I’m tempted to move to Britain, and not
just because I saw an early screening of Michael Moore’s amazing new
movie, Sicko (go see it; tell all your friends). What got me is that an
official with the UK’s Environment Agency has acknowledged that humans
can significantly help stop global warming by adopting a vegetarian
diet.
Of course, the science could not be more
clear. When U.N. scientists looked at all the evidence, they declared in
a 408-page report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow that raising animals
for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in
the world combined. And scientists at the University of Chicago showed
that a typical American meat-eater is responsible for nearly 1.5 tons
more carbon dioxide a year than a vegan.
But for someone in government to admit
this is something special, since even Al Gore refuses to talk about it
(which makes me think that perhaps he is planning to run). What happened
is that someone posted a comment on the Environment Agency’s Web site
asking, “Adopting a vegan diet reduces one person’s impact on the
environment even more than giving up their car or forgoing several plane
trips a year! Why aren’t you promoting this message as part of your
[World Environment Day] campaign?”
In response, an Environment Agency
official wrote that the “potential benefit of a vegan diet in terms of
climate impact could be very significant” and offered assurances that
the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is working on a
set of “key environmental behaviour changes” to mitigate climate
change—including promoting vegetarianism.
Indeed, study after study has shown that
animal agriculture contributes to global warming and environmental
destruction, yet instead of urging people to go vegetarian, most U.S.
politicians and environmental spokespeople just continue to hype hybrid
cars, recycling, and fluorescent light bulbs as solutions to our
spiraling environmental problems.
This is just not good enough. Vegetarians
in Hummers do more for the planet than do meat-eaters who cruise around
in hybrids or collect recyclable soda cans. Now that George Bush has
finally acknowledged that global warming is a reality, perhaps he could
follow his vegetarian niece, Lauren Bush—and former first daughter
Chelsea Clinton—in adopting a vegetarian diet. I’m not going to hold my
breath until this happens, but it would be gratifying for
representatives of the U.S. government to acknowledge the absolute fact
that what people eat is more important than what they drive.
Carbon dioxide emissions aren’t our only
environmental concern, of course. There’s deforestation, water and air
pollution, world hunger, and more. According to Greenpeace, chickens
raised for KFC and other companies that “produce” chicken flesh are fed
crops that are grown in the Amazon rain forest. And according to the
U.N. report, raising animals for food is “one of the top two or three
most significant contributors to the most serious environmental
problems, at every scale from local to global.”
To whit, more than 260 million acres of
U.S. forest have been cleared to create cropland to grow grain to feed
farmed animals; farmed animals are fed more than 70 percent of the corn,
wheat, and other grains grown in the U.S.; and almost half of the water
and 80 percent of the agricultural land in the U.S. are used to raise
animals for food.
There is also the unappetizing synopsis
by Scripps Howard of a Senate Agricultural Committee report on animal
waste and the environment: “[I]t’s untreated and unsanitary, bubbling
with chemicals and diseased. … It goes onto the soil and into the water
that many people will, ultimately, bathe in and wash their clothes with
and drink. It is poisoning rivers and killing fish and making people
sick. … Catastrophic cases of pollution, sickness, and death are
occurring in areas where livestock operations are concentrated. … Every
place where the animal factories have located, neighbors have complained
of falling sick.”
If that’s not enough to make you feel a
little queasy, consider this: Consuming animal products isn’t just
making the environment sick—it’s making us sick, too. Meat, eggs, and
dairy foods are high in cholesterol, saturated fat, calories, and
concentrated protein. Animal products are known to contribute to heart
disease, diabetes, certain types of cancer, obesity, and other
debilitating diseases.
And don’t forget that more than 10
billion animals are killed each year in the U.S. alone to feed our meat
addictions. We’re talking about an awful lot of suffering.
And for what? Chicken nuggets,
hamburgers, hot dogs, cheese pizza, scrambled eggs, and other foods that
have healthy, humane, and environmentally friendly counterparts. I can’t
imagine why anyone would cause such suffering and devastation when there
is a better option: a vegetarian diet. Why not give it a try?
If you need some tips, please check out
www.VegCooking.com for recipes, meal plans, cookbook recommendations,
and more. It’s not too late to reverse the changes in our climate, but
all of us need to take steps to reduce greenhouse gases, and we need to
take them soon. Your next meal would be a good time to start.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bruce Friedrich is vice president in
charge of international grassroots campaigns for People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has been a progressive and animal
activist for more than 20 years.
Return to
Environmental Issues
