Here's what's on my mind this morning...
A major 2006 report by the United Nations summarized the devastation
caused by the meat industry. Raising animals for food, the report
said, is "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to
the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to
global. The findings of this report suggest that it should be a major
policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate
change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution and loss
of biodiversity. Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is
on a massive scale …."
Growing all the crops to feed farmed animals requires massive amounts
of water and land—in fact, nearly half of the water and 80 percent of
the agricultural land in the United States are used to raise animals
for food.6,7 Our taste for meat is also taking a toll on our supply of
fuel and other nonrenewable resources—about one-third of the raw
materials used in America each year is consumed by the farmed animal
industry.
Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire
human population of the United States, and since factory farms don't
have sewage treatment systems as our cities and towns do, this
concentrated slop ends up polluting our water, destroying our topsoil,
and contaminating our air.9 And meat-eaters are responsible for the
production of 100 percent of this waste—about 86,000 pounds per
second!10 Give up animal products, and you'll be responsible for none
of it.
Many leading environmental organizations, including the National
Audubon Society, the WorldWatch Institute, the Sierra Club, and the
Union of Concerned Scientists, have recognized that raising animals
for food damages the environment more than just about anything else
that we do. Whether it's the overuse of resources, unchecked water or
air pollution, or soil erosion, raising animals for food is wreaking
havoc on the Earth. The most important step you can take to save the
planet is to go vegetarian.
""Livestock's contribution to environmental problems is
ReplyDeleteon a massive scale …""
This is a symptom of a larger problem (as you're probably aware); namely, that we overuse our technology to
produce and consume. In my humble opinion (IMHO), we don't all need to become raw food eaters or vegetarians to combat it; we (as a nation) just have to make it less convenient and cheap. Did you know that our food industries get (what amounts to) massive gifts of tax money so that they can continue to provide obscene volumes of mass-produced food at low prices? (Mostly in the forms of subsidies and 'tax-breaks'.)
It's that old argument of trying to regain balance by building in the 'true-cost' of things like food and gasoline.
Of course, it's easier to say than to do. If I was king, I'd implement a "sin tax" -- which is what they impose on cigarettes and alcohol. Except I'd put it on the real sins, like meat and gasoline.
Again, IMHO, to effect change you have to reach 'the common American'. This means that becoming a vegetarian or asking others to become a vegetarian will only have a limited effect -- good in a personal, moral way, but not an effective solution on a national or world-wide environmental scale.
The God of us is "convenience and low, low prices!"
So I'd re-write that to say:
The most important step you can take to save the
planet is to be involved in politics; for example, tell your government representatives that you oppose further large-scale farming subsidies. Start a community discussion about imposing further environmental impact penalties for our huge cattle, chicken, hog, and turkey farms. Educate yourself and others about how we make food. And eat less meat.
--
example, 2002: A farm bill (bill in the House and Senate) calls for taxpayers to fork over some $180 billion to farmers during the next decade.
By guaranteeing U.S. farmers a minimum payment for commodities such as corn, rice and soybeans, the government encourages overproduction. That drives down the market price, forcing even higher subsidies and creating surpluses that are shipped overseas, using even more resources and undermining the "real cost" of the food goods in countries with less advanced wide scale wasteful production methods ("technology").