improve the health and social environment for all mankind. Do you not know that eating meat protein has been shown to heighten aggressive tendencies in most omnivorous and carnivorous animal species, including humans?

It was clearly demonstrated by "experts" during an episode on either Law and Order or that other lefty soap opera Boston Legal, so it must be true.

Scratch a an ecco-veg and you'll find a fascist bastard.

Sgt. Lejaune, if he was a "gentle saint of a man", then why isn't he asking others to eat bulgogi with rice and kimchi? After, all that goes into that food is grown locally and the preparation has little changed over the centuries. It's also extremely good and culturally diverse. I thought all those eco-guys were about "diverse"!

I could comment that I've got something the Dear Professor can feast on...

...but Kate might spank me for it.

Uhmmmm. No...I better not go there either.

Welcome to our world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't all you non-vegetarians know that it is the new politically correct world order. Only THEY get to decide how you live your life. And don't say, "oh but smoking is bad, it is different, so you SHOULD quit - we can ban it cause it smells bad" or I will be laughing with YOU when they ban outdoor bbqs because the smoke wafts into your vegetarian neighbour's back yard. Don't forget steak uses more carbon to make the meat too (so one should feel guilty), just like we cost the health care system more by dying of lung cancer vs. death by wasting away in a nursing home for 10 years or complications from competitive sports injuries.

I prefer the older, "live and let live", "mind your own business" world. Activism is very stressful for those involved (as we don't change), as well as those whom they torture.

Anyone remember Ule Gibbons, back in the 60's he would walk through the woods saying this is edible and so is that, he would say we all should live healthy lives.
Well, all that healthy eating resulted in a fatal heart attack...Rip Ule Gibbons...56 years young.

It's NOT your life style thats to blame...it's your genetics that will decide if you are going to live to a ripe old age or not!

Sad, but true, William. I have high cholesterol, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it. I can't control it with diet, and I can't tolerate the medications. I've tried 3 different medicines, and all them started to dissolve my liver. My only preventative medicine is aspirin.

I tried a strict diet, and nothing changed. I've always been fit, but just like Jim Fixx, the genes don't care how far I run. I have no idea how long I'll last, but I'd hate to tip over after a big meal of tofu, and soy milk. I want to go down with a gut full of good food.

I've been busy eating all day...didn't have time to read all the comments.I'm sure the topic has been covered but when I read this:
"What I eat influences you"
my first response was:
Only when you fart in the same room Buddy.

Hey Terry anderson-

If McDonald's is your idea of high cuisine, more power to ya! Go for it!

Our poor kids.

Those of us 60 and over have had the world as our oyster; we've lived the life of Riley, overindulging in every luxury imaginable: education, health care, housing, clothing, entertainment, travel, food, drink, etc. We have eaten, drunk, and been merry without much thought for tomorrow and now, in our guilt (thanks, Gore and Suzuki et al. -- you who indulge more than most) are telling our young people "YOU have to be frugal now, to make up for OUR profligate lifestyles."

Then, what riles more than anything, is the food fascists, that advocate we eschew meat, are attempting to make money off their propaganda by making the rest of us feel guilty.

Let them eat turnips.

So the Inuit who lived mainly or only on meat/fish for thousands of years are what to these enlightened and overeducated cranks?

Is feeble mindedness a sign of malnutrition these days?

As a human I am genetically an omnivore, anything edible I can eat and I benefit from eating a variety. I am neither carnivore or vegetarian and I accept and celebrate the diversity of my diet as both healthy and overall not bad for the world I live in. And if someone wants to stick their nose in what I choose to eat and dictate that choice I think I would only be willing to discuss it over a course of seal steak tartar.

So much to say..

Just returned from a birthday banquet for my younger daughter. It was held at a Chinese restaurant. Now, the Chinese have been civilized longer than any other group on Earth. What did we eat?

Fish maw and crab soup, cold appetizer platter (jellyfish, duck feet, beef heart, pickled cucumber, steamed chicken), shrimp and scallops with snow peas, pork in lemon sauce, shrimp with dried scallops and bok choy in crab sauce, wok-fried lobster, steamed chicken, steamed fish, rice, noodles, and dessert. One might notice the almost complete concentration on meat, fish, and poultry, with vegetables as adornment only.

I'm diabetic. The type of diet the dear professor proclaims would probably kill me - too high in carbs, not enough protein. Also, almost every strict vegan I know (no eggs, no fish, etc.) has to take vitamin supplements to stay healthy. I don't know how any sane person can insist others eat a diet that would kill them without supplements.

Finally, for EBD: A T-shirt store in downtown Toronto, on trendy Queen Street West no less, had a sign out front this summer: "If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them so damn tasty?".

(with apologies to Texas Canuuck...this has to be said)

A true story:

My younger brother moved from Canada to Australia about three years ago when he married an Aussie woman with two teenaged boys.

