" "(Maybe if we could convince only those growing corn for "high fructose corn syrup" to switch to corn for ethanol, and cut that corn syrup garbage out of so many of our foods, it would work out fine!) ""

I imagine it would, and I'd be all for it! Just an example... soda isn't a staple of my diet (nor should it be of anyone's), but have you ever had a real Dr. Pepper made with cane sugar instead of corn syrup? Only one place left to get it: http://www.dublindrpepper.com/

I drink about three sodas a month, so they have to count! Jones Soda is another that switched to cane sugar away from the cheap and physiologically toxic corn syrup trash. I wish more food companies would do that. "

" It might, genegirl. There is some concern about there being enough corn grown for food and for livestock feed because so many are chasing the "get rich quick" fantasy of growing corn for ethanol. Last I heard, it was taking more energy to produce it than what it could generate, so I really don't know why ethanol is being pursued so vigorously. But, yes, -- be concerned about what this craze will do to food production and hence prices.

(Maybe if we could convince only those growing corn for "high fructose corn syrup" to switch to corn for ethanol, and cut that corn syrup garbage out of so many of our foods, it would work out fine!) "

" Now that we are using corn to produce fuel, will the price of a vegetarian diet rise? "

" Hillbilly, I think the only entity around here right now who needs Beano is you. You are so full of hot air.

Anyhow, I just wanted to make a comment on "energy efficient" light bulbs (since they were touched). While it is true they will save energy in the long run, we are also trading one problem for another, and that is mercury waste disposal from the things.

I actually went and bought several of them a number of years back, only to notice later that there was a warning regarding their disposal because of the mercury. As if we don't already have enough in the environment. "

" In a nutshell -- eating meat is not unhealthy. Rather, the meat we are given to eat is unhealthy. The solution is not to stop eating meat but to demand that the meat grown in this country be healthy again! "

" Sensible farming is healthy -- including meat production. Small farms with just a few animals, kept under healthy and humane conditions, slaughtered humanely, processed locally and sold and consumed locally is a healthy way to live. Local markets cut down on the greenhouse emissions it takes to truck, say, avocados across the country, healthy as they are for people to eat.

The human body was meant to eat meat. You CAN get fairly good nutrition as a vegetarian if you really work at it, but you are working against your body's natural nature.

The problem is in the production of meat -- the hormones/steroids, the antibiotics, the disgusting and inhumane conditions under which they are raised all contribute to unhealthy meat. It may sound silly, but an unhappy animal will release different chemicals in its body than a happy animal, making the meat more acidic and full of things that aren't as good for us -- and that's on top of the chemicals and drugs deliberately injected into the animals.

The culprit here is corporate FACTORY farming. They like to go around saying factory farming is more efficient -- but it isn't!

For example: A factory farm can sell their milk for $16 a hundred weight and still make a profit -- because they get the huge subsidies from the government. The little farms have to be three times as efficient just to stay afloat, because they don't get those subsidies and they'd tank if they could only get $16 a hundredweight for milk. A small farm needs and deserves about $30 a hundredweight for their milk -- it's what the corporate guys are getting if you add in the subsidies.

A lot of small farms have gone under because of this unfair system -- that's only one way the big corporate places drive the little farms out of business. It's NOT that factory farms are more efficient, it's that they are subsidized by the government -- out of our pockets.

[And all the while, they are the biggest polluters of our lakes and releasing all kinds of toxins into the air as well.]

Think about it: We ARE already paying $4-$5 a gallon for milk; we just don't notice it because a chunk of it is coming out of our pockets in taxes that go into government subsidies to artificially keep down the price of milk. It costs us either way, and this way also aids the big farms drive all the little ones out of business.

Global warming is real -- ask any polar bear -- but not eating meat is NOT the answer to solve it. Industry which has flagrant disregard for how their production methods destroy the enviromnent is where we need to start -- along with the inadequate, ineffectual and seldom rigorously applied "regulations" on industrial pollution.

