We've used sharp rocks to obtain meat for at least 3.4 million years, and made our own sharp rocks for at least 2.6 million years.  And chimpanzees hunt and eat monkeys without using any tools at all.

JS

If grazing animals caused global warming, the planet would have drowned tens of millions of years ago.  There were somewhere between 20 and 80 million bison on the Great Plains alone before the white man colonized America...and the entire Pleistocene was a major cooling trend, culminating in the Ice Ages.

Also, did you know that rice paddies produce at least as much methane as cow burps or farts?  (Estimates vary, but they're of similar magnitude.)

Yes, factory farming is destructive for other reasons, and I oppose it too: corn isn't the natural diet of cattle any more than it's the natural diet of humans.  But propaganda videos aren't a valid argument.

JS

Safflower oil doesn't contain CLA itself: the CLA is produced chemically, via alteration of the linoleic acid it contains.  That's why I said "Most CLA supplements are derived from safflower oil," and that statement is correct.  

The reason safflower oil is usually used to make CLA supplements is that it's both cheap and very high in linoleic acid.  However, other oils, such as soybean or corn oil, are occasionally used.

JS

That particular statement about linoleic acid converting to CLA
in the presence of grill heat is a) not footnoted and b) seems bogus to
me.  In that case, well-used deep-fryer seed oil ought to be full of
CLA, since the source oil is full of LA -- but I haven't seen any
indication that this is the case. 

First, oil mostly oxidizes (burns) on the grill AFAIK.

Second, the number of possible configurations of 18:2 (linoleic acid) is quite large, and even if isomerization occurred, it seems like the odds of heat randomly happening to produce the one single isomer that we can use (trans-rumenic acid) are relatively low.

I'm open to correction on this issue...but it seems highly fishy to me.

JS

(I am quite surprised)

If you look at actual deaths from foodborne illnesses, far more people die from fruits and veggies than from meat.  Example: 21 people died this year from cantaloupes, one from strawberries, and one from Cargill ground turkey.

And if you look at the deadliest outbreaks throughout history:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Deadliest_foodborne_illness_incidents

Far more people have died from shady Mexican cheese, bean sprouts, cantaloupe, and onions than have died from meat of any kind...and the meat deaths are from things like "cold cuts" and hot dogs.  Even store-bought hamburger doesn't make the list, let alone actual cuts of beef.

I eat everything good bleu rare, too.

JS

 Chris:

The question is: when DON'T you want a prime rib?

Fortunately they're the easiest thing in the world to cook so long as you have the old-school Taylor meat thermometers that go down to 105 degrees.  Just stick them in a 260 degree oven and wait until the temperature hits 110-130, depending on how done you like it.  (I think 115 is about right.)  Warning: the government says you'll die if you cook them to anything less than 135.

JS

 

Ha ha, best quote ever: "the government says you'll die if you cook them to anything less than 135."

I guess I have more lives than a cat. I always order bleu for tender/flavorful cuts and hardly ever like anything past rare. Guess I'm going to die soon. Though I generally get my meat from trusted sources.

Deer are theoretically obligate herbivores, but here's video of one eating a dead goose:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqdfgfZvV10

And here's one killing and eating a live bird:

So, strictly speaking, deer are omnivores too!

Note that I can't find any good figures on the percentage that insect larvae make of the mouse diet -- and apparently it differs between species of mouse, with some being strict herbivores and some willing to snack on insects.  But I generally see mice classified as herbivores (example).

More importantly, they're very well adapted to eating grass seeds, which humans are not.

JS

kind of like we are omnivores with a heavy leaning towards meat consumption. (certainly with regards to caloric split anyway)