I’m hugely appreciative of Grist and their take on issues relevant to the environment and sustainable living, but I have to draw the line somewhere. That line is here: Grist’s Guide to Meat-free Grilling.
I come from a cow-town. For me the very definition of a summer’s day involves a grill and many pounds of beef. (Better still, it involves a barbecue pit, and a large supply of beef brisket and pork ribs.) 
I’m happy to grill veggies — even fruit — so long as it’s understood by all in attendance that these are accompaniments to the main dish, which will be meat.
As an antidote to Grist’s misguided efforts, allow me to present you with an alternative menu:
- The Kansas City Barbecue Society
- The Smoke Ring
- Weber Grills
- Paul Kirk’s Championship Barbecue (The Bible of BBQ)
Now get grillin’.
Are you aware that grain-fed livestock consumes energy resources far out of proportion with its yield? That beef cattle produce large amounts of CO2 and methane gas?
Clearly then, we should eat the awful critters before they destroy the planet. I’m willing to do my part. 😉
More to the point, I believe grass-fed is better than grain-fed beef all ’round. Methane? Much of it (some 40%) can be captured and turned into energy. (Cow-power!)
As for CO2 production, I think there’s some confusion here, probably because calculations of greenhouse gas production frequently include methane in terms of its C02 equivalent (pound for pound methane has 22 times the heat-trapping potential of CO2.) And then there’s measures of how much CO2 is created in the process of hauling beef around from producers to consumers, a good reason to buy your beef locally.
GO MEAT!!!
We have a place in our small little town who actually placed at the American Royal and in August there is the Rib Off.
GO MEAT!!!
Ah… the American Royal.
For anyone not familiar with the extraordinary event that is the World Series of Barbecue, let me paint you a picture…
Imagine the vast, open plain of Kansas City’s old stockyards — the very place that made Kansas City the “Cowtown” it’s still known as today — filled to the bursting point with row upon row of barbecue pits and cookers of all sorts: big, professional rigs with hundreds of square feet of cooking surface; little Weber “bullet” smokers; tiny lil’ Smokey Joes. There’s more than 500 competitors on-hand for this, the biggest, baddest barbecue contest of them all, and the culmination of the entire competitive season. It all comes down to these two days.
It’s a carnival atmosphere with tents and awnings and a few dozen Elvises parachuting in… all the trappings of a village that’s been thrown up overnight with the sole intent of having a damn good time. In the air hangs the luxuriously sweet fragrance of wood-smoke, exotic spice and burnt sugar, while the best cuts of beef and pork that money can buy slowly caramelize, braising in their own juices until they become the succulent food of the gods.
And that’s just the Open contest. Folks participating in the Invitational… let’s just say they take food to a whole new level.
Damn. Homesick all of a sudden.
I’ve just finished writing out my grocery list for our barbeque this Saturday. My son is vegetarian, his girl friend can’t eat dairy, my daughter is in Weight Watchers, my son-in-law trains for mountain biking, my husband has high blood pressure, and I have high cholesterol. It wasn’t easy making up the menu. I long for the days of ignorance when I cooked up those southern meals!
However, we’ll have smaller juicy steaks on the grill along with my son’s vegetable dish in tin foil. We’ve come to an understanding long ago!
A buddy of mine didn’t eat beef. Worked at Outback Steakhouse mind you, but didn’t eat beef.
Living in the Lofts in Philly, where we were at the time, it was like a commune. We BBQed as a large group almost every night spring to fall. So my buddy would bring out either his Boca or Gardenburger to have me toss on th grill with everything else. As of course being from KC, I was the Grillmaster.