vegans are Green
Vegans are bright Green!
Mervyn Carter, January 2007
OK - so you've fitted your low-energy light bulbs and stopped running the tap while you're cleaning your teeth. What's next to save the planet?
Much of the political spin about environmentalism involves buying "greener" cars and air transport, usually not conflicting with corporate profits, often increasing tax revenue. But there is one vastly important issue where you have total control over your resource consumption, personal health benefits and massive environmental advantages - stop eating animal-based foods!
Let's look at some of the facts:
*World meat-production has quadrupled in the last 50 years, as developing countries have adopted a more wasteful rich-world lifestyle
*Livestock outnumber humans three to one
*840 million people in the world do not have enough food
*It takes five times as much land and water to feed a person with an animal-based diet, compared to a vegan diet. Livestock farming accounts for 30% of world land use
*Soil degradation and forest destruction are largely due to livestock farming
*Livestock feed crops for the rich world are often grown in poor countries
*Livestock farming produces 8 billion tonnes of waste per year
*At least a third of methane pollution (20 times more potent than CO2 for global warming) is created by livestock - this contributes more to climate chaos than does transport
*Pressure for land to graze animals is a major source of armed conflict
*Livestock comprise many important vectors for the transmission of diseases that can kill humans, including bird flu, BSE and e-coli
Around 20% of the poor world's human population suffers from chronic food shortages while the rich world wastes high-quality grain to feed livestock animals. The meat produced has only a small percentage of the value of the feed stock. The true price of meat is someone else's hunger. Raising livestock animals for food takes vast resources of land area, water and energy, causes pollution and produces greenhouse gases. As the human population grows and we lose more fertile land to climate change, we shall all be forced to abandon meat in our diets, or go hungry. We are also fishing the oceans so intensively that fish stocks are collapsing in many areas. Much of the fish caught is made into livestock animal feed.
What can we do?
*Join your local vegan campaign group
*Learn about vegan nutrition - it's easy to eat healthily without cruelty
*Start to eliminate animal cruelty from your life. Choose vegan products instead of the animal-based stuff which you used to buy
*Spread the word to your friends, family and activist colleagues
*Throw a vegan feast for a celebration party!
For more information:
the Vegan Society web-site
Vegan Society booklet 'Eating the earth?'
Mervyn Carter, January 2007
OK - so you've fitted your low-energy light bulbs and stopped running the tap while you're cleaning your teeth. What's next to save the planet?
Much of the political spin about environmentalism involves buying "greener" cars and air transport, usually not conflicting with corporate profits, often increasing tax revenue. But there is one vastly important issue where you have total control over your resource consumption, personal health benefits and massive environmental advantages - stop eating animal-based foods!
Let's look at some of the facts:
*World meat-production has quadrupled in the last 50 years, as developing countries have adopted a more wasteful rich-world lifestyle
*Livestock outnumber humans three to one
*840 million people in the world do not have enough food
*It takes five times as much land and water to feed a person with an animal-based diet, compared to a vegan diet. Livestock farming accounts for 30% of world land use
*Soil degradation and forest destruction are largely due to livestock farming
*Livestock feed crops for the rich world are often grown in poor countries
*Livestock farming produces 8 billion tonnes of waste per year
*At least a third of methane pollution (20 times more potent than CO2 for global warming) is created by livestock - this contributes more to climate chaos than does transport
*Pressure for land to graze animals is a major source of armed conflict
*Livestock comprise many important vectors for the transmission of diseases that can kill humans, including bird flu, BSE and e-coli
Around 20% of the poor world's human population suffers from chronic food shortages while the rich world wastes high-quality grain to feed livestock animals. The meat produced has only a small percentage of the value of the feed stock. The true price of meat is someone else's hunger. Raising livestock animals for food takes vast resources of land area, water and energy, causes pollution and produces greenhouse gases. As the human population grows and we lose more fertile land to climate change, we shall all be forced to abandon meat in our diets, or go hungry. We are also fishing the oceans so intensively that fish stocks are collapsing in many areas. Much of the fish caught is made into livestock animal feed.
What can we do?
*Join your local vegan campaign group
*Learn about vegan nutrition - it's easy to eat healthily without cruelty
*Start to eliminate animal cruelty from your life. Choose vegan products instead of the animal-based stuff which you used to buy
*Spread the word to your friends, family and activist colleagues
*Throw a vegan feast for a celebration party!
For more information:
the Vegan Society web-site
Vegan Society booklet 'Eating the earth?'