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We’ll see how reductionist thinking based on eating animals keeps us stuck, and how a wholistic plant-based approach can solve multiple problems simultaneously.
[The following is an excerpt from Whole: Rethinking the Science of
Nutrition (BenBella Books) by T. Colin Campbell, PhD and Howard Jacobson,
PhD.]
“What we do to ourselves, we do to the earth.”
— Chief Seattle
Every July 4th weekend, my adopted home town of Durham, North Carolina,
hosts a wonderful crafts and music festival to raise money to preserve a
local river. Bands come from all over the country to share their music in a
beautiful state park. Vendors sell handmade jewelry, pottery, and clothing.
Activists and environmentalists hold forth on solar energy, river cleanup
projects, opposition to nuclear facilities, and various other causes. Every
napkin, spoon, plate, and cup given out by food vendors is 100 percent
biodegradable. In short, you couldn’t hope to find a more environmentally
conscious gathering.
Except for one thing: most of the food that festival goers shovel into their
bodies. Deep-fried funnel cakes slathered in synthetic syrup and
confectioners’ sugar. Giant turkey drumsticks, hamburgers, chicken breasts,
and corn dogs sourced from factory farms that pump hormones and antibiotics
into their products. French fries submerged in fryers of genetically
modified cooking oil. While we know that littering and polluting rivers and
streams is bad, somehow we’ve accepted that polluting our own bodies is
okay, as if what we eat has no impact on the rest of the environment.
I know many environmentalists whose commitment is manifest and
commendable, but stops at their lips. It’s understandable; many of our
favorite “foods” (or, more properly, food-like items) are highly addictive.
And our relationship with food is far more emotionally fraught than, say,
our relationship with incandescent light bulbs or plastic shopping bags. But
even these far-seeing and far-thinking activists are wearing reductionist
blinders if they cannot see that their personal food choices matter at least
as much as—and I would argue considerably more than—recycling and using
energy-efficient light bulbs.
I began this chapter with a quote, attributed to Chief Seattle: “Whatever we
do to the earth, we do to ourselves.” You may have come across it, or some
variation on it, before; it’s often invoked by environmentalists to remind
us that we can’t clear-cut our forests, pollute our water, and spew toxins
into our air without ultimately harming ourselves. But what’s less obvious
is that the reverse is equally true: what we eat has a huge impact on our
environment. Specifically, our high consumption of animal-based foods
contributes to environmental problems like soil loss, groundwater
contamination, deforestation, fossil fuel use, and depletion of deep
aquifers.
A Cornell University colleague of mine, Dr. David Pimentel, has documented
many ways that our system of livestock production wastes precious resources
and destroys the environment. He estimates that animal-based food requires
about five to fifty times more land and water resources than the same number
of calories of plant-based food (depending on various considerations,
including animal species and whether the animal is pasture fed). In a world
where human hunger is endemic, this inefficient use of resources is a
tragedy.
Among Dr. Pimentel’s findings:
So we’ve got a host of interconnected problems that all stem from our
addiction to an animal-protein-based diet. Simply put, our industrial system
of animal production is unsustainable. We’re using up our natural resources,
such as fresh water and healthy soil, faster than we can replenish them. And
the side effects of our animal-protein-driven food economy include
environmental toxins and the poisoning of the very air we all depend on for
life.
These are serious problems; each of them deserves a book of their own. And
they’re only the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more, I highly
recommend J. Morris Hicks’s excellent work, Healthy Eating, Healthy World.
For the purposes of this discussion, however, I want to focus on four
problems that neither policy makers nor the media generally see as being
connected to diet: two of the most significant environmental crises of our
time, global warming and the depletion of America’s deep underground water
resources; and the cruelty and violence done to two of the most vulnerable
groups on the planet, animals and impoverished humans. We’ll see how
reductionist thinking keeps us stuck, and how a wholistic approach can solve
these multiple problems simultaneously.
Return to Food Hazards in Animal Flesh and By-products
Read more at Vegan Health Articles
Read more at Environmental Articles
We began this archive as a means of assisting our visitors in answering many of their health and diet questions, and in encouraging them to take a pro-active part in their own health. We believe the articles and information contained herein are true, but are not presenting them as advice. We, personally, have found that a whole food vegan diet has helped our own health, and simply wish to share with others the things we have found. Each of us must make our own decisions, for it's our own body. If you have a health problem, see your own physician.