Quick cattle and pig facts...

I was just reading an e-mail from Cattle Network News called "Quick Facts To Impress Your Friends At The Coffee Shop."

In it was this fact: 'Inventory' of Cattle and Calves in the US = 104,300,000"

The current US population (of humans) is about 301 million.

That's 1 cow for every 3 of us.

Does your family of 3 have a cow in the backyard?

No.

Most of those cattle are on feed lots waiting to be eaten.

By the way, the us Hog and Pig population in the US is 67,661,000. That's 4.5 people for each pig/hog.

Here's a photo of a Hog Factory Farm in North Carolina after a flood. Tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of pigs/hogs died in the flood. River-soaked bacon just doesn't cut it:

images courtesy of FactoryFarm.org

Fast food and keeping 'green'

The Green Piece Blog is "a reminder of the piece we often forget when traveling, eating, voting, and building; the green piece."

Yesterday, Green Piece wrote a list of 3 things you can do to make it easier on the Earth when your fast food cravings set in. Here it is:

1. Park and walk: While you're sitting in your car with the engine running and the A/C blasting, you are getting 0 Miles/Gallon. You are just burning fuel and polluting the air. Park your car, walk inside the restaurant, and reduce your carbon footprint.
2. Reject Excess Packaging: Fast food restaurants are famous for piling on the unnecessary packaging. There's the bag, the excess napkins, the extra ketchup packets, the lid, the straws, etc. All that stuff ends up in the landfill eventually. Order your food "for here" even if it is "to go." You'll get just what you need and nothing you don't. If you're getting a lot of food, just toss it in your cloth grocery bag. Avoid anything made of Styrofoam or plastic too.
3. Bring Your Own Utensils: If you're getting a salad, avoid taking the plastic utensils you're offered. You're just taking the salad with you back to work or home. Utilize re-usable utensils.

I've thought about the first one before. All those cars spewing all that pollution in all those drive-thru lanes all around the world...that's a lot of CO, CO2 and other nasty stuff that could be avoided by simply parking and turning off the car (or even just turning the car off while you're waiting in line.)