Animal Writings

In the last post we talked about health: The risks from eating meat and the benefits of replacing the meat on your plate with plant-based alternatives, especially legumes, whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

Meat and dairy also have significant environmental costs. The United Nations recently reported that diet is a major factor in greenhouse gas emissions, even more so than transportation. Beef and fish consumption is particularly damaging to the environment, according to the UN report and other sources, such as the WorldWatch Institute.

Cows emit enormous amounts of methane—from both ends of their bodies. Cattle grazing has turned vast tracts of the West into a near-desert, decimating local vegetation and displacing native wildlife. Ranchers and sometimes the government, though your tax dollars, kill any animals suspected of preying on livestock. A leading cause of rain forest destruction is the cutting down of trees by the cattle industry.

Over-fishing, which is a direct result of population times fish consumption per person, is ruining the balance of species in the ocean. Populations of some fish are a fraction of what they once were. Cod in the North Atlantic—to take one example—used to be huge and plentiful; now they are relatively tiny and becoming more difficult to find. (Fishermen blame seals, which is ridiculous, since seals and thriving cod populations co-existed for millions of years. The bloody seal massacres in Eastern Canada each year are an attempt to make up for lost revenue brought on by over-fishing. Baby seals, too young to swim away, are clubbed to death and killed for their fur.) Giant fishing nets trap sea turtles and "non-target" fish, which are killed and discarded. As noted in the UN report, commercial fishing requires huge amounts of energy, because of the transport distance from source to point of sale. Note that many fish are killed in order to be ground up into livestock feed. So consumption of meat, dairy, and egg products may contribute to the depletion of fish and other marine life in the ocean.

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are giant prison-like factories for raising and killing animals; they are the source of the vast majority of meat, dairy, and eggs, as well as non-food animal products such as leather. They generate huge amounts of pollution that seeps into the ground, water, and air.

And get this: Nearly three quarters of the grain grown in this country is fed to farmed animals. Although the numbers vary depending on what type of meat you eat and where it's from, in almost every case it requires far less land, water, and energy to produce a vegetarian dish than a comparable meat dish. Reducing your consumption of all animal products is one of the best environmental moves you can make.

I'll show you how to do that with surprisingly little effort or adjustment. First, I have one more post that looks at the widespread cruelty and suffering inherent in meat production. I'm not going to dwell on it, and there's plenty of information elsewhere on the Net (and in this blog) that goes into great detail about the misery and death in animal farming, transport, and slaughterhouses. But you should take a glimpse at what it is you support when you order or buy animal-derived foods. So bear with me and then it's on to a plethora of very doable and satisfying solutions.

To be continued...

Labels: environment, fish, seals