[Sosfbay-discuss] food for thought

[E. Alan Meece]

Thanks Jam Boi for the info. It was nice seeing you at the vigil at
Stevens Creek and Winchester.

Some food for thought or discussion:
(relayed from Ellen Holmes)

Vegetarian is the New Prius

     By Kathy Freston 
     Huffington Post, 1.20.07  
     <http://www.commondreams.org/> 

President Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in
every garage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish
levels, many are having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems
they should instead be worrying about the chickens.

Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and the
environment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as
one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most
serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It
turns out that raising animals for food is a primary cause of land
degradation, air pollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss
of biodiversity, and not least of all, global warming.

That's right, global warming. You've probably heard the story: emissions
of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are changing our climate, and
scientists warn of more extreme weather, coastal flooding, spreading
disease, and mass extinctions. It seems that when you step outside and
wonder what happened to winter, you might want to think about what you
had for dinner last night. The U.N. report says almost a fifth of global
warming emissions come from livestock (i.e., those chickens Hoover was
talking about, plus pigs, cattle, and others)--that's more emissions
than from all of the world's transportation combined.

For a decade now, the image of Leonardo DiCaprio cruising in his hybrid
Toyota Prius has defined the gold standard for environmentalism. These
gas-sipping vehicles became a veritable symbol of the consumers'
power to strike a blow against global warming. Just think: a car that
could cut your vehicle emissions in half - in a country responsible for
25% of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Federal fuel economy
standards languished in Congress, and average vehicle mileage dropped to
its lowest level in decades, but the Prius showed people that another
way is possible. Toyota could not import the cars fast enough to meet
demand.

Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a
peg when they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer
purchase. They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg
production requires growing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if
we just ate pasta primavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant
foods. On top of that, we have to transport the animals to
slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and
distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of
meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels--and
spewing more than ten times as much heat-trapping carbon dioxide--as
does a calorie of plant protein. The researchers found that, when it's
all added up, the average American does more to reduce global
warming emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius.

According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the vast
quantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops. Animal
agriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and
30% of the total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals
are probably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's
forests. Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland,
and feed crops cover much of the remainder. These forests serve as
"sinks," absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and burning these
forests releases all the stored carbon dioxide, quantities that exceed
by far the fossil fuel emission of animal agriculture.

As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at
gases besides carbon dioxide--gases like methane and nitrous oxide,
enormously effective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the
warming power of carbon dioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is
responsible for about one-half of human-related greenhouse gas warming
since the industrial revolution, methane and nitrous oxide are
responsible for another one-third. These super-strong gases come
primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes, and from their
manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% of our carbon
dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping 65% of
our nitrous oxide.

It's a little hard to take in when thinking of a small chick hatching
from her fragile egg. How can an animal, so seemingly insignificant
against the vastness of the earth, give off so much greenhouse gas as to
change the global climate? The answer is in their sheer numbers. The
United States alone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every
year, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that can barely conceive of
a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" was considered a
luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20% of the
entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet to
death.

What we're seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has
increased five-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to double
again in the next fifty.

It sounds like a lot of bad news, but in fact it's quite the opposite.
It means we have a powerful new weapon to use in addressing the most
serious environmental crisis ever to face humanity. The Prius was
an important step forward, but how often are people in the market for a
new car? Now that we know a greener diet is even more effective than a
greener car, we can make a difference at every single meal, simply by
leaving the animals off of our plates. Who would have thought: what's
good for our health is also good for the health of the planet!

Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius. Plus,
that bang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of carbon
dioxide, which spreads its warming effect slowly over a century. A big
chunk of the problem with farmed animals, on the other hand, is methane,
a gas which cycles out of the atmosphere in just a decade. That means
less meat consumption quickly translates into a cooler planet.

Not just a cooler planet, also a cleaner one. Animal agriculture
accounts for most of the water consumed in this country, emits
two-thirds of the world's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and it the world's
largest source of water pollution--killing entire river and marine
ecosystems, destroying coral reefs, and of course, making people sick.
Try to imagine the prodigious volumes of manure churned out by modern
American farms: 5 million tons a day, more than a hundred times that of
the human population, and far more than our land can possibly absorb.
The acres and acres of cesspools stretching over much of our
countryside, polluting the air and contaminating our water, make the
Exxon Valdez oil spill look minor in comparison. All of which
we can fix surprisingly easily, just by putting down our chicken wings
and reaching for a veggie burger.

Doing so has never been easier. Recent years have seen an explosion of
environmentally-friendly vegetarian foods. Even chains like Ruby
Tuesday, Johnny Rockets, and Burger King offer delicious veggie burgers
and supermarket refrigerators are lined with heart-healthy creamy
soymilk and tasty veggie deli slices. Vegetarian foods have become
staples at environmental gatherings, and garnered celebrity advocates
like Bill Maher, Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of course Leonardo
DiCaprio. Just as the Prius showed us that we each have in our hands the
power to make a difference against a problem that endangers the future
of humanity, going vegetarian gives us a new way to dramatically reduce
our dangerous emissions that is even more effective, easier to do, more
accessible to everyone and certainly goes better with french fries.

Ever-rising temperatures, melting ice caps, spreading tropical diseases,
stronger hurricanes... So, what are you do doing for dinner tonight?
Check out www.VegCooking.com <http://www.VegCooking.com/>  for great
ideas, free recipes, meal plans, and more! Check out the environmental
section of www.GoVeg.com <http://www.GoVeg.com/> for a lot more
information about the harmful effect of meat-eating on the
environment. 

Kathy Freston is a self-help author and personal growth and spirituality
counselor. She is the author of Expect a Miracle: Seven Spiritual Steps
to Finding the Right Relationship. Her CDs offering guided meditation
have been featured in W, Self, and Mode. Kathy and her husband, Tom
Freston, divide their time between New York and Los Angeles.

© 2007 The Huffington Post