BANG GOESTHE THEORY BBC1, Monday night

[bonniethomas06]

Just a quickie, but did anyone see this?

There was a section about peak oil. The usual '...demand outstrips supply any day now. It won't just mean you can't drive your car...oil is in everything we use, from the dashboard of a car, to household plastics blah blah...'

'...and did you know that this cow (cue picture of cow) takes X gallons of oil to get it to slaughter weight. Which means that food prices will also soar, we are all doomed etc etc'

Er...no it doesn't. If it is born on the farm it's parent was raised on, never leaves the farm and eats grass, not grain grown the other side of the world, it only takes the oil required to drive it to and from the abbatoir, to produce (this may be an oversimplication, but you know what I mean) DUH!!!!!

[Alienor60]

Unfortunately there are only very few cows living that way.
Most of them got their lives from insemination, with thousands of siblings(?), sired from the same bull.
Most of them don't even see green grass - standing all day long in feed lots and getting soy and maize.
And soy and corn are very oil-consuming plants, plus the need of pesticides (also made from oil) in these giant monocultures.
Modern agriculture is a terrible wrong way, not only due to peak oil but for killing the biodiversity and poisoning the soil and water.
But most people don't think about the way their food is produced - it has to be just cheap.