"Rupert" > wrote in message
ups.com...
> On May 30, 12:58 am, Rudy Canoza > wrote:
>> pearl wrote:
>> > On May 25, 7:50 pm, Rudy Canoza > wrote:
>> >> Some "vegans", in a desperate attempt to find some club
>> >> with which to beat on meat eaters, given that the limp
>>
>> > [snip bullshit psychobabble - all lesley has]
>>
>> >> reed of so-called "ethical" vegetarianism is entirely
>> >> ineffectual, have seized on the supposed "inefficiency"
>> >> of producing meat as a reason to decry meat
>> >> *consumption*.
>>
>> >> The "vegan" pseudo-argument on "inefficiency" is that
>> >> the resources used to produce a given amount of meat
>> >> could produce a much greater amount of vegetable food
>> >> for direct human consumption, due to the loss of energy
>> >> that results from feeding grain and other feeds to
>> >> livestock.
>>
>> > "Right now, in addition to producing grains, vegetable
>> > and fruits for direct human consumption, farmers also
>> > raise livestock, and millions of acres are planted in
>> > feed crops for livestock. The theoretical question at
>> > hand is, what if Americans suddenly stopped raising any
>> > livestock at all - how would we feed ourselves?
>>
>> > The answer is trivially simple. All of the resources
>> > going into raising livestock, PLUS all of the resources
>> > going into raising crops as livestock feed, would no
>> > longer be needed for that purpose. To make up the food
>> > deficit for humans, a fraction of those resources would
>> > be needed to grow additional human-edible crops. That
>> > fraction would be quite small, due to the fact that
>> > livestock consume more calories and protein than we get
>> > back out of them: the feed-conversion ratio for all of
>> > them is substantially above 1:1." - "Rudy Canoza" 1/Apr/05
>>
>> Yes, a true statement - but irrelevant. It dealt with
>> another issue. The fact is, raising livestock is not
>> inefficient. It is a use of resources consistent with
>> consumer demand.
>>
>
> No-one's disputing that. The argument is being made that consumers
> should take into account the consequences of their choices. There is
> not enough internalization of externalities.
>
>> Calling livestock production "inefficient" is the same
>> as calling automobiles "inefficient" because we all
>> could use bicycles.
>
> You've totally missed the point.

No, you have. He is saying, correctly, that the efficiency argument as
presented by the advocates of veganism is nothing but a smokescreen. This is
clearly demonstrated by the errors of omission he illustrated which are
committed by vegans. A true efficiency equation would be far more complex
than "veganism", for one thing it would use animals and plants in symbiosis,
and it would utilize animals where plants were not as efficient to produce.
An obvious example is the consumer choice between South American grown
asparagus and locally obtained fish or game.