If cows pollute the air, why don't vegetarians eat them??

Question

doesn't it make more sense that we should eat cows since they are a part of our nutritional diet, and they also pollute the air [source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/6288012.stm], thus contributing to the global warming?? I'm confused... =/

Answer 1

If more people ate beef, there would be a greater demand for beef. Therefore, the meat industry would produce more beef so the supply could keep up with demand. In order to produce more beef, they would need to breed more cows, thus causing more air pollution. You see, the meat industry doesn't go out into the wild and find cows to kill. They breed cows by artificial insemination. So they aren't taking cows out of the world by killing them, they are actually bringing more cows into the world by breeding them. Your statement about nutrition is seriously flawed. A diet with no red meat is much healthier than one with red meat. It has been scientifically shown that vegetarian and vegan diets, when planned properly, are extremely healthy, especially compared to one with large amounts of red meat.

Answer 2

The reason livestock is the NUMBER ONE cause of global warming is the simple fact that there are so many cows.  There are so many cows because there is a demand for beef.

By your logic, we could solve the gas crisis by going out and buying another car.

Answer 3

Cows don't pollute the air nearly as much as the factory farms that slaughter them.

http://www.nrdc.org/water/pollution/nspi...

http://www.sierraclub.org/factoryfarms/

http://www.ecoworld.com/Home/articles2.c...

http://www.consumersunion.org/pub/core_f...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/...

http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/art...

http://www.factoryfarm.org/?page_id=19

There's just a few links to get you started. :]

Answer 4

vegetarians do not eat cows because the do not believe in killing animals.  vegetarians do not eat cows because they believe that is unhealthy to eat meat.  If all people would stop eating meat, the cow population would decrease significantly and the methane gases created by cows would not be a problem.  using your logic, people concerned about pollution should stop driving cars because cars pollute the air and warm the air.  Each car engine, while running, is like a furnance heating up the surrounding air. When you think about a car  think about millions of small furnances heating up the air.  If all of the vegetarians in the world would start eating cow meat, they would not signigicantly reduce the cow population, they would actually cause it to increase -- farmers would produce more cows to meet the new market deman and the problem would get worse.

Answer 5

ummm wtf!!! NO it doesnt make sense for vegetarians to eat cows !!!!

oh and the more cows we eat, the more demand for it will be and more cows...........duhhhhhhhh

Answer 6

Lol. If all vegetarians started eating cows, the exact opposite would happen, and there would be more demand for cows, so in turn more cows would be raised to be sold to the hungry vegetarians :) It's not like cows are unrenewable resources and if we eat them all to death they'll go away. People will just see that we're eating more, so they'll need to raise more to satisfy our demand.

Answer 7

Cows are not part of my diet. Haven't eaten one for seven years now. If people stop eating them, then farmers will stop breeding them -no more bovine flatulence to increase atmospheric warming, huge savings in water and a reduction in environmental damage. By the way, I have never felt better since I stopped eating red meat.

Answer 8

The cows polluting the are aren't the ones we eat...they're dairy cows. Specifically the ones in california that emit the methane gas that joins with other pollutants in the air to create that famous san francisco smog.

The bulls (male cows) are the ones that they slaughter for meat and they usually don't live long enough to emit the same amount of greenhouse gases as the dairy cows....

Moral of the story stop drinking milk.

Answer 9

cows pollute the air because they are mass bred for food. if everyone did not eat meat there would be signficantly less cows (well.. sort of.)

Answer 10

The only reason those cows exist is because meat-eaters create a demand for them to be bred.  Vegetarians don't contribute to that demand and are not responsible for the size of the cattle population.

Actually, according to the UN's International Panel on Climate Change report, animal agriculture is a bigger contributor to global warming than all forms of transportation combined.  And veganism has been compared to trading in a gas-guzzling SUV for a bicycle in terms of the impact one individual can make on their own carbon footprint.

Answer 11

wtf. you dont eat more cows to make them go away you stop letting them breed. not eating cows kills the meat industry, so your way of thinking dosent make sense.

Answer 12

:headdesk:

Okay, let me explain.  When people eat animals, it creates more demand for them.  So the animal industrialists breed even more, which leads to more pollution.  If more people go veg*an or omnivores eat less meat, that means fewer cows are bred.  Duh.  If fewer cows are bred, that means fewer cows belching methane into the air.  Right?

And this includes dairy cows, who live 4 to 5 years on average before they are slaughtered (their full lifespan would be 20 years) for hamburger.  Kicking dairy and beef would do a lot to reduce pollution.

If people eat fewer animal products, fewer animals will be bred.  Got it?

Answer 13

I'm not into all the global warming hype but if there is more demand, there are more cows.  I'm sure you know this and are just making a statement though.  Ciao!

Answer 14

Termites actually give off more methane than anything (so I've heard). but vegetarians don't eat meat, because they believe it was once a living being, and in a sense, is cannibalism (since humans are animals too).

However the ones who want to save the world, and don't eat meat I do find to be idiotic. I'm fine with not eating meat, but by allowing more animals to live, it's helping destroy the world.