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James E. McWilliams on the myth of sustainable meat Epitomized by the "pink slime" brouhaha, the factory farming both plants and animals has been in the crossfire of both reporters and environmental activists. Seeking greener ways to eat, some choose to eat organic meat. But author James E. McWilliams, in an op-ed in The New York Times, says not so fast. After examining how even organic farms raise animals for slaughter, he argues that there is no such thing as environmentally sustainable meat. Ostensibly organic farms still often use industrial breeds of chicken bred to fatten quickly and, even if the birds waste is used to fertilize farmland, they're fed with imported, industrially-grown grain. And cows? "Grass-grazing cows emit considerably more methane than grain-fed cows," he writes. Additionally, the brute economics of animal farming incentivizes farms to treat animals inhumanely. His conclusion is to personally forgo meat altogether: "it’s not how we produce animal products that ultimately matters. It’s whether we produce them at all."
The Guardian all the Koreas' unlikely wildlife sanctuary Here's proof that a silver lining can be found practically anywhere, even at the perhaps the tensest national border on planet Earth, Korea's Demilitarized Zone. The 400 square miles of breathing room between the feuding cousins on the usually brown Korean Peninsula have become perhaps the world's most unlikely wildlife sanctuary. "That a place so steeped in violence still teems with life seems unimaginable," writes Lisa Brady, a history professor at Boise State University, for The Guardian. "And yet, the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, is home to thousands of species that are extinct or endangered elsewhere on the peninsula." The aww-provoking fauna include rare cranes, black bears, musk deer, spotted seals, and maybe even a believed-to-be extinct tiger species, prompting environmental groups to call for the protection of the DMZ if and when the two Koreas unite. For now, though, the DMZ will have to incongruously double as both a symbol of war and of a greener, more peaceful future.