Paul McCartney Has A Beef With You If You Eat Meat On Mondays
In addition to a good invention, the internet, Al Gore also gave us an evil one — global warming. Luckily Paul McCartney has come to the rescue, using one to defeat the other. He's asking fans to go meatless on Mondays for now on, in sort of a modified old-school Lent, in order to slow global warming by reducing emissions of farm animals.
The Kansas City Star on the matter:
Cows, pigs and sheep bred for human consumption discharge millions of tons of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Livestock accounts for about 18 percent of greenhouse gases, more than all the world's cars, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has said.
Supported in his cause by celebrity chefs and Hollywood actors, McCartney said in a statement Monday that skipping meat a day a week is a "meaningful" change everyone can make to their lifestyles to help the environment. Less consumption may lead to fewer animals reared, and so emissions would fall.
McCartney is working under the assumption that less demand for meat will lead to fewer farm animals, overlooking the inconvenient truth that if we don't keep eating meat seven days a week, the populations of flatulent farm animals will surely explode unchecked and thus hasten the destruction of the environment.
But the man did rock us senseless with Wings (which will heretofore be remembered on Mondays as "Celery Sticks") so who are we to question his wisdom?
The Consumer Memo, 6/15: Paul McCartney backs meatless Mondays [Kansas City Star]
(Photo: u2acro)
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Comments:
Why dont they instead try to get the cattle off corn feed (which makes the poop a lot more) and standing in their own waste at factory farms and back on grass where their poop is fertilizer.
I've got news for Mr. McCartney. If I avoid eating meat, I'll have to eat a ton of high protein vegetables to satiate my hunger, so that means lots of beans. The methane output from myself would put the cow to shame.
"He wants to 'rear' your children"
I dunno about anybody else, but I'm really sick of celebrities getting behind causes and hawking their beliefs on everybody. Especially when there is little evidence or research that it will make a difference. Not McCartney specifically, but just in general. Celebrities are overstepping their bounds. Act in a movie, play in a band, whatever. I'm paying you to entertain me, not get all preachy.
Jenny McCarthy comes to mind right now.
Nothing like ageing rockstars plus some nonsense science for a healthy dose of idiocy.
This is the same logic as those loonies who say "don't buy gas on THIS DAY and we'll force the oil companies to lower their prices!" and even "Don't drive on THIS DAY and we'll reduce fuel consumption!" The trouble is, it doesn't work.
Few people, even amongst hard core meat-eaters, eat meat every single day of the week anyway. Even if you got them on board, they'd just all eat meat on other days.
My mantra: you can't reduce consumption with a calendar.
But only on Monday? I mean, would it really make that much of a difference? I say this is symbolic at best, but maybe there will be more sales on beef on Monday.
Geez, such cynics. McCartney is just trying to get people to think about lowering their meat consumption, which is a good idea anyway.
@humphrmi: This is a little different. With gas it doesn't work, since people are probably going to drive like they normally do and will just adjust their fill up to the next day. People who choose to skip meat on monday aren't going to eat two steaks on Tuesday to make up for it.
They'll have to pry the bacon from my cold dead fingers on Monday.
Honestly, I don't really care about the not eating meat part. It's the sentence that states "Livestock accounts for about 18 percent of greenhouse gases" That's poppycock! If you include water vapor into the equation of green house gasses (which it is one) that only leaves room for 5% of other gasses. If you decide to leave water vapor out of the equation (for convenience purposes) Then almost 100% of the gasses are CO2 and about 90 of that is produced by the earth (volcanoes and the like)
@ekthesy: Though to be fair, Paul McCartney couldn't care less whether meat consumption kills you, but he probably does kind of hope a little that it does cause then you'll permanently stop consuming meat, which leads to emissions, which leads to the end of the world.
Why do people continue to pay attention to celebrities when they do non-celebrity things? It's like karaoke in reverse... a singer trying to say something meaningful and intelligent, rather than sing.
Seriously... assuming people did it, and it did what people wanted, and assuming it actually had the desired effect on greenhouse gases (and those are big assumptions), what about unintended side effects:
1. Less sales, so less income to these farmers.
2. Fewer farm jobs.
3. Reduced production.
4. Higher prices.
5. Less jobs in related industry, such as processing plants.
6. Higher consumption of alternatives.
7. Greater demand for alternatives.
8. Short-term spike in alternatives' prices.
Like him, I'm kind of making it up on the cuff, but it totally cracks me up when some celebrity makes some inane statement about what "everyone" should do to help or solve some "problem".
Go back to singing please.
@winshape: But people who normally eat meat five or six days a week are just going to adjust their non-meat day to Monday. It's the same.
No , Sir Paul. I'll eat meat when I damn well please and you warble your silly love songs when you please.
The scary thing is that there is a fairly large slice of the population that look to celebrities for guidance to live their miserable lives.
Look , we have already been through all of this. Wasn't it just last week that three or four Burger Kings declared unequivocally that global warming is BALONEY ?
I mean , if you can't trust the poorly spelled grammatically incorrect political advice that you get from the sign at Burger King , then just who the hell ARE you supposed to trust ?
I'm going to start eating extra meat on Mondays.
