Maybe these odd celestial events will help us with global warming? lol
I didn't mean the piggie comment, I meant the carnivore comments. People that claim to be "meat eaters" irritate
me, so I can imagine what you veggies feel.
Anyway- FMD... yes- so my feeling on the riots breaking out would be that those would be the farmers/owners/caretakers of the animals, not the consumers per se. For most farmers their animals aren't individuals to them so much as a livelihood. So when you go in and shoot all their animals it's rather like going to... er... Staples and burning all their paper and smashing up all their computers. And then the government usually will give some money to them- but maybe that money is based off of weight (like it is for the animals- certain $/pound). But in that respect a 5lb. external harddrive and a 5lb ream of paper would get the same amount of money (like in the case of livestock a prize bull worth hundreds of thousands would be worth the same as a 10 year old cow kept on the farm as a pet).
Plus smaller farms that do fiber or milk will name their animals, too, and know their personalities as they will have them for many years of close work. Then you have people that keep pet cows, sheep, goats- if someone came to your house and said "I have to kill and burn all your cavies because of 'GP FMD'" you'd riot, too. So...
Obviously most on this forum don't agree with the farmer's views on the livestock, but that was just my take on the mention of rioting. Like I said before, I doubt that the general public would be much affected- meat gets shipped here from other countries all the time already. Maybe there would be animal welfare/rights people protesting, but I would expect that would be much less than the farmers.
Sixty-two English farmers committed suicide after the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001 because they had lost their livelihoods - their livestock - and they didn't know how to feed their families or pay their bills
Prairie Star
Probably it wouldn't take all that long for people to be weaned off of meat if there was absolutely no supply. I don't really see that happening, though. Get really really expensive? Yeah, definitely. But look how much we are willing to pay for gas. Something more than just a shortage is needed to get people to stop eating meat altogether. A paradigm shift like vegetarianism really is the only way I can see a majority stopping. But everyone? Maybe teach them all anatomy so they know what exactly they are eating. Must say it was disturbing the other day I was having ribs and realized that there are nerves along every single one. Mm... nerves... :yuck: It works for getting people to stop eating hot dogs, why not the whole beast?
http://theprairiestar.com/articles/2008/01/18/ag_news/livestock/liv10.txt
