17.
Culture of Animal Killing And Meat Consumption
Lying At The Heart of Resource Depletion and Environmental Destruction
Most destructive aspect of industrial revolution was reflected in changes in dietary habits of whole nations. People steadily moved up the food chain, from a staple of bread, potato and cheese to beef, pork and lamb. But many did not care for the price tag attached to such extravagance, except for some sensible souls like Einstein who remarked, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.” This wasn’t coming from an old hat but from the most prominent scientist of modern era. Even in recent times, experts such as Dr. Neal Barnard duly warn us, “The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined. If beef is your idea of "real food for real people", you’d better live real close to a real good hospital.”
Thus killing animals for food, fur, leather, and cosmetics is one of the most environmentally destructive practices taking place on the earth today.
The meat industry is linked to deforestation, desertification, water pollution, water shortages, air pollution, and soil erosion. Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (USA), therefore says, “If you’re a meat eater, you are contributing to the destruction of the environment, whether you know it or not. Clearly the best thing you can do for the Earth is to not support animal agriculture.”
And Jeremy Rifkin warns in his widely read book Beyond Beef: “Today, millions of Americans, Europeans, and Japanese are consuming countless hamburgers, steaks, and roasts, oblivious to the impact their dietary habits are having on the biosphere and the very survivability of life on earth. Every pound of grain-fed flesh is secured at the expense of a burned forest, an eroded rangeland, a barren field, a dried-up river or stream, and the release of millions of tons of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane into the skies.”
Thus killing animals for food, fur, leather, and cosmetics is one of the most environmentally destructive practices taking place on the earth today.
The meat industry is linked to deforestation, desertification, water pollution, water shortages, air pollution, and soil erosion. Dr. Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (USA), therefore says, “If you’re a meat eater, you are contributing to the destruction of the environment, whether you know it or not. Clearly the best thing you can do for the Earth is to not support animal agriculture.”
And Jeremy Rifkin warns in his widely read book Beyond Beef: “Today, millions of Americans, Europeans, and Japanese are consuming countless hamburgers, steaks, and roasts, oblivious to the impact their dietary habits are having on the biosphere and the very survivability of life on earth. Every pound of grain-fed flesh is secured at the expense of a burned forest, an eroded rangeland, a barren field, a dried-up river or stream, and the release of millions of tons of carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane into the skies.”
When We Kill Animals, We Kill The Earth, We Kill Ourselves
Right now we raise about 40 billion animals for food. Animal based diet is leading to a global health crisis unparalleled in human history.
Dietary advice on the subject of global warming and environmental health was never as definitive as it is today. The United Nations has called on governments and individuals to open their eyes to climate change, calling it "the most serious challenge facing the human race." More than any other factor, how we meet that challenge will depend on what we eat.
Dietary advice on the subject of global warming and environmental health was never as definitive as it is today. The United Nations has called on governments and individuals to open their eyes to climate change, calling it "the most serious challenge facing the human race." More than any other factor, how we meet that challenge will depend on what we eat.
Meat Eaters Devouring Forests, Destroying Ecosystems
A tree is our most intimate contact with nature and forests form the life line of Earth’s atmosphere. In last two centuries, over 90% of the Earth’s forests have been butchered and this is one of the most prominent feature of modern ecocidal policies.
You want to save forests? Just stop eating meat! Each person who becomes a vegetarian saves one acre of trees per year. According to Vegetarian Times, half of the annual destruction of tropical rain forests is caused by clearing land for beef cattle ranches. Each pound of hamburger made from Central American or South American beef costs about 55 square feet of rain forest vegetation. Forests all over the world are being cut so that Americans, Europeans and Japanese can have their hamburgers. Its a criminal waste of precious resources.
In the United States, about 260 million acres of forest have been cleared for a meat-centered diet. About 40% of the land in the western United States is used for grazing beef cattle. This has had a detrimental effect on wildlife.
About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing meat animals -twice the area used for growing crops. Because of the deforestation, soil erosion and desertification meat industry causes, it is fundamentally unsustainable and has an extremely negative impact on the environment. Thirty percent of the earth's land is now occupied by livestock, with another 33 percent devoted to GMO feed crops, and this number is expanding every year. Seventy percent of previously forested land in the Amazon has been converted into cropland and pastures, destroying biodiversity, introducing carcinogenic pesticides, and playing a primary role in pushing species toward extinction at a rate 500 times of that we ought to be experiencing according to models based on fossil records.
Inevitably, intensive animal agriculture depletes valuable natural resources. Instead of being eaten by people, the vast majority of grains harvested is fed to farm animals. For this wasteful and inefficient practice, agribusinesses exploit vast stretches of land. Forests, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats have been decimated. Scarce fossil fuels, groundwater, and topsoil resources which took millenium to develop are now disappearing. Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is now used to raise animals for food.
The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970. In Canada also, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.
You want to save forests? Just stop eating meat! Each person who becomes a vegetarian saves one acre of trees per year. According to Vegetarian Times, half of the annual destruction of tropical rain forests is caused by clearing land for beef cattle ranches. Each pound of hamburger made from Central American or South American beef costs about 55 square feet of rain forest vegetation. Forests all over the world are being cut so that Americans, Europeans and Japanese can have their hamburgers. Its a criminal waste of precious resources.
