Fwd: Animal-based diets = madness and sheer insanity/How should we respond?

[Guest guest]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

<RSchw12345

Thu, May 21, 2009 at 11:45 PM

Animal-based diets = " madness and sheer insanity " /How should we

respond?

To:

 

 

Shalom everyone,

 

This is the first of several special JVNA messages which assess where we are

and how we are doing and considers how we can increase our effectiveness.

 

In spite of the fact that we have truth, morality and justice on our side,

that our case is rooted in basic Jewish teachings and that animal-based

diets and agriculture sharply violate at least six basic Jewish values, the

Jewish community continues to generally ignore the issues and refuses to

engage in dialogs and debates on “Should Jews Be Vegetarians?”

 

As is well known, it is unlawful to shout “FIRE” in a crowded theater.

EXCEPT if there really is a fire. And there is much evidence that the world

is burning today, It looks increasingly like the world is rapidly

approaching an unprecedented catastrophe from global warming and other

environmental problems, and that animal-based agriculture is contributing

substantially to these threats.

 

So, I think we should sharpen our arguments. For example, we should call

animal-based diets and agriculture what they are today: madness and sheer

insanity. Please consider:

 

* While the 2006 UN FAO report ”Livestock's Long Shadow” indicates that

'livestock' agriculture emits more greenhouse gases(in CO2 equivalents) than

all the cars, ships, planes and other means of transportation worldwide

combined (18% vs. 13.5%), and the indications of global warming impacts grow

almost daily, the rate of consumption of animal products is increasing and

projected by that same UN report to double in 50 years. Madness and sheer

insanity.

 

* While this has been called the century of drought and billions of people

live in areas chronically short of water and this is projected to increase

due to the melting of glaciers, reduced rainfall and other effects of global

warming, the average diet of a meat-eater requires 14 times as much water

than the diet of a vegan. Madness and sheer insanity.

 

* While an estimated 20 million of the world's people die of hunger and its

effects annually and nearly a billion people are chronically malnourished

due to a lack of food, 70 percent of the grain grown in the United States

and 40 percent of the grain produced worldwide are fed to animals destined

for slaughter. Madness and sheer insanity.

 

* While obtaining enough energy is a major issue today, animal-based

agriculture requires far more energy than plant-based agriculture. Madness

and sheer insanity.

 

* While there is currently an epidemic of heart diseases, various types of

cancer and other chronic, degenerative diseases, there is little effort to

inform people that well-balanced, nutritious vegan diets can prevent,

alleviate and sometimes reverse these diseases. Madness and sheer insanity.

 

Many more examples of “madnessa dn sheer insanity” can be given related to

such issues as the destruction of tropical rain forests, the rapid

extinction of species, soil erosion and depletion, animal wastes polluting

our waters and swine flu.

 

How best to respond to this madness and sheer insanity? In a talk in

December, 1978 at Riverside Church on “Theological Implications of the Arms

Race,” Reverend Robert McAfee Brown stated that the arms race was “madness

and sheer insanity” (I am borrowing the phrase from him), because the US and

then USSR could each wipe each other out with nuclear weapons many times

over, and yet both continued to build additional nuclear weapons. He stated

that, while one would think that one should apply sanity in response to the

madness, what was really needed was a different kind of madness, what Rabbi

Abraham Joshua Heshel called “moral madness,” the madness of the biblical

prophets, the type of madness that radically challenges the status quo, that

is ready to challenge the prevailing ways of thinking, that is not afraid to

take on the icons of society..

 

Hence, in view of the prevalent madness and sheer insanity, I think that we

should consider some radical approaches. For example:

 

I think we (along with other vegetarian-related groups) should respectfully

but forcefully challenge:

 

* the medical profession, arguing that medical practice today is

malpractice, unless doctors point out that many diseases can be prevented,

alleviated and sometimes reversed through well-chosen vegetarian and

preferably vegan diets. There is general agreement that the American medical

system is dysfunctional and is a major contributor to soaring deficits, but

almost all the attention is on how to best pay for the medical care, rather

than on how to keep people healthy.

 

* Jewish (and possibly other religious) establishments, since the production

and consumption of animal products arguably violate at least 6 basic Jewish

mandates. Efforts to engage rabbis in respectful dialogs on “Should Jews Be

Vegetarians?” have spanned many years. However, in spite of the fact that

most of my Jewish knowledge is self-learned and is far less than that of

rabbis, no one has been willing to have a dialog/debate with me. Ads in a

few Jewish weeklies could have a major impact which could spill over to

other religions and perhaps beyond just religious groups.

 

* the media for missing the most urgent story of today: how the world is

heading toward disaster and why a major societal shift to vegetarianism is

an essential part of the necessary responses.

 

* Environmentalists for not making vegetarianism a major part of their

agendas. As Howard Lyman has quipped, “An environmentalist who is not a

vegetarian is like a philanthropist who does not give money.” Similar

analyses can be made for people and groups concerned about hunger, energy,

resource usage and other issues.

 

I think we should also respectfully request that President Obama consider

shifting toward vegetarianism and also help increase awareness of the many

benefits of plant-based diets and the many negatives of animal-based diets.

A major letter-writing campaign got Michelle Obama to give a commencement

address at a California college. Perhaps a major letter-writing campaign

might also influence President Obama.

 

I think we should respectfully challenge vegetarians and animal rights

activists to put spreading the message re dietary connections to global

warming and other environmental threats at the top of their agendas, and

also seek their help on any of the above suggestions that we might adopt.

 

This is the first in a series of analyses and strategy considerations. The

next will consider thing that individuals can do to get vegetarianism onto

the Jewish and other agendas.

 

=========================

 

 

Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island

Author of " Judaism and Vegetarianism, " " Judaism and Global Survival, " and

" Mathematics and Global Survival, " and over 130 articles at

www.JewishVeg.com/schwartz

President of Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) www.JewishVeg.com

and Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians (SERV)

Associate Producer of A SACRED DUTY (asacredduty.com) of Veg Climate Alliance (www.vegclimatealliance.org)

president

 

 

 

**************

Huge savings on HDTVs from Dell.com! (

http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1221836042x1201399880/aol?redir=http:%2F\

%2Fad.doubleclick.net%2Fclk%3B215073686%3B37034322%3Bb)

 

 

 

 

--

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui