ideas for letter-writing

[Guest guest]

Hi again,

 

As I wrote before, I think it's a good time to try to steer change towards

veganism. Herein, I'm sharing a rejected OpEd I submitted to the SF Chronicle,

in case my ideas help stir others' creativity. The more editors & legislators

hear these ideas, the likelier they are to act on them and let them influence

others. BTW: My essay references a PCRM article from 15 years ago.

 

Mitch

 

 

[submitted to SF Chronicle, 2/3/09] For Open Forum: Drought Measure: Early

Retirement Package for Cholesterol Farmers = A Health Stimulus

 

 

California

faces severe drought, water-rationing, depleted fish populations and

overly-thirsty wildfires. Dairy farmers

struggle to stay afloat (SF Chronicle, 1/11/09).

California’s and Congress’s

Agriculture Committees promise bold ideas and action. President Obama promises

change, boldness,

new ideas, heeding science, alleviating foreign energy dependence and better

healthcare. Let’s generously offer to

buy back water allocations from the most resource-inefficient &

government-subsidized cholesterol farmers in exchange for them & their herds

permanently retiring from the cholesterol business. This yields significant

benefits, both

immediate and long-term, which are sound from fiscal, health and environmental

perspectives.

 

Cattle-raising unsustainably wastes our limited water, grain, energy and

topsoil. Over 12 pounds of plant-protein

yield 1 pound of edible beef protein.

Add biofuel demand, and scarcity leads to worldwide food riots. Different

sources claim each pound of beef

requires hundreds, if not thousands, of gallons to produce. Driving a SUV 30

miles to eat soy burgers

uses less energy than eating beef at home.

Cattle aren’t the only culprits: large confined poultry farm runoff

pollutes the Chesapeake Bay so much that fish populations

are severely threatened.

 

Researchers on agribusiness & pharmaceutical grants may deny

consuming animal protein “causes” disease, but the undeniable truth is that in

nations and villages where meat and dairy consumption is minimal, diseases

common to Americans are also minimal; and vice versa. These include expensively

treated &

medicated diseases such as obesity, osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease,

strokes, diabetes, high blood pressure and erectile dysfunction. In 1994, the

Physicians Committee for

Responsible Medicine showed up to $60 Billion could be saved from the annual

US health budget

via surgically reducing excessive animal protein from Americans’ diet.

Profit-maximizing lobbyists inflate unhealthy RDAs.

America’s

individual and fiscal health is now worse, and potential annual savings are

higher.

 

Barring food allergies, healthy human bodies make sufficient cholesterol

from eating a variety of fruits, nuts, grains and vegetables. Only animals

produce cholesterol, and eating & drinking excess animal protein is a

destructive, artery-clogging “luxury”.

Much invasive and expensive chemotherapy & surgical procedures can be

prevented by surgically reducing animal-based entrées into tasty condiments to

plant-based entrées. Dr John McDougall’s

medically-supervised nutrition program reports great success reversing disease

until expensive medicines are cut from patients’ lives and budgets.

 

With a simple nutrition education campaign, Americans can

“have it all” by reducing excessive animal protein. Government won’t completely

purge animal

products & flavor from

America’s diet,

but government can remove cholesterol from our clogged deficits. Without

deficit-subsidized water allocations

and grain for cholesterol farmers, market forces would reduce animal-protein

portions, making people & our planet healthier. Give today’s budgets the Net

Present Value of

tomorrow’s health. Cut supply to boost price, rather than spreading deficits

& waistlines via school lunches. The vast majority of

California’s unsustainable animal

“crop” is sold to people in other nations and states, at a huge cost to &

sacrifice by Californians.

 

 

Encourage cholesterol farmers to cultivate sustainable cholesterol-free

plant-based crops: protein-rich grains, calcium-rich vegetables (e.g. collards,

bok choy, kale, broccoli) or biofuels.

Nationally, encourage cholesterol farmers to harvest wind-turbines or

solar-arrays. Encourage large scale,

intensive-confinement, grain-fed operators into grass-fed operations.

 

Provide all-expense-paid nutrition-education retreats (such as those by

Dr McDougall) and on-going healthcare to ex-cholesterol-farmers who agree to

highly-publicized example-setting, paradigm-shifting follow-up monitoring for

confidential research studies by the NIH, Kaiser Foundation, Cleveland Clinic,

etc. Unlike studies sponsored by

pharmaceutical companies, results that seem “unprofitable” to cholesterol- &

E.D.-pill sellers will not be suppressed.

Invite PBS & other networks.

 

A desperate water situation may be the catalyst to open discussions for

government action on diverse, intertwined social issues. There are many

excellent doctors, scientists

and experts who would gladly participate in this discussion. Let’s advance into

a sustainable

21st century. Envision

worldwide food & energy abundance.

Let peace & health flow as a mighty river.

 

_______________

Windows Live™: Keep your life in sync.

http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t1_allup_explore_022009