@humphrmi: How long would it really take to impact the "supply" with our "demand" on this? If I DO give up my steak on Monday (mmmmm steak) how many fewer cows will the meat industry really get rid of?
These hare-brained get-green-quick schemes are ridiculous. Also, EVERYONE DON'T BUY GAS ON MONDAYS!!1! We'll take OPEC out of business and that will show them!!!1!111!
I wonder if he and his celebrity friends considered a meatless Friday but rejected it because it might be considered religious.
@I Love New Jersey: Wait, are you saying that global warming is nonsense or that Paul McCartney’s hypothesis is nonsense? If the latter, then I completely agree.
I'm backing Fried Fridays.
@humphrmi: Oh man, the "great american gas out" or whatever those stupid hippies keep doing is the dumbest thing ever. I've never wanted to punch someone in the face so badly. Don't buy gas on monday! But we're all gonna keep driving like normal, so the people who didn't buy on monday now flood the gas stations on tuesday along with everybody else.
@humphrmi: "Few people, even amongst hard core meat-eaters, eat meat every single day of the week anyway"
Really? I'd be hard pressed to remember the last time I went an entire day without eating meat. Maybe I hang out in a carnivorous crowd, but i'd think it would be harder to find (non-vegetarian) people who routinely have meatless days.
@pecan 3.14159265: I doubt he cares about emissions. He's a PETA hippy. He wants to end meat consumption for that reason alone, I'd bet.
@ekthesy: It's easy to be cynical when a multi-millionare celebrity preaches about us reducing our carbon footprint while the man flies in private jets and lives in mansions.
@Odiase: It's just annoying to have vegetarians get on a soap box and preach from on high about the evils of eating meat. Sorry, but anyone who has not had BBQ Ribs and a cold one for dinner cant tell me anything.
Oh no, heaven forbid that celebrities have brains and champion a cause! Just because you pay them to entertain you doesn't mean they are forbidden to also be activist.
@ekthesy: Then instead of suggesting stupid calendar tricks that never work, why doesn't he just say "Hey folks, please think about lowering your meat consumption."
@Heather Dianne Pencil: See my statement above...celebs preaching with no evidence or solid research. They just get up and blah blah blah because they can and the mindless fans listen.
I support him, then, in his hope that people eat less meat. The large-scale production of meat is not only consumer-unfriendly, it's environmentally unfriendly. Also, the manufacturing process tortures animals on its way to killing them, so there's the trifecta.
Nobody is suggesting that eating meat is "the end of the world," but if people got off their high horse and realized that it's actually a worthy suggestion, we collectively might do some good in this world.
@downwithmonstercable: I know! It's almost as if they feel they have some kind of freedom of speech or something! Gawd!
@ekthesy: Exactly. However, he's bound to touch the huge "You're not the boos of ME!" nerve in many Americans.
@chocogray: It's not McCartney being an activist that's the problem. It's him spouting these "facts" to the public like he's some kind of authority on the matter and then telling people how to lead their lives...that's the problem.
I'm sure you don't take your medical advice from your mechanic, so why take advice on this topic from a singer?
@Saboth: DAMN, bet he never thought of that, or rather he has and expects us all to die in an accidental methane-induced societal conflagration.
@chocogray: Just because you pay them to entertain you doesn't mean they are forbidden to also be activist.
Once they start with the causes they very, very rarely get any more of my money.
@takes_so_little: Everyone knows that celebrities don't have rights! Next they'll be asking us to respect their privacy!
@humphrmi:
Because people are more inclined to take collective action if it's a scheduled thing, rather than an amorphous construct that one needs to "get around to." Things like "Meatless Mondays" and Twitter's "Follow Fridays" catch on quicker than "Oh, one day this week try not to eat meat." It ties in to psychology and decision-making by taking one step out of the decision process; i.e. if one chooses to follow McCartney's initiative here, the decision not to eat meat has already been made for them.
I'm sure Macca didn't take psychology into account; he probably just liked the alliteration, but there you go.
@takes_so_little: What does the First Amendment have to do with it? Did downwithmonstercable say that celebrities didn't have the right to express their views? downwithmonstercable is just expressing his views.
@HiPwr: "It's easy to be cynical..." period. It's easy to sneer. It's also easy to hate rich people. But what good does it do? McCartney may be flawed, but what the hell, he;s trying to be positive, at least. You should give it a shot yourself.
@takes_so_little: @ekthesy: He thinks it's positive; I don't. We are both free to feel the way we do without demonizing each other. I certainly don't hate McCartney, I just disagree with him. Some people can't see the difference.
My ancestors didn't take millions of years clamoring their way up the food chain for tofu, Sir Paul.
@Underpants Gnome: Glad to know I'm not alone. I eat meat at least once daily, usually twice. Turkey sandwich lunch and chicken/beef for dinner.
I don't think that global warming is completely ludicrous, however it's not quite as big of a deal as people make it out to be. Solar activity has been a giant factor in the weather on Earth since its inception. The sun is going through quite a range of activity at the moment that could explain some of the climate change. I think we're putting too much stake in global warming, when it's not all our fault.
A wise man once said "For every animal you don't eat, I'll eat three."