[Sosfbay-discuss] food for thought

[Andrea Dorey]

I've haven't eaten beef (or other 4-footed animals) in almost 30  
years.  I ate fish until about 12 years ago.  I gave up turkey, even  
on holidays, about 8 years ago. My doctor describes my lab results as  
"awesome."  At 68, I'm doing OK as a vegetarian, but I'm also getting  
closer to being a vegan, which means NO animal products used,  
including honey, eggs, milk, and leather.  I don't use much milk for  
health reasons, but I don't have a problem with the products that  
don't involve killing an animal.  I raised chickens for eggs years  
ago, and plan to return to doing that once I stop traveling so much.

I still get silly remarks from people about being vegetarian.  Like  
those who are surprised that I don't eat tuna fish or chicken--they  
aren't MEAT presumably...I kill plants, so therefore I'm no better  
than a carnivore...I'm not healthy if I don't eat "protein."  Etc.,  
etc., etc.

I drive a hybrid car that gets 60-71 mpg; it's 7 years old and Honda  
quit making them.  They also have tried for 3 years to buy it back.   
And as good ol' boy Charleton Heston said, "You have to rip it from  
my dead, cold hands."   I'm looking to buy an electric car to drive  
for the short daily haul, keeping the hybrid for the long trips.  My  
footprint is getting lighter as I get smarter.
Andrea

On Feb 3, 2007, at 11:36 PM, E. Alan Meece wrote:

> 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
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