When I went to visit him, he was determined to get some kangaroo steak for me to try. Unfortunately, it was out of season, so he wasn't able to find any. But his younger teenaged stepson, about 13 years old, was upset that he was even looking for it. He'd said "The kangaroo is our national animal. I won't eat our national animal. Would you eat yours?"

My younger brother replied "Sure, I eat it all the time...ask your Mom!"

If and when the young guy figures it out and remembers, I'm sure it will be an 'EEWWWUU, Mother?' moment.

"So it's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me. Our diets are deeply, intimately and necessarily political."

This has been done already. Twice. First time was 1932/33, in the Ukraine. Second time was 1958 in China. The Ukrainian famine and the Great Leap Forward. It didn't turn out well either time.

But I'm ever so sure that the good professor has figured out a way to make the whole world strict vegetarians which will make life a fun and exciting adventure in culinary wonderfulness.

I also observe that this man is why the USA was founded with the Second Amendment as part of the Constitution.

Save the world, eat an environmentalist for lunch.

One aspect of this guy's rant that does not concern meat-eating has always been a sore spot for me. And that is the morally superior stance of "organic" activists. Eat organic all you want, i don't really care, but what I do care about is the degree of misinformation about its supposed superiority to more "industrial" or larger scale operations. They should realize, among other things, that if all farms converted to organic methods of production you would have a serious global famine on your hands in a hurry. These Cargills and Monsantos that they despise so much are one of several "industrial" reasons there aren't billions more hungry humans on this planet.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to everything wrong with what this man represents.

If you are what you eat, I now realize why my friends call me a pussy.

Oh, and keep stayin' real angry, guys. That, along with your artery-clogging diet will ensure more arable land for us to grow more veggies.

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability by Lierre Keith. Pretty good book by a reformed vegan after her health failed as a direct result of her vegan dietary restrictions. Vegan and/or vegitarian choices are lifestyle choices. They are demonstrably harmful to health of the individual and to the planet.

Posted by: Iain
[...As a human I am genetically an omnivore, anything edible I can eat and I benefit from eating a variety. I am neither carnivore or vegetarian and I accept and celebrate the diversity of my diet as both healthy and overall not bad for the world I live in. And if someone wants to stick their nose in what I choose to eat and dictate that choice I think I would only be willing to discuss it over a course of seal steak tartar.]
Agreed but I'll skip the seal steak tartar...
Kevin B
[..I'm diabetic. The type of diet the dear professor proclaims would probably kill me - too high in carbs, not enough protein. Also, almost every strict vegan I know (no eggs, no fish, etc.) has to take vitamin supplements to stay healthy. ]
How true. On of the inconvenient truths is that 3 of the ESSENTIAL amino acids, we humans need to survive can only be derived from animal sources....usually a just a glass of whole milk and/or an egg per day.
Whenever I encounter one of these vegans I inform them of that...and they insist they do this without supplements----To which I declare they are either crazy or lying. BTW---those health store supplements are derived from animal sources---it's the only source---unless you for example can eat a ton of barley/day.
Animal Nutrition 101.

I can only assume the dear professor is quite mad.

It is indeed true that vegans don't generally get the necessary nutrients in their diet.

We have friends whose teenage daughter won't eat meat and the girl always looks deathly pale and has far less energy than most kids her age.

If we are what we eat - then deer, moose and cows are vegetables.

What's the nutty professor's problem again?

First of all, "The Personal is Political" is (possibly among other things) a feminist slogan. The rationale of course is to expand government power by bringing all kinds of things under the heading of "politics" where they don't belong. This clown McWilliams is merely branching it out in another direction. And aren`t clowns evil? This one certainly is.

Re: "Genuine sacrifice"

Here we see why altruism is immoral: because it means sacrifice for its own sake. As Ayn Rand said, when you hear people preaching sacrifice, run in the opposite direction.

Re: ... create a culinary culture in which "the meat-eaters must do the apologizing"

This is an attempt to foster unearned guilt. It won't work on thoughtful, rationial people. Ayn Rand wrote about this trick too.

rabbit (paraphrasing the evil clown): "If you do something that - directly or indirectly - effects all of us then the state has the right, nay the duty, to control it."

That`s another way of sizing it up. L C Bennett at 8:26 understands too.

bleet: "Meat eating is illogical and irrational: it simply makes no sense"

It makes sense if the meat sustains you and is tasty. That's all the reason you need.

Ahem...

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/5770/eatgreensclrthmb.jpg

Biggest load of BS that I've seen in years; Phantom was correct in noting the role of the US 2nd Amendment in protecting us from stupidity of the magnitude exhibited by McWilliams.

