Veganist_ Lose Weight, Get Healthy, Change the World - Kathy Freston [58]
The solution? In a twist worthy of George Orwell, the wild-caught fish are fed to the farmed fish, so that, voilà: farmed fish actually cause more deep-sea trawling than, even, the market for wild-caught fish. Are you confused yet? Read it again: It will never make sense, but after a few reads, you’ll likely see that anyone concerned about the environment might consider leaving fish off their diet.
I’m sure everything I’ve just recounted sounds like cause for despair, but in fact, there’s another way of looking at it. Remember Paul Hawken’s challenge at the University of Portland? He continued with words that are deeply relevant to our discussion. He challenged his listeners, “Forget that this task of planet-saving is not possible in the time required. Don’t be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.” Sure, things are bad. But we have the power to change it all. We have a powerful new weapon to use against the most serious environmental crisis ever to face humanity. Now that we know a greener diet is even more effective than a greener car (vegan is the new Prius!), we can make a difference at every single meal, simply by leaving the animals off of our plates. We can fix so much of this mess with surprising ease, just by putting down our chicken wings and reaching for a veggie burger instead.
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CHEW ON THIS!
Excrement produced by livestock: 14 billion tons per year, more than a million pounds per second—that’s sixty times as much as produced by the world’s human population—more in one day than the U.S. human population produces in three and a half years.
Water used for livestock and irrigating feed crops: 240 trillion gallons per day—7.5 million gallons per second—that’s enough for every human to take eight showers a day, or as much as used each day by Europe, Africa, and South America combined.
Soil erosion due to growing livestock feed: 40 billion tons per year
Land used to raise animals for food: 10 billion acres If every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off U.S. roads.
“About 20 percent of the world’s pastures and rangelands, with 73 percent of rangelands in dry areas, have been degraded to some extent, mostly through overgrazing, compaction and erosion created by livestock action.” (UN)
Crops raised for livestock feed that could otherwise feed people: 1 billion tons per year—63,000 pounds per second
Emissions of greenhouse gases from raising animals for food: The equivalent of 7.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide per year
“The livestock sector is… responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.” (UN)
It takes more than ten times as much fossil fuel to make one calorie of animal protein as it does to make one calorie of plant protein.
An American saves more global warming pollution by going vegetarian than by switching their car to a hybrid Prius.
Former Amazon rainforest converted to raising animals for food since 1970 amounts to more than 90 percent of all Amazon deforestation since 1970.
“Livestock now account for about 20 percent of the total terrestrial animal biomass, and the 30 percent of the earth’s land surface that they now pre-empt was once habitat for wildlife.” (UN)
If everyone went vegetarian for just one day, the U.S. would save:
100 billion gallons of water, enough to supply all the homes in New England for almost 4 months;
1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock, enough to feed the state of New Mexico for more than a year;
70 million gallons of gas—enough to fuel all the cars of Canada and Mexico combined with plenty to spare;
3 million acres of land, an area more than twice the size of Delaware;
33 tons of antibiotics.
If everyone went vegetarian for just one day, the U.S. would prevent:
Greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 1.2 million tons of CO2, as much as is produced by all of