In the United States, about 260 million acres of forest have been cleared for a meat-centered diet. About 40% of the land in the western United States is used for grazing beef cattle. This has had a detrimental effect on wildlife.
About a fifth of the world's land is used for grazing meat animals -twice the area used for growing crops. Because of the deforestation, soil erosion and desertification meat industry causes, it is fundamentally unsustainable and has an extremely negative impact on the environment. Thirty percent of the earth's land is now occupied by livestock, with another 33 percent devoted to GMO feed crops, and this number is expanding every year. Seventy percent of previously forested land in the Amazon has been converted into cropland and pastures, destroying biodiversity, introducing carcinogenic pesticides, and playing a primary role in pushing species toward extinction at a rate 500 times of that we ought to be experiencing according to models based on fossil records.
Inevitably, intensive animal agriculture depletes valuable natural resources. Instead of being eaten by people, the vast majority of grains harvested is fed to farm animals. For this wasteful and inefficient practice, agribusinesses exploit vast stretches of land. Forests, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems and wildlife habitats have been decimated. Scarce fossil fuels, groundwater, and topsoil resources which took millenium to develop are now disappearing. Of all agricultural land in the United States, 80-87% is now used to raise animals for food.
The space equivalent to seven football fields is being destroyed in rainforests every minute; 50 million acres of tropical forest in Latin America alone have been cut down for livestock production since 1970. In Canada also, local wilderness is being destroyed for more and more grazing land for livestock.
Soil Erosion and Desertification
Bad soil is bad for global health, and the evidence is mounting that the world' soil is in trouble. We're dead without good soil. Soil holds minerals and organic compounds critical to life. Without good soil we have got nothing.
All over the world, more than seven and a half million acres of soil has been degraded. That's larger than the U.S. and Canada combined. What remains is ailing as a result of compaction, erosion and salination making it near impossible to plant and adding to greenhouse gases and air pollution. Soil degradation is putting the future of the global population is at risk according to a National Geographic article by Charles Mann.
Civil unrest in Latin America, Asia and Africa have been attributed to a lack of food and affordable food as a result of poor soil. Currently, only 11-percent of the world's land feeds six billion people.
Experts estimate that by 2030 the Earth's population will reach 8.3 billion. Farmers will need to increase food production by 40-percent. But not much soil remains.
Scientists don't know much and don’t care either about this critical resource.
Overgrazing and the intensive production of feed grain for cattle and other meat animals results in high levels of soil erosion. According to Alan B. Durning of the Worldwatch Institute (1986), one pound of beef from cattle raised on feedlots represents the loss of 35 pounds of topsoil. Over the past few centuries, the United States has lost about two-thirds of its topsoil.
In other countries, such as Australia and the nations of Africa on the southern edge of the Sahara, cattle grazing and feed-crop production on marginal lands contribute substantially to desertification.
All over the world, more than seven and a half million acres of soil has been degraded. That's larger than the U.S. and Canada combined. What remains is ailing as a result of compaction, erosion and salination making it near impossible to plant and adding to greenhouse gases and air pollution. Soil degradation is putting the future of the global population is at risk according to a National Geographic article by Charles Mann.
Civil unrest in Latin America, Asia and Africa have been attributed to a lack of food and affordable food as a result of poor soil. Currently, only 11-percent of the world's land feeds six billion people.
Experts estimate that by 2030 the Earth's population will reach 8.3 billion. Farmers will need to increase food production by 40-percent. But not much soil remains.
Scientists don't know much and don’t care either about this critical resource.
Overgrazing and the intensive production of feed grain for cattle and other meat animals results in high levels of soil erosion. According to Alan B. Durning of the Worldwatch Institute (1986), one pound of beef from cattle raised on feedlots represents the loss of 35 pounds of topsoil. Over the past few centuries, the United States has lost about two-thirds of its topsoil.
In other countries, such as Australia and the nations of Africa on the southern edge of the Sahara, cattle grazing and feed-crop production on marginal lands contribute substantially to desertification.
Increasing Animal Killings - Decreasing Survival Possibilities
Despite these horrifying statistics, global production of meat is projected to double in the next 10 years.
Viewing animals as commodities has had a profoundly negative impact on understanding the world we live in. There is no more important task at hand than combating the false notion that the entire natural world is economically quantifiable or exists simply for our purposes alone.
An animal, an ocean, a forest, a species and humanity are not separate, but intimately connected in every way. The world consumes 240 billion kilos of meat each year. But more than 75 per cent of what is fed to an animal is lost through metabolism or inedible parts such as bones.
We have to make our choice now.... steak on our platter or our very survival.
Viewing animals as commodities has had a profoundly negative impact on understanding the world we live in. There is no more important task at hand than combating the false notion that the entire natural world is economically quantifiable or exists simply for our purposes alone.
An animal, an ocean, a forest, a species and humanity are not separate, but intimately connected in every way. The world consumes 240 billion kilos of meat each year. But more than 75 per cent of what is fed to an animal is lost through metabolism or inedible parts such as bones.
We have to make our choice now.... steak on our platter or our very survival.
As we watch the sun go down, evening after evening, through the smog across the poisoned waters of our native earth, we must ask ourselves seriously whether we really wish some future universal historian on another planet to say about us: “With all their genius and with all their skill, they ran out of foresight and air and food and water and ideas,” or, “They went on playing politics until their world collapsed around them.”
~ U Thant