BTW, I was recently at a meeting of milk-producing farmers from 3 states where I heard some of the truly disgusting details about meat production in huge corporate factory processing firms in the midwest -- from an animal weighing a ton or more, the left-over bone matter is only about the size of a loaf of bread -- some places still use "extruders" (no longer sold but still in operation -- must be grandfathered in) which grind up every bit of the animal -- bones, cartilege (sp?), brains, organs, everything -- for hamburger, then all the fluids which are squeezed out in this chopping process get dumped right back in and the meat is sold to schools and old people's homes or other institutional kitchens. Yuck.

I am so glad I can get my meat from a local guy, slaughtered by a local guy, processed locally where I can go watch them do it if Ilike, with just the good healthy meat included.

I don't think I will ever eat "store-boughten" hamburger again -- but I am still and will always be a meat-eater. "

" First of all, it's already been proven that CO2 is not warming the climate, higher concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere FOLLOW climatic warming periods. It's fact. And data models cannot accurately predict what the earth and its climate is going to do. Some people just want to hold onto the dead horse's reins and say he's just taking a nap rather than admit they're wrong, especially if they're laughing all the way to the bank. Water vapor is a much more effective "greenhouse" gas, and is in higher proportions, should we ban the evaporation of water? Or how about the sunlight that evaporates the water? Block it out?

In my opinion, meat can be a good part of a healthy diet, I don't believe it's meat alone that makes all those obese people obese and causes all of those health problems, and I think it's highly disingenuous to state so. Sugar, added (sometimes engineered) fats, and the use of high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING is more of a problem than meat, if you ask me. "

" Fuel for cars, heat, electricity.
Pollution from factories.Cutting the rain forest= Global Warming. "

" The myth of global warming is coming to it's end ,burn more coal not oil "

" No, I went to a doctor I'm a little more civilized than you are, gee and I call myself a hillbilly. And Brew1234 the farmers still ate meat. Get the point. Global warming is Al Gore's global farce. Maybe we should give all the farmed animals Beano that way they will not be top contributor to today's serious environmental problems, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. So with that problem solved bring on the Steak and Barbecue sauce, a Man's meal. Not for Girllie-Men like you. "

" How did you test your butt? Did you stick your finger up it? "

" Farmers live longer because they work long and hard hours and that exercise keeps them fit. I don't think eating steak and eggs makes them live long. Your science is barnyard logic. If one winter is cold then we are not having global warming. By the way, this winter we had a lot of snowfall but temps were not that cold. Your observations are not the same as scientific studies. The only significant gases I see are the ones your blowhard mouth is producing. "

" Sorry Karl, but I have seen to many studies that say this and that is bad for you. Remember when eggs were bad but, now not so much. I look at it this way the farmer of years ago ate steak and eggs for breakfast and they usually lived a long and healthy life. Basically if you eat a balanced diet you will do fine. No one diet is right for all people, as for my butt it's fine too, I had it tested. Plus Karl if you care to check it out the reason the human brain developed to the size it is today is credited to the eating of meat.

However Karl, if you wish keep eating your 95% vegetarian diet that would be your choice. But, I would not be telling other they are sheep and part of the herd anymore not eating your 95% Girllie-Man diet. "

" One thing she forgot, hillbilly--red meat is the #1 cause of increasing rates of colon cancer--that's basically butt cancer, dude. Meat is the poorest type of protein your body can use--in order to process it (because it's so complex) it has to sit there in our gut and basically decay. The body has a hard time using it and breaking it down.
On the other hand, vegetable protein is the easiest to process--in and out of your system in a flash--which keeps your insides cleaner and less prone to disease.
One thing I have found remarkable--since cutting 95% of red meat out of my diet(except for an occasional venison burger) my taste for it has changed considerably. I can no longer stomach steak or roast beef--it tastes bad to me, and upsets my digestion.
I eat a lot more stir-fry vegetables and rice, and feel better for it. "

" I don't think so, I like meat. As for the U.N. report in 2007 showing that farmed animals are a top contributor to today's serious environmental problems? Well, I think the writers of this report were smoking a little too much of the green stuff. Think of all the global warming gases the Buffalo herds produced. But, we killed most of them. Well, with this type of thinking, there are many more humans today producing gases. How should we reduce that number? Global warming is a natural occurrence of the planet, not the result of human or any other animal intervention. Remember over the last ten years the average global temperature rose one degree and this winter wiped out this rise. So I plan to keep eating meat and enjoying it. You can keep chasing your global warming ghost. "