Meat or no meat?

As a native Brazilian who strictly follows the tradition of going to Porcão once a week or having a nice barbecue at my house on a sunday afternoon, giving up meat seems outrageous. The facts presented by vegetarian scientists, who are clearly biased, indicate that the production of meat accounts for 18% of the greenhouse gas emissions, whereas all the world's cars, trains, planes and boats account for a combined 13% (http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1839995,00.html). Considering that these numbers are true, they represent a need for change coming from the producers of meat not from the consumers. 
Companies need to start raising cattle in an organic pasture, which raises the cattle in a way that "all ruminants must have access to pasture ... and, pasture must be managed organically using strategies that improve soil and water while increasing the nutrient value of the pasture." (According to howtogoorganic.com). It is unfair that we have to give up on a complement that has become a significant part of our diet and that is necessary for a good health and a pleasurable life. This idea that meat leads to global warming is nothing but merely an attempt by the vegetarians, to have the world stop killing the animals. But, the truth is, our world has become carnivore, and giving up this right is not something that a lot of us are willing to do. If the concern is really with the environment as they say, why not tackle the companies and demand their effort to creating less polluting means of growing these animals? Why is it that the consumers have to change their lifestyle? 
Before they can ask us to stop eating meat, they need to ask the companies to stop polluting, the truckers to stop working, the houses with fireplaces to stop lighting fires, the dry cleaners to stop working, the chef to stop cooking. All of these actions, that even though may be harmful to do the environment, have become part of our lives pollute to a certain extent. It is unacceptable that they ask the consumers to stop eating meat while allowing these companies to pollute to such an extent. 
Obviously, I understand that global warming is here, and it is scary and intimidating. But at the same time, it is unfair that the consumers pay the price for the wrong doings of the companies. Strict laws and regulations should monitor the growing of cattle and the meat should only be certified if it comes from an organic pasture. With that, both consumers and vegetarians will be happy. To conclude, I would like to emphasize that the question here is not whether you are a vegetarian or not; but rather a question of unfairness. What we have to learn from this blog is that companies need to change their ways, not the consumers. 

Is the Indian Embassy field biologically diverse?

Based on our Simpson Index, the index of diversity is .905. This represents a biologically diverse ecosystem but this information may be misleading. This is so, because we chose some of the most populated areas of the field, not considering the earth spaces. With this, since our number of samples were small and clearly populated, our results may have been compromised. A solution to this is that we could have had one or two groups consider the parts that had few plants and studied how this would affect our diversity rate. Never the less, I believe that even if we had considered the earth spaces, our diversity rate would still be low, meaning, high diversity. I believe this because there were few earth spaces amidst tall, small, green, dry plants, that all together compose the field of the Indian Embassy and allowed us to observe over 50 species.

Plant measurements

Measurements of plant:

Size	Measurements
Height	5 meters
Diameter Breast Height (DBH)	46.5cm
Canopy	3.05m

Light penetration:

Horizontal range

Location on tree	Initial penetration	Light penetration	% Difference between initial and leaf penetration value
Farthest from the branch	60143	1413	.023
Close to the branch	59322	1961	.0326

Soil Temperature:

Location of soil in relation to plant	Soil temperature (Degrees celcius)
Close	19.8
Middle	21.3
Far	19.4

Soil PH:

Location of soil in relation to plant	PH Value
Close	6.55
Middle	6.65
Far	7.28

Observations:

Because of the dry season, I have observed that my plant has more dry leaves than it did in the beginning. Also, the eye of the plant, which tells us when the bananas are ready to be consumed, has started to peel at a faster rate, and the bananas have slightly turned into a yellowish color. Soon, they will be ready to be cut down.