Talking through her hat

Vincent J. Curtis

13 July 21

RE: Beef industry won’t protect climate scorched Canada.  Hamilton Spectator op-ed by Jennifer Molidor, who is senior food campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity.  13 July 21

Jennifer Molidor doesn’t know what she’s talking about. But, being a fanatic, that doesn’t matter to her.  (Economist Thomas Sowell would describe her as one of the anointed with a vision, to whom actual data is anathema.)

Here is the list of things she alleges: that methane from cattle is a dangerous greenhouse gas; raising cattle uses groud that could be put to better use; that cattle consume a lot of water in these drought-stricken times; they’re bad for soil health, and in particular are damaging to grasslands.  For a person dedicated to biological diversity, she has a vegan’s repugnance for cows!  Allegations all without data, as Dr. Sowell would point out.

The allegation that methane is a dangerous greenhouse gas is an oft-repeated canard.  It is simply too low in concentration to be dangerous.  In Alberta cattle country, cattle tend to be raised on ground that is unsuitable for growing cash crops, either because the ground is too rough or is too isolated for the big combines to get to.  For decades, cattle have been grazed for half the year in the Kananaskis as a means of keeping grassland grassland; and anyone who’s stepped in a cowpie can tell you that cattle fertilize the ground they walk over.  Water consumption is not a problem out along the Cowboy Trail, with hundreds of streams created by snow melting in the mountains and running down to the South Saskatchewan River.  It’s the primary water supply in those parts.  If there wasn’t enough water to raise cattle, the herd would be shipped to the slaughter house.

Molidor is a fanatic who will say anything.  Her ignorance of actual facts might be what protects her from pangs of conscience, or maybe not.

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