As I said in my last post, I’m trying to live more consciously, taking into account how my decisions affect the world around me. I thought food was a good, though perhaps the hardest, place to start. So how can my (and your) food choices support animal rights, the fight on global warming and poverty, and clean water? It’s all connected, even if we tend to compartmentalize to lessen our guilty conscience.
“People adapt their attitudes to specific contexts and may actively avoid learning about specific animal procedures and uses to minimize cognitive conflict,” said Dr. Grahame J. Coleman, professor at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and deputy director of the Animal Welfare Science Centre.
I have to agree. I’m guilty, for sure. I don’t want to think about my pizza’s production process, or the rights related to that rib-eye. But some facts should be hard to ignore:
- The USDA reports that animals in the US meat industry produce 61 million tons of waste each year, which is 130 times the volume of human waste – or five tons for every US citizen.
- The 7 billion livestock animals in the United States consume five times as much grain as is consumed directly by the entire American population.
- Agriculture accounts for 87 percent of all the fresh water consumed each year. Livestock directly use only 1.3 percent of that water. But when the water required for forage and grain production is included, livestock’s water usage rises dramatically. Every kilogram of beef produced takes 100,000 liters of water. Wheat takes 900 liters of water per kilogram, and producing potatoes uses 500 liters of water per kilogram
- According to the EPA, hog, chicken and cattle waste has polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in 22 states and contaminated groundwater in 17 states. (The EPA has begun to crack down on Clean Water Act violations at livestock feeding operations.)
- Animal production, whether for meat or dairy, is hazardous for the atmosphere. In fact, a 2006 UN report states that meat industry alone accounts for more greenhouse gases than the emissions of all the SUVs, cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined.
You can find more facts about food production’s harmful effects by checking out books like Omnivore’s Dilemma, Livestock’s Long Shadow, and Making a Killing, to name a few. And check out this UK site about how to sustain a healthier diet and a healthier planet (which just so happens to be animal-friendly, too), or this compassionate eating guide. Every time you sit down to eat, think about it.
What are your thoughts on the topic?
Fight the Good Fight,
Johanna Hudgens
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By using this email signature, Johanna and ASPCA provided an hour of protective services for 12 animals.
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Related articles to check out:
- Animal Welfare Victories Prompt Farmers to Change – ABC News (abcnews.go.com)
- Livestock accounts for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions, says new report (energyrefuge.com)
- Jeff Biggers: New Year’s Resolution: Mountaintop Removal Ends in 2010 (huffingtonpost.com)
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Tags: animal rights, clean water, Clean Water Act, diet, global warming, Johanna Hudgens, Livestock, Livestock's Long Shadow, Making a Killing, Omnivore's Dilemma, poverty, Replyforall, United States
As scary, real, and dramatic as these facts are, I think another angle to take is that of moderation: I wish I could remember where I heard this, but if all Americans only ate 3 oz. of beef a day, these daunting resource-plunders would become manageable.
Many carnivores I’ve spoken with are of the camp that humans have been eating meat for a while, which I think is a reasonable argument against vegetarianism. But most Americans do not eat only 3 oz. of meat a day, even if they only feel carnivorous at one meal. Just think of a McDonald’s commercial: they try to sell as much meat (or unidentified brown substance) as possible for as cheap as possible. And some Americans eat McDonalds three times a day.
So meat-eating may not be evil — have the burger if you crave it — but maybe consider that you don’t need to eat the whole cow to get your fix. Also maybe take a moment to contemplate how sickening it is to eat half a pound of anything (just as an arbitrary reference, that’s 8 servings of pasta.)
This issue is fairly new to me, but my eyes became wide open after seeing the Documentary entitled “Food, Inc.” It brought a whole new perspective to where our food comes from, and the animal rights issues that are associated with everything from that McDonalds Hamburger to Tyson Frozen Chicken Nuggets.
One fact that stood out from the movie, and I might be slightly off with the time frame, is that a beef cow that eats nothing but corn (which by the way is what I think the main reason for all the corruption), but then over a week time period(?) switches to grass (what they should be eating), 80% of the E-Coli in their systems is eliminated.
Just because corn allows the beef and chicken to be produced at a much larger volume faster, does not mean that it is more ethical. The cows and chickens dietary system was not made to eat corn, and they have a hard time walking more than 6 inches, yes, that is inches, because their bodies are too heavy.
All I know is that if you want to assist in this effort, what you buy and where you buy it helps. Buy Organic Beef & Chicken because all the animals are free-range and grass fed, plus, I’ve found from cooking that the organic beef and chicken taste 1000x better.