factbat.com

Throughout history, mankind has gazed in wide-eyed wonder at the many divine and seemingly unimaginable creations that abound on this planet.

The ruthless power of the tiny ant, that can lift ten, twenty, and even fifty times its own weight, or attack in hoards capable of subduing small farm animals, has confounded the mind of man as readily as the gentle finesse of a gargantuan Sperm whale, benevolently dominating its ocean habitat.

Majestic redwood and sycamore trees tower over the landscape, sheltering and seeding the forest floor with powerful branches. Springs and underground aquifers bless the surface with lakes, rivers and streams that nurture the many beasts foraging and fertilizing its rolling expanse.

The laws of nature, governed by the Earth's pristine balance within the cosmos, have become a constant reminder that this species is a mere servant to the greater forces at work. And while it can certainly be said that humans play a very unique and pivotal role in the Universe's grand opera of existence, history has taught us that deviances from its harmonious script are not without their consequences.

The delicate environment that both sustains and drives this species' advancement into the future, is but a compilation of readily cohesive elements, confined within a parameter of compliant mechanisms that act together to create what is essentially a default gateway; the cosmic looking glass, literally radiating with creative energy through which humans have emerged as fully functioning reflections.

Homo Sapiens are the result of Universal software programs that have been subliminally apportioned throughout a celestial hardware format so evolved that life on Earth is no longer ruled by the callous code of "black and white". But instead inspired by nearly infinitesimal shades of gray.

Space and time have reached levels of complexity that, combined, can now sustain a veritable rainbow of reality. And while humanity is thereby granted the ability to choose various courses of action, any such action is still confined to a finite parameter of selections which are based on opposing, yet complimentary forces that are each, and every one, still inexorably established within the very simplest of equations: that equation being, "easy way, or hard way". Or as most people commonly understand it: "right" and "wrong".

Now, certainly, one can elect to follow a course of action that complicates and exacerbates the natural order of things, if they so desire. However, this type of behavior has almost always proven to be unmanageable and destructive, since the laws of nature do not allow any action to exist unopposed.

For example: if the desired result is the number 4, then 2 plus 2 would be the most efficient, and thus effective, means of reaching the goal undeterred - or at least unencumbered - by dysfunction or deviance.

Conversely, the more complex equation of 2 plus 9, times 6, minus 26, divided by 10, while capable of producing the desired result of 4, is an extremely inefficient means of arriving at one's goal.

Unfortunately, the majority of humanity is currently taking the latter example to the extreme, and employing some of the most complex equations imaginable as a means of producing what should otherwise be fairly simple formulas. And these formulas are saturating the global environment with a host of degrading solutions that are extremely inhospitable to human survival.

A rather iridescent aggregate of this mindlessness is found in the daily diet of the vast majority of the population. Nearly the entire global food chain has been designed in such a way that it is upsetting the natural order of nature to the degree that it has become the single most destructive activity humans engage in.

The caustic chemicals, fetid sewers, vaccines and debilitating pharmaceuticals, and energy guzzling apparatus required to prepare for, maintain, and clean up after the average meal are alarming.

However, an even more illicit facet of the international impact on this species, is the extreme wastefulness of what has become a cumbersome and derelict system of demand that will only continue to outstrip the supply, due to the fact that nearly all humans are refusing to eat the meals that mother nature has so wisely and graciously prepared for them.

The land, water, and fuel that are used to deliver the average plate full of charred, cheese smothered animal flesh and calorie rich processed carbohydratesand concentrated starches to any developed nation's table, far outweigh the benefits of the - dare I say it - "meal" itself.

Merely the health robbing elements, disease formulators and lack of healing properties inherent in the average American diet should be enough to terrify any logically discerning individual. Nonetheless, humans are being taught from birth that it is necessary to get vaccinated and take pills, carefully monitor their food temperatures and cooking times, discard unused portions that may become dangerous, wash their hands frequently, and many other activities that are only necesasary for those who daily consume the meats that are inherently infectious and diseased.

Furthermore, nearly every deadly or debiliating malady known to man was contracted from raising, slaughtering, eating and/or otherwise abusing animals. The common cow is host to the largest number of them, such as Anthrax. Measles, Rubella, Cholera, Herpes simplexes and others. And it doesn't stop there, almost all bar soaps are made with a tallow base that is essentially rancid animal fats in the form of sodium tallowate and other by products. This is the very reason why so many people cannot stand the smell of soap, and thus are typically drawn to heavily scented skin cleansers, colognes and perfumes.

However, just the gluttonous, over-consumption of the average nation's basic resources that are often exhausted in an effort to supply mountains of slaughtered animals for people to destroy their bodies with is a ticking time bomb for the entire environment.

