Care about the environment? Eat less meat

[Guest guest]

Care about the environment? Eat less meat

PETER FRICKER

Special to Globe and Mail Update

January 23, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

 

Last week, Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the United Nation's Nobel

Prize-winning scientific panel on climate change, asked the world

to " please eat less meat. " Speaking at a press conference in Paris,

he said meat was a very carbon-intensive commodity, a fact

established by UN research showing that livestock production creates

more greenhouse gases than all forms of transport combined.

 

So the top man at the world's most important agency dealing with

climate change (the planet's biggest problem) is urging us all to cut

meat consumption to address the issue. Is the Prime Minister ordering

Environment Canada to draft guidelines for Canadian consumers? Is

Parliament debating the matter? Are environmental groups demanding

immediate action?

 

Unfortunately, Mr. Pachauri's plea will cause barely a ripple in

political, media or environmental circles. Even being chair of the

International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) doesn't guarantee many

people will want to hear this particular inconvenient truth. It's

interesting to note that he followed his statement by saying: " This

is something that the IPCC was afraid to say earlier, but now we have

said it. "

 

What was the IPCC afraid of? This hasn't been reported, but one could

speculate that the global livestock industry and others with a vested

interest in meat production will not take kindly to Mr. Pachauri's

remarks. Neither will the politicians they lobby, who also hate

having to tell citizens they need to make lifestyle changes to save

the planet.

 

Even environmental groups are shy about touching this one. Some don't

even mention limiting meat consumption as a means of combatting

global warming. Others relegate it to a list of minor energy-saving

actions consumers can take, just below keeping your car's tires

properly inflated. The suspicion (especially among animal-welfare

groups) is that environmentalists are afraid they'll be open to

charges of hypocrisy if they raise the meat issue and get caught

wolfing down a Wendy's burger after the press conference.

 

Then there are the dreaded V-words: vegetarian and vegan. Few

politicians or environmentalists want to face the jokes, media

backlash and libertarian " consumer freedom " zealots who will accuse

them of forcing Canadians to eat only salad and lentils. The same

sort of people who fought against mandatory seatbelts and

restrictions on tobacco would shift their public relations and spin

machines into high gear.

 

Yet all the IPCC is asking for is a reduction in meat consumption. A

recent study in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet called for

a 10-per-cent cut in meat consumption, which it said would slow

global warming considerably. It would also slow the growth of factory

farming, which is alarming animal welfarists around the world. Global

demand for meat is projected to double between 2001 and 2050, meaning

billions more animals will be raised in intensive, inhumane

conditions. While many animal activists are " abolitionists " and want

a meat-free world, others would welcome anything that would put the

brakes on a trend that is resulting in animal suffering on a mind-

boggling scale. For example, the international farm-animal welfare

organization Compassion in World Farming is calling for meat

consumption and production in developed countries to be cut by a

third by 2020. This would mean someone who eats meat every day would

cut back to eating meat five days a week — not exactly a hardship.

 

Encouraging the public to cut back on meat would also have major

health benefits. The World Cancer Research Fund recently urged

consumers to limit consumption of red meat to 500 grams per week and

to avoid processed meats completely. (Vegetarians and vegans figured

out the health advantages of a meatless diet long ago. That's why

they have lower rates of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, colon

cancer, hypertension and other diseases.)

 

Cutting down or cutting out meat is a win-win-win policy. Not only

does it help the fight against global warming, but it saves countless

animals from factory-farm suffering and it's good for you.

 

It's just too bad so many people are afraid to talk about it.

 

Peter Fricker is the projects and communications director of the

Vancouver Humane Society.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080122.wcomment01

23/BNStory/International/home