How stuff works: Episode 2 Turkeys!

The How stuff works series is great fun for anyone weird like me and interested in loads of stuff!


This episode focuses on the Turkey industry, it is a good watch! Please do! There are 3 parts... ENJOY :D!!!

Free the Turkeys! Put down that fork!!!

Less than 1 hour to go, I fear that there is not enough time… the turkeys/chicken/pigs/sprouts are already dead and in your fridge…MURDERERS! (lol jk!)

So… whilst you tuck in to your no doubt incredible spread for Christmas dinner/lunch (or even breakfast-weirdoes!) and maybe saying grace, spare a thought about the meat you’ll be eating - not about the most probably sad lives they had running, well squeezed walking, cooped up in a large industrial scale production house – but the emissions they produced and the smell *coughs*.

I could give you a lecture on ethics of meat production but that would be so hypocritical I should be arrested (although there is an interesting resource of literature and media on this very subject I would strongly advise you to read and look at like this site!)… so instead let’s talk about Christmas dinner! From the material highlighted in the videos shown and the post earlier; all livestock, like any animal produces emissions directly and indirectly. Christmas comes but once a year; unfortunately for us, but fortunately for the environment and those lovely, tasty succulent…*drools*… om nom nom… err…those birds.

Poultry (chickens/geese/ducks/turkeys) accounted for 61 million tonnes of CO₂ in the year 2002, and numbered around 17 billion (a head) globally (LLS, FAO 2006)…weird thinking they’ve all almost certainly have been eaten. That number astonishes me! And that was nearly 10 years ago! Our love of poultry is incredible, 29.06 kg/capita/year is consumed in the UK alone for the year 2007 (great stat website! http://faostat.fao.org/). That’s a load of emissions; not to mention the fertiliser gone into producing feed (such as corn) for the poultry.

Once a year is acceptable, but maybe we should begin to scrutinise our lifestyles. Poultry is by no means the worst offender; on the contrary it is more emission efficient than ruminants like cows (where’s the beef?). Like most things in life, the case of moderation persists.

This website also shows some meat consumption data in map form (I love maps I do!), and there is always the great worldmapper site!

Livestock production, as I hope to have shown throughout this blog touches upon a wide variety of topics; whilst on the subject of phosphorous, the next posts will be on resources, depletion and pollution… more still to come!

So wherever you are, whatever you may be doing… have a Merry Christmas!

Meat the truth! Documentary Time!

This documentary, presented by a Dutch MP (Dutch Party for the Animals - might be a little biased) explores the role livestock plays in GHG emissions; pretty much what this blog is designed for!

The whole documentary is a great watch, please do!