VEGETARIAN IS THE NEW PRIUS

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VEGETARIAN IS THE NEW PRIUSBy Kathy FrestonThe Huffington PostJanuary 18, 2007http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegetarian-is-the-new-pri_b_39014.htmlPresident Herbert Hoover promised "a chicken in every pot and a car in everygarage." With warnings about global warming reaching feverish levels, manyare having second thoughts about all those cars. It seems they shouldinstead be worrying about the chickens.Last month, the United Nations published a report on livestock and theenvironment with a stunning conclusion: "The livestock sector emerges as oneof the top two or three most significant contributors to the most seriousenvironmental problems, at every scale from local to global." It turns outthat raising animals for food is a primary cause of land degradation, airpollution, water shortage, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, and notleast of all, global warming.That's right, global warming. You've probably heard the story: emissions ofgreenhouse gases like carbon dioxide are changing our climate, andscientists warn of more extreme weather, coastal flooding, spreadingdisease, and mass extinctions. It seems that when you step outside andwonder what happened to winter, you might want to think about what you hadfor dinner last night. The U.N. report says almost a fifth of global warmingemissions come from livestock (i.e., those chickens Hoover was talkingabout, plus pigs, cattle, and others) -- that's more emissions than from allof the world's transportation combined.For a decade now, the image of Leonardo DiCaprio cruising in his hybridToyota Prius has defined the gold standard for environmentalism. Thesegas-sipping vehicles became a veritable symbol of the consumers' power tostrike a blow against global warming. Just think: a car that could cut yourvehicle emissions in half -- in a country responsible for 25% of the world'stotal greenhouse gas emissions. Federal fuel economy standards languished inCongress, and average vehicle mileage dropped to its lowest level indecades, but the Prius showed people that another way is possible. Toyotacould not import the cars fast enough to meet demand.Last year researchers at the University of Chicago took the Prius down a pegwhen they turned their attention to another gas guzzling consumer purchase.They noted that feeding animals for meat, dairy, and egg production requiresgrowing some ten times as much crops as we'd need if we just ate pastaprimavera, faux chicken nuggets, and other plant foods. On top of that, wehave to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them,refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across thecountry. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than tentimes as much fossil fuels -- and spewing more than ten times as muchheat-trapping carbon dioxide -- as does a calorie of plant protein. Theresearchers found that, when it's all added up, the average American doesmore to reduce global warming emissions by going vegetarian than byswitching to a Prius.According to the UN report, it gets even worse when we include the vastquantities of land needed to give us our steak and pork chops. Animalagriculture takes up an incredible 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% ofthe total land surface of the planet. As a result, farmed animals areprobably the biggest cause of slashing and burning the world's forests.Today, 70% of former Amazon rainforest is used for pastureland, and feedcrops cover much of the remainder. These forests serve as "sinks," absorbingcarbon dioxide from the air, and burning these forests releases all thestored carbon dioxide, quantities that exceed by far the fossil fuelemission of animal agriculture.As if that wasn't bad enough, the real kicker comes when looking at gasesbesides carbon dioxide -- gases like methane and nitrous oxide, enormouslyeffective greenhouse gases with 23 and 296 times the warming power of carbondioxide, respectively. If carbon dioxide is responsible for about one-halfof human-related greenhouse gas warming since the industrial revolution,methane and nitrous oxide are responsible for another one-third. Thesesuper-strong gases come primarily from farmed animals' digestive processes,and from their manure. In fact, while animal agriculture accounts for 9% ofour carbon dioxide emissions, it emits 37% of our methane, and a whopping65% of our nitrous oxide.It's a little hard to take in when thinking of a small chick hatching fromher fragile egg. How can an animal, so seemingly insignificant against thevastness of the earth, give off so much greenhouse gas as to change theglobal climate? The answer is in their sheer numbers. The United Statesalone slaughters more than 10 billion land animals every year<http://www.meat.org/>, all to sustain a meat-ravenous culture that canbarely conceive of a time not long ago when "a chicken in every pot" wasconsidered a luxury. Land animals raised for food make up a staggering 20%of the entire land animal biomass of the earth. We are eating our planet todeath.What we're seeing is just the beginning, too. Meat consumption has increasedfive-fold in the past fifty years, and is expected to double again in thenext fifty.It sounds like a lot of bad news, but in fact it's quite the opposite. Itmeans we have a powerful new weapon to use in addressing the most seriousenvironmental crisis ever to face humanity. The Prius was an important stepforward, but how often are people in the market for a new car? Now that weknow a greener diet is even more effective than a greener car, we can make adifference at every single meal, simply by leaving the animals off of ourplates. Who would have thought: what's good for our health is also good forthe health of the planet!Going veg provides more bang for your buck than driving a Prius. Plus, thatbang comes a lot faster. The Prius cuts emissions of carbon dioxide, whichspreads its warming effect slowly over a century. A big chunk of the problemwith farmed animals, on the other hand, is methane, a gas which cycles outof the atmosphere in just a decade. That means less meat consumption quicklytranslates into a cooler planet.Not just a cooler planet, also a cleaner one. Animal agriculture accountsfor most of the water consumed in this country, emits two-thirds of theworld's acid-rain-causing ammonia, and it the world's largest source ofwater pollution -- killing entire river and marine ecosystems, destroyingcoral reefs, and of course, making people sick. Try to imagine theprodigious volumes of manure churned out by modern American farms: 5 milliontons a day, more than a hundred times that of the human population, and farmore than our land can possibly absorb. The acres and acres of cesspoolsstretching over much of our countryside, polluting the air and contaminatingour water, make the Exxon Valdez oil spill look minor in comparison. All ofwhich we can fix surprisingly easily, just by putting down our chicken wingsand reaching for a veggie burger.Doing so has never been easier. Recent years have seen an explosion ofenvironmentally-friendly vegetarian foods. Even chains like Ruby Tuesday,Johnny Rockets, and Burger King offer delicious veggie burgers andsupermarket refrigerators are lined with heart-healthy creamy soymilk andtasty veggie deli slices. Vegetarian foods have become staples atenvironmental gatherings, and garnered celebrity advocates like Bill Maher,Alec Baldwin, Paul McCartney, and of course Leonardo DiCaprio. Just as thePrius showed us that we each have in our hands the power to make adifference against a problem that endangers the future of humanity, goingvegetarian gives us a new way to dramatically reduce our dangerous emissionsthat is even more effective, easier to do, more accessible to everyone andcertainly goes better with french fries.Ever-rising temperatures, melting ice caps, spreading tropical diseases,stronger hurricanes... So, what are you do doing for dinner tonight? Checkout <http://www.VegCooking.com> for great ideas, free recipes, meal plans,and more! Check out the environmental section of <http://www.GoVeg.com> fora lot more information about the harmful effect of meat-eating on theenvironment.