If you are reading this newsletter, or website, you are,
like myself, concerned about what we are doing to our planet, and are
probably wondering what you can do to make a positive difference in our
troubled world.
You probably support local and national environmental
organizations that are working to save endangered species and save pieces
of land from the clutches of developers. Like me, you probably reduce,
reuse and recycle, and you may even be aware of environmentally friendly
cleaning products. But are there other ways to help the planet? I am about
to illustrate that our food choices do have a significant effect, either
positive or negative, on the environment.
Where you choose to eat on the food chain will determine
the amount of energy, and therefore, resources, that are necessary to
sustain your diet. There is a natural law, which says that the lower you
are on the food chain, the less energy is wasted, and more energy is
available. Conversely, the higher you are on the food chain, the more
energy is wasted, and the less energy is available. This means that less
energy is available with each step up the food chain. Thus more plants and
animals at the bottom are required to support those at the top of the
chain. Since the average American diet consists of about 85% animal
products, most Americans eat primarily at the top of the food chain. To
support this diet, between 6 and 9 billion animals are killed for food
every year in the U.S. The following is a partial list of the devastating
affects that this animal based diet has on the planet:
In 300 years, over half the trees in the U.S. have been
cut down to grow corn, soybeans, oats, grass and hay, 90% of which is used
to feed livestock (cows, chickens, pigs, etc.)
Livestock grazing has been the major cause of soil erosion
and desertification.
More plant species have been eliminated due to overgrazing
by cows and sheep than from any other cause.
As a result of 400 years of abuse, the layer of topsoil,
the most fertile part of the soil, is almost gone in the western part of
the U. S. When the topsoil is gone, the desertification process will be
complete.
Farm animals belch millions of tons of methane gas into
the air each year.
Three acres are needed to feed 1 person the standard
American diet, but only a fraction of an acre is needed to feed a person
whose diet is plant based. The land use benefit ratio is about 10:1
About 16 pounds of corn and soybeans are needed to produce
1 pound of beef.
Billions of gallons of oil (gasoline and diesel) are used
to run the equipment that sustains animal agriculture.
Large amounts of water are irrigated to dry areas to grow
crops, so they can be fed to farm animals. The following list illustrates
this point:
Water needed to produce the same amount of food
25 gallons/wheat or potatoes
65 gallons/oranges
130 gallons/cows milk
544 gallons/eggs
815 gallons/chickens
1630 gallons/pigs
5214 gallons/cows
Very toxic chemicals, such as fertilizers, pesticide,
herbicides, and livestock waste, are all major sources of water pollution.
They are dumped, untreated, directly into rivers, and they also seep into
the groundwater.
A program, funded with our tax dollars, known as predator
damage control, is responsible for the death of many wild species native
to North America. The ranchers say that these species are eating their
livestock, thereby cutting into their profits.
The demand for cheap beef in the U.S. has resulted in the
destruction of much of the rainforests in Central and South America.
Forests are cut down at staggering rates (20 acres/minute, 24 hours/day),
to create cropland to feed livestock (rainforest soil is the most nutrient
poor soil in the world), and for grazing land for livestock, who will
eventually be turned into hamburgers, and will be sold at fast food chains
throughout the U.S. Although located thousands of miles north of the
tropics, we are dependent on this ecosystem in a number of ways. These
forests are one of the largest sources of oxygen, and by destroying these
forests, we lose this supply of oxygen. These forests are not able to take
our carbon dioxide and give animals back the oxygen that we need. This
carbon dioxide, instead, rises into the atmosphere, trapping more heat,
and consequently increases the temperature of the planet.
There are cultures in other parts of the world whose diets
are primarily plant based, and therefore do not have the problems that
western cultures, like ours, have. Only when these cultures start to
"westernize" their diets, do they start to experience the consequences to
environment, and to the people. We can support national organizations that
are trying to regulate and temper animal agribusiness, by political and
other means. We can vote for politicians who say that they are fighting
the degradation of the environment. We can buy products that sustain the
tropical rainforests. But in addition to these methods and other methods,
there is something that you can do that maybe the most far reaching, and
that is to choose to eat lower on the food chain. By adopting a diet that
is plant based, we will to a large extent eliminate the cause of all the
problems previously mentioned. There is nothing that is more powerful than
going to the supermarket, or natural foods store, and choosing food that
is life sustaining, and boycotting food that is destroying our planet.
Think of all the food that would be available to feed starving people, if
it went directly to these people, instead of being wasted through animal
agriculture. Our water would be cleaner, and so much land would be
available for reforestation, which would bring so many species back to
repopulate these forests. Our ground water and rivers would start to come
back due to the absence of toxins from agribusiness. Even our taxes would
go down, because government subsidies wouldn't go to animal agribusiness,
not to mention fuel prices due to the decrease in demand.
This article was inspired by John Robbins and Frances
Moore Lappe. For further information, you can contact the following
websites: www.pcrm.orgwww.earthsave.org
If you have comments or questions, or would like more
information and sources on this and other related topics, please contact
me at [email protected]
Whether you are an environmentalist, an animal rights
activist, human rights activist, whatever your cause, we are all
connected. There is strength in unity.
Go on to Managing Your
Stress and Your Pets
Return to 1 May 2005 Issue
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