My opinion is that veganism should be a psychiatric diagnosis in the DSMV or DSMVI. Some of the most pathetic patient pathologies I've seen have been in vegans with iron deficiency anemia and B12 deficiency who refuse to take supplements because they don't want to put any "chemicals" into their bodies. Of course the patient with one of the lowest B12 levels I've ever seen blamed "pollution" for his loss of sensation in his feet and loss of balance. That was when I was practicing in Vancouver and now that I practice in the BC interior in a location with an abundance of ranches close by I'm surrounded by healthy carnivores. It's very refreshing.

We are genetically programmed to eat meat and the effects of a high carbohydrate diet can be all too frequently seen in native Americans who balloon to impressive sizes on a high carb diet. Many of my obese native patients with diabetes have responded wonderfully when they switched to a diet of game meat and salmon cutting out the carbs. The Atkins diet works very well and I know I've driven the dieticians at one of the lipid clinic crazy when obese patients whose triglycerides refused to go down on their "balanced" diets suddenly dropped to normal when I put them on an all meat diet.

I can survive on a diet of steak every day but carbs are addictive for a lot of people and the main reason that the Atkins diet fails is that people sneak more and more carbs and regain the weight they have lost.

There are a few things to keep in mind. If you go to an all meat diet, chose either wild game or free range beef. Wild meat is a lot leaner than grain fed beef and has a much healthier ratio of omega3/omega6 fatty acids. Feeding cattle grain to fatten them jacks up the omega6 fatty acids in the meat which have to be balanced with large doses of omega-3 supplements. Buffalo is great as it is low fat and almost all of it is grass fed. The only problem is that it is hard to get fresh buffalo and the last time I asked how to get some I was told to bring a large enough caliber rifle to the ranch, pick out a buffalo and shoot it and they'd butcher it for me. Not enough room in my freezer for that as it's full of free range lamb.

To quote an unnamed Kzin from one of Larry Niven's novels: "How much intelligence does it take to stalk a blade of grass?"

So, how come people who don't eat meat, and insist they're healthier than the rest of us, always look grey around the gills?

'Go into any health food store and you think you've walked onto the set of Night of the Living Dead.

I'll start apologizing for eating meat and drinking Guinness when vegetarians and tee-totallers start apologizing for Adolf Hitler.

I offer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

Carrot Juice is Murder, by the Arrogant Worms. (I've heard the screams of the vegetables...scream scream scream....)

There are three major macronutrients, not including vitamins and minerals.

1) Protein
2) Fat
3) Carbohydrates

You can live a long and complete life eating only the first two, but avoiding the first 2 means an early death. In fact a no fat diet leads to rabbit Fever (try living on lean rabbit meat for a month and see just how sick you get)

While you can obtain some protein from Veggies, and we probably should eat more of them for lots of reasons, avoidance of meat is not a good thing for the human race. A vegan diet requires supplements. I have no trouble with people who choose vegan diets, their choice, but it is not morally superior....it is biologically dangerous if not done right (quite likely if you scale it).

I apologize for nothing in being an omnivore its in the genes. If genetic pre disporition is good enough to justify alternative sexual proclivities then it definitiely applies to feeding habits.

Hmm I think I better lodge a human rights complaint, I can't help it if my genes drive me this way and I demand millions of dollars in compensation for the discrimination I suffer at the hands of tut tutting vegans

For those of you that so desire some vension, buffalo, emu or other so-called "exotic" meat you may want to visit a farmers market in your city...or travel outside the city to a more rural community. With some luck you may actually get some fresh meat and worst case scenario have to settle for frozen. Chances are someone at one of these markets can put you in touch with a producer to supply you with the desired cuts of meat if they aren't available at the market location. Some deer farmers also sell from the farm gate...so you may want to google "deer farmers" in your province to find a producer somewhere in your vicinity.
The last I read on the reasons for supermarkets not carrying wild game meat (although raised in a domestic fashion) had to do with food safety. There are those that fear a harvest of wild game could end up in store coolers instead. Which I seriously doubt could happen.
Bon appetit!

Stephen:

Exactly. Rabbit meat is toxic. Everyone remember that.

batb your comment about health food stores is bang on! That was a good laugh for my morning.

My wife and I occasionally visit a health food store to get something unusual (good quality wild-flower honey for example), and we always chuckle at how incredibly unhealthy everyone looks.

This is especially true for the people that work there, who you would think would be radiating with colour.

"So it's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me. Our diets are deeply, intimately and necessarily political"

By the same token...

"So it's hard to avoid concluding that INSERT WORD cannot be personal. What I INSERT WORD influences you. What you INSERT WORD influences me. Our INSERT WORDS are deeply, intimately and necessarily political"

Nothing is personal, I guess.

So, excepting bleet, we all agree this guy's a twit, right?

And we all agree bleet's a twit, right?

Okay then.

(More annoying than vegetarians are people who sniff about that ghastly Sarah Palin, who hunts, shudder, even as they are in the act of tucking into their meaty dinners. I have seen this. At least veggies have principles, arguably silly as those principles may be.)