11/02/06 Green thinking

Green Thinking The "green" movement is up and running and has become very vogue, but is it about facts and caring or about agendas? I'm Jeff Keane; I'll talk about that right after this. More and more we hear we need to go green to save the world from all things scary, starting with global warming to evil modern livestock production. Beef production and modern agriculture gets caught right in the middle of all things good and green. The lifestyle magazine, Vanity Fair's website tells consumers to avoid energy costs of food transportation by buying only food that is grown locally and organically. Let's see, how far out of the city would "locally gown" still pertain to feed all of the people of say, New York City? I doubt if locally grown would feed even the New York City readers of Vanity Fair. Remember, New York winters aren't real conducive to plant growth. But we need plant growth. According to a Vanity Fair.com article; "Fifty Ways to Save the Planet" going vegetarian at least once a week is No. 14 out of the 50 recommendations. The justification for savior No. 14 is that beef production takes too much water and it contributes to greenhouse gases  mainly methane. Wait a minute, should we worry about methane produced in swamplands or is that "natural" methane and stamped, "Green OK?" Tomorrow I'll tell you about green myths related to beef production. I'm Jeff Keane. National Cattlemen Fall 2006