|
ENVIRONMENT/PLANET
|
"What's healthiest for each of us personally is also healthiest
for the life support system of our precious, but wounded
planet."
John
Robbins
"The real cure for our environmental problems is to understand
that our job is to salvage Mother Nature...We are facing a
formidable enemy in this field. It is the hunters...and to
convince them to leave their guns on the wall is going to be
very difficult."
Jacques Cousteau
"I look forward to an America which will not be afraid of grace
and beauty, which will protect the beauty of our natural
environment..."
John
F. Kennedy
What
You Can Do
Go vegan!
Purchase organic foods and products.
Recycle and use recycled products.
Join and support environmental groups; sign petitions and write
to legislators.
Other Useful Resources
Environmental Defense
Natural Resources Defense Council
Greenpeace
Save Our Environment
Union of Concerned Scientists |
Traditional farming practices have increasingly given way to factory
farms which are taking a tremendous toll on the environment. There
are now 20 billion livestock on earth, more than triple the number
of human beings.
Misuse of Land
85%
of all U.S. agricultural land is used in the production of animal
food, which in turn is linked with deforestation, destruction of
wildlife species, loss of soil productivity through mineral
depletion and erosion, water pollution and depletion, overgrazing
and desertification.
Hunger
It
takes roughly 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. 80% of
U.S. grain and over 70% of soy is fed to livestock. If people
switched to a plant-based or vegetarian/vegan diet, enough land
would be freed up to feed 1,400,000,000 of the world’s hungry
people.
Vanishing Rainforests
Loss
of rainforests in Southern Mexico and Central America have been
caused chiefly by the importation of rainforest beef into the United
States. Members of 20 to 30 different plant species, 100 different
plant species, 100 different insect species, and dozens of bird,
mammal, and reptile species have been destroyed in the production of
each fast food hamburger made from rainforest beef.
Topsoil Erosion
More
than half of the topsoil in the Western United States has been lost
since cattle began overtaking the Western plains 140 years ago.
Topsoil is the most precious commodity a farmer has. It takes nature
anywhere between one hundred and eight hundred years to produce an
inch of topsoil.
Water Depletion
2,500
gallons of water are required to produce 1 pound of beef. 5,214
gallons are required to produce a pound of beef in California. This
is because of the huge amounts of grains grown to feed cattle and
the water used to grow those grains. The Ogallala aquifer is the
largest body of fresh water on earth and it is being depleted by
farmers at an alarming rate. More water is withdrawn from the
Ogallala aquifer every year for beef production than is used to grow
all the fruits and vegetables in the entire country. Wells
throughout the nation are drying up. The same pattern is happening
all over the world.
Water and Air Pollution
The
waste from today’s feedlot operations are not being returned to the
soil for rebuilding topsoil, but end up in our groundwater, rivers,
streams, and oceans. Pfiesteria is just one of the illnesses caused
by animal waste in our waterway. Massive amounts of chemical
fertilizers and pesticides are used causing water and air pollution.
Global Warming
The
planet is experiencing global warming due to “greenhouse gases”
caused largely by animal agriculture. Meat production causes an
increase in carbon dioxide and methane gas which is released into
the atmosphere.
Desertification
Livestock grazing has turned 1/3 of the earth’s land to desert. As a
result, floods are becoming a more common occurrence throughout the
world.
|