Consider what it actually costs the planet, and the collective environment of all humans, to make just one quarter-pounder with cheese and bacon for the average American, who, let's face it, runs the risk of ending up the apologetically obese person who then gets mad when they are denied boarding because they require two or three seats on a commercial airline flight.

To digress for a moment. Every human on the planet is capable of maintaining a healthy body at their proper weight-to-height ratio. The unequivocal fact is that those who don't, simply refuse to eat what is required to accomplish this. Moreover, they often go to great lengths to both hide this fact, and attempt to force others to accept and/or ignore their irresponsible behaviors.

The reason some people can appear less than hospitable to obese people is because the human mind naturally see's the mortality of it all, and thus, in response to any number of legitimate fears, attempts to reconcile with the dangerous environment created, and seek a remedy to correct the malfunction. Unfortunately, ridicule is as logical a method of discouraging poor behavior as is a compassionate plea to change. 

It is alarming that approximately 95% of the population truly believes that their tongue must be satisfied, often at the expense of their entire body. When the truth is that the tongue is not in any way capable of logically determining the effects of such human functions, and thus must be relegated to a submissive role that does not carry pervasive consequences of this nature. The tongue is simply a tool designed to inform the mind of whether or not something placed the mouth is an edible food.

To demand pleasure from the tongue's taste buds to the extreme degree that humans currently do, is not only a boring and deficient means of fulfillment, it causes people to ignore most of the less obvious pleasantries of life, as well as consistently repress the magnificent complexity of a body-mind-soul-pleasing palatability which only comes from regularly eating those things that supercharge the flesh, blood and organs with fresh, crisp, raw, green oxygenating water foods.

But back to the subject at hand, and just what is the real cost of that bacon cheeseburger?

First of all, it takes approximately 37 lbs of dry feed to make one hamburger patty, since the average 650 lb steer consumes around 7,500 lbs each year, plus supplements, for a total of about 11,000 lbs per life cycle. It takes nearly two thirds of that amount to make the bacon strips. Top that with 3 lbs of feed to create the egg that makes the mayonnaise, and a whole host of agricultural wrangling, manufacturing, and processing to create the largely unnecessary ketchup, mustard and relish - and whatever else may be needed to satisfy the average person's indiscriminating palate.

As for the slice of cheese, lets just assume there is about 8 ounces of milk in every slice, as the Kraft commercial claims. And since dairy cows produce approximately 2,305 gallons of milk per year, that comes out to about 8 gallons per day. At about 25 pounds of dry feed per day, that comes out about a quarter pound of feed per slice since there are 128 slices per 8 gallons of milk. The water consumption of a milk cow is over 50 gallons per day, so it takes about one half gallon to make one slice of cheese.

The fertilizer necessary to sustain the crops that create the ingredients of this single burger is approximately 60 pounds per beef patty, 45 pounds for the bacon strips, and 15 pounds for the egg. Then there is approximately 3 pounds per condiment, so 128 pounds of fertilizer.

Then there's the water needed for the crops. Irrigation of the portion of the field that it takes to make just a single helping of toppings for the burger is approximately one gallon per condiment, considering that, in prime conditions, it takes 679,000 gallons of water per season to irrigate one acre of tomatoes. That is 15.6 gallons per square foot (at 43,560 sq. ft per acre), and approximately 8 tomatoes per square foot of land. It then takes about one half tomato to create enough ketchup to top the average quarter-pounder. There is about the same amount required for the mustard plant, plus the added water to process the mustard, and then approximately one tenth of a cucumber needed to make the relish; with around the same amount of irrigation necessary to bring a cucumber to harvest, at four vegetables per square foot. So that's at least four gallons; just for the condiments.

The water to grow the feed grain and hay is approximately one gallon per day, per dry pound. That's 65 gallons of water per day for an aggregate of around 210 days, which is 13,650 gallons. Now remember, this 13,650 gallons is just for the animal feed needed to create one bacon cheese burger, minus the bun, lettuce, tomato or onion.

Now comes the drinking water to sustain the cow, which is approximately 40 gallons per day for the majority of its short life - assuming the poor animal is not excessively deprived [however unlikely] of fluids. That's 30,000 gallons total (derived by a 24 month lifecycle, with 18 months used to determine the aggregate total) divided by approximately 100 patties of basic ground round after the N.Y. strips, T-bone steaks, and so forth, are removed, and thus approximately 20 percent of the cow. That's 60 gallons per patty. Considering the fact that pigs cannot sweat, and need to be kept relatively cool, we can assume the same amount of water for the bacon, minus the fact that there are approximately 150 slices of bacon per oinker, so 40 gallons.

