A Meat and Dairy Article from All-Creatures.org

Review of "Eating Our Way to Extinction" By Dr. Thomas Johnson

From Dr. Thomas Johnson, NCSP, CPQ, IP
June 2023

This review has focused on the evidence-based research documenting the connections between the destructive effects of animal agriculture and the widespread practices of eating animals, eggs and dairy.

Watch Eating Our Way to Extinction online HERE.

The supplemental notes in my review of Eating Our Way to Extinction were included in a presentation to the Bates College series, My Spiritual Journey. the chaplain at the time, Kerry Maloney (now at Harvard), asked me to start the series off. As part of my research I discovered there have been a wide variety of religious leaders as well as scientists who had important statements to make about vegetarianism. In addition to my review I have included a list of the statements.

This outstanding documentary Eating Our Way to Extinction was produced and narrated by Academy Award winning Kate Winslet and focuses on the links between the climate crisis and the way many of us eat. Four years in the making, it was directed by the brothers Otto and Ludovic Brockway and partially supported financially by philanthropist Tony Robbins and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.

Medical and scientific contributors include the author of the best-selling How Not to Die, Michael Gregor, MD as well as various outstanding scientists including marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle and a number Oxford University professors. They all share deep concerns about the survival of our planet unless we find effective ways of drastically reducing our consumption of so called “animal products” such as fish, cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, dairy etc. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of worldwide water pollution, deforestation, climate change and is destroying the planet, and with-it humanity’s future.

For readers of this review who may be skeptical of the links between animal agriculture and the catastrophic consequences reported above; I think it would be helpful to examine the results of Oxford University’s Dr. Joseph Poole’s food documentary demonstrating the most effective way of addressing climate change as well as improving personal health is by eating a plant-based diet. As reported in the journal Science and summarized in the Guardian May 31, 2018, edition):

“The new analysis shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority – 83% – of farmland and produces 60% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions. Other recent research shows 86% of all land mammals are now livestock or humans. The scientists also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and cereal growing.”

The huge dataset was “based on almost 40,000 farms in 119 countries and covering 40 food products that represent 90% of all that is eaten. It assessed the full impact of these foods, from farm to fork on land use, climate change emissions, freshwater use and water pollution (eutrophication) and air pollution. (acidification). “

The author goes on to state: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use and water use,” said Joseph Poore, at the University of Oxford, UK, who led the research. “It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car,” he said, as these only cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

In my review of The Healthiest People: The Science Behind Seventh-day Adventist Success by Elvin Adams, MPH, MD (see thomasjohnson47.academia.edu) I report that Dr. Adams provides an in-depth analysis of Seventh-day Adventists, many of whom live in and/around Loma Linda, California. Dr. Adams reviewed over 460 published studies of Seventh-day Adventists covering the last 70 years. Many of the studies were funded by the US government Those Adventist following a vegan diet “are the healthiest people in the United States and the world.” (p.8).

In that same review I pointed out: “In recent years, the National Geographic, Dan Buettner and their staff have conducted comprehensive epidemiological and literature reviews looking for areas in the world which had concentrations of people living to 100 years or more. They located 5 areas including Ikaria, Greece; Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; the Nicoya Peninsula of Costa, Rica; and Loma Linda, California. Dan Buettner refers to these areas as the blue zones. They report that blue zone inhabitants live longer because they ‘ve eaten the right foods- and avoided the wrong foods ones- for most of their lives. Ninety to 100 % of their diet consists of whole, plant-based fare They eat this way not because they possess heroic discipline but because fruits, vegetables, tubers, nuts, beans, and whole grains are cheap and accessible. (p.20 The Blue Zones Kitchen 100 recipes to live to 100. Washington D.C.: National Geographic, 2020)

In summary and conclusion, Eating Our Way to Extinction was produced and narrated by Academy Award winning Kate Winslet and focuses on the links between the climate crisis and the way many of us eat. Four years in the making, it was directed by the brothers Otto and Ludovic Brockway and partially supported financially by philanthropist Tony Robbins and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson.

Medical and scientific contributors include the author of the best-selling How Not to Die, Michael Gregor, MD as well as various outstanding scientists including marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle and a number Oxford University professors. They all share deep concerns about the survival of our planet unless we find effective ways of drastically reducing our consumption of so called “animal products” such as fish, cows, pigs, chickens, eggs, dairy etc. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of worldwide water pollution, deforestation, climate change and is destroying the planet, and with-it humanity’s future.

My review references multiple research studies providing supportive evidence that whole food plant-based eating is the most effective way of helping humanity to survive the inevitable collapse of our planet if we allow animal agriculture to continue in the direction it is going.

Supplemental notes

This review has focused on the evidence-based research documenting the connections between the destructive effects of animal agriculture and the widespread practices of eating animals, eggs and dairy.

In the following notes I will reference the opinions of various highly regarded medical practitioners, scientists and religious leaders of various faith traditions.

Doctor Albert Schweitzer was a highly versatile scholar and medical scientist who earned doctors’ degrees in theology, philosophy and medicine. Writing in an online article published on December 1, 2015, entitled “Albert Schweitzer, Extend the Circle of Compassion to all Living Things by Jennine Richards “stated Dr. Schweitzer won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for his ‘Reverence for Life’ philosophy and said, until we extend our circle of compassion to all Living thinks, humanity will not find peace.”

Albert Einstein is quoted in the article “Quotable quotes” published online by Goodeads.com (June 6, 2023) “Nothing will benefit human health and increase the survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

Human beings are not natural carnivores. When we kill animals to eat them, they end up killing us because their flesh, which contains cholesterol and saturated fat, was never intended for human beings, who are natural herbivores. William C. Roberts, M.D. (Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Cardiology).

In my view no chemical carcinogen is nearly so important in causing human cancer as animal protein. T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D. (Cornell professor of nutritional biochemistry & senior author of The China Project, the largest study linking nutrition and the risk of developing disease). Steven Rosen in Diet for Transcendence: Vegetarianism and The World Religions (1997) notes ‘Ellen G. White one of the founders of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, was an ardent vegetarian, as was John Wesley, the founder of Methodism.’ p. 25).

The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all the natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. Neal Bernard, M.D. (founder and director of Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine

It takes less water to produce a year’s food for a pure vegetarian than to produce a month’s food for a meat eater ... The amount of water consumed by America’s meat habit is staggering. John Robbins (author of Diet for a New America). An acre of land can yield 250 pounds of beef as compared to 40,000 pounds of potatoes. Fifteen total vegetarians can be fed on the same amount of land needed to feed one person on a meat-based diet. North American Vegetarian Society

Biographical Notes

Thomas B. Johnson completed his graduate studies at Brown University (US Public Health Fellowship in social psychiatry and medical sociology), Harvard University (master’s degree in counseling psychology), UC-Berkeley (doctor’s degree in counseling psychology) and Duke University (doctoral internship in psychological services). He is a licensed psychologist, nationally certified school psychologist and a health psychologist and certified by the National Register of Health Services Psychologists. He has served as a faculty member at Bates College, Rutgers University and the University of Southern Maine. He was a contributing editor of the NASP Communique for 10 years as their editor for alternative and complimentary approaches to health and learning. He has been providing a full range of psychological services over many years including assessments, consultations, education, psychotherapy, supervision and research. He now serves as a consulting psychologist.

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