The chicken's water consumption is approximately .5 liters per day, and given that it takes 4 to 5 months before they can lay eggs, that's an aggregate of .9 liters per egg at a rate of two eggs laid per day for the first year. Figuring that there is at least one egg in a helping of mayonnaise, given the amount most restaurants slather across these heart attacks on a bun, that's approximately one liter.

These are only the statistics related to water consumption and land use. So we'll ignore the fuel consumption, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and so on in the interest of brevity for this article.

The total amount it takes to bring just one bacon cheeseburger (minus the bun, lettuce, tomato, and onion) to a consumer at the average drive up window is: 65.25 pounds of feed, 13,754.5 gallons of water, and 128 pounds of fertilizer.

In contrast, are the amount of resources it takes to grow a healthy salad full of ingredients that are high in nutrients, oxygen and water. And which directly delivers the first and final stage product, that requires no processing, and which possesses the ability to heal the body in myriad contexts. This then offsets both the efforts and resources of production with an effectiveness that quickly fulfills a significant portion of the nutritional, and preventative medical, needs a local community requires.

Therefore, in a world allegedly being smothered by anthropogenically caused Global Warming - also targeted by many as the sole contributor to widespread droughts, flooding, pestilence, famine and disease - the true origins of the debilitating factors inherent within the food industry are being ignored.

Lately, the only solutions being proposed by those who are allegedly "leading" the nations of the world to a brighter future, are forced population control, forced energy reduction (mostly for the nation's millions of households), genetically modified food supplies that are said to be more resilient to the inhospitable environment the corporations are creating. Which will result in mega agricultural conglomerates being allowed to patent the entire world's food supply.

This will, of course, open a Pandora's box that enables governments to work in tandem with food suppliers to force entire nations into compliance with further mandates, and will likely be the next weapon of mass destruction that can be used to wipe out uncooperative populations without ever firing a single bullet or damaging a single structure.

What, then, does all this data mean to the average American?

It means that in this status-driven climate, showered by floods of greed and parching consumption, where the Bill and Melinda Gates's of the planet are investing in dangerous agricultural technology, claiming it is necessary to feed an overpopulated planet they are certain will become a famine and flood ravaged pit of despair in less than 50 years, there is not one of them that will even come close to admitting that it is their pragmatically pilfering patronization of bloated consumers which is primarily responsible for the paving of the unmanageable and unsustainable path that the corporate machine is careening down.

The money-mad meat heads who are masterminding the food industry in America are reveling in the fact that it is the water and land shortages they have created which are further separating them from the poor people they are sucking dry, and allowing them to make a killing in the market -- in more ways than one.

Furthermore, it is the average high fat, low nutrient, sugar saturated, chemically controlled, extended shelf-life diet - rich in GMO proteins that are largely indigestible by the human body - which are driving healthcare costs into the stratosphere, and reaping insane profits for food manufacturers. As well, the ever increasing fuel costs of production, delivery and preparation are then driving up the prices of just about everything else under the Sun.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning of the global impact of extremely inefficient agriculture, where crops are being grown simply to sustain industries that are unhealthy and cumbersome.

The fact is that there are also millions of acres being dedicated to growing grains used to make trillions of gallons of beer and liquor products that are the single highest contributors to heart disease. These drinks then become veritable lethal weapons when combined with another bumper crop that is not helping to feed anyone, cigarette tobacco.

Then there are the bio-fuels that are being shoved down the starving throats of an already languishing world economy at a time when climate change is allegedly decimating the global food supply -- as large portions of the world's population are still unable to put a decent meal on the table. That is if they can find any meal at all.

However, nobody needs to see photos of an emaciated, skeletal child lethargically crawling to its death in the scorching dusty heat of a South African trail, or a homeless mother on the streets of L.A. begging for spare change next to a swanky restaurant full of obese and apathetic people, to consider the ramifications of this nihilistic behavior.

All one needs to do is look in the mirror.

The pot belly, blemished, tired smile, and varicose veins under slouched shoulders and solemn, bloodshot eyes of the average American say it all loud and clear.

The crucial question is: just how many people must suffer needlessly before humanity finally starts listening to what this reflection is truly saying?

References:

Raising Beef;

Hanson, Blaine; California Agriculture, Water and You, @ http://www.pge.com/includes/docs/pdfs/shared/edusafety/training/pec/water/blaine-hanson_water_forum_complete.pdf http://www.msuextension.org/ruralliving/Dream/PDF/cattle_few_acres.pdf