Dr. Jai Maharaj posted:
>
>>> Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on
>>> Earth
>>>
>>> Biggest analysis to date reveals huge footprint of livestock -- it provides
>>> just 18% of calories but takes up 83% of farmland
>>>
>>> By Damian Carrington, Environment editor @dpcarrington
>>> The Guardian, theguardian.com
>>> Thursday, May 31, 2018
>>>
>>> [Caption] Cattle at an illegal settlement in the Jamanxim National Forest,
>>> state of Para, northern Brazil, November 29, 2009. With 1,3 million hectares,
>>> the Jamanxim National Forest is today a microsm that replicates what happens
>>> in the Amazon, where thousands of hectares of land are prey of illegal
>>> woodcutters, stock breeders and gold miners. Photograph: Antonio
>>> Scorza/AFP/Getty Images
>>>
>>> Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your
>>> environmental impact on the planet, according to the scientists behind the
>>> most comprehensive analysis to date of the damage farming does to the planet.
>>>
>>> The new research shows that without meat and dairy consumption, global
>>> farmland use could be reduced by more than 75% -- an area equivalent to the
>>> US, China, European Union and Australia combined -- and still feed the world.
>>> Loss of wild areas to agriculture is the leading cause of the current mass
>>> extinction of wildlife.
>>>
>>> The new analysis shows that while meat and dairy provide just 18% of calories
>>> and 37% of protein, it uses the vast majority -- 83% -- of farmland and
>>> produces 60% of agriculture's greenhouse gas emissions. Other recent research
>>> shows 86% of all land mammals are now livestock or humans. The scientists
>>> also found that even the very lowest impact meat and dairy products still
>>> cause much more environmental harm than the least sustainable vegetable and
>>> cereal growing.
>>>
>>> More than 80% of farmland is used for livestock but it produces just 18% of
>>> food calories and 35% of protein [Chart]
>>>
>>> The study, published in the journal Science, created a huge dataset based on
>>> almost 40,000 farms in 119 countries and covering 40 food products that
>>> represent 90% of all that is eaten. It assessed the full impact of these
>>> foods, from farm to fork, on land use, climate change emissions, freshwater
>>> use and water pollution (eutrophication) and air pollution (acidification).
>>>
>>> "A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on
>>> planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification,
>>> eutrophication, land use and water use," said Joseph Poore, at the University
>>> of Oxford, UK, who led the research. "It is far bigger than cutting down on
>>> your flights or buying an electric car," he said, as these only cut
>>> greenhouse gas emissions.
>>>
>>> Humans just 0.01% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals -- study
>>> Read more
>>> https://www.theguardian.com/environm...-mammals-study
>>>
>>> "Agriculture is a sector that spans all the multitude of environmental
>>> problems," he said. "Really it is animal products that are responsible for so
>>> much of this. Avoiding consumption of animal products delivers far better
>>> environmental benefits than trying to purchase sustainable meat and dairy."
>>>
>>> Continues at:
>>>
>>> https://www.theguardian.com/environm...mpact-on-earth
>>
>> Say "No!" to meat and chicken!
>>
>> Congress wanted to know just how commonly meat in the United States today is
>> infected with salmonellosis. They summoned Dr. Richard Novick, of the Public
>> Health Research Institute, and asked for his expert testimony. The authority
>> didn't mince his words:
>>
>> "The meat we buy is grossly contaminated with both coliform bacteria and
>> salmonella."
>>
>> One of the reasons our meat supply is so heavily contaminated with these
>> disease agents is the way the animals are handled today. To begin with, they
>> are sick creatures, due to how they are kept, and thus susceptible to just
>> about any disease that comes down the pike.
>>
>> Then they are fed contaminated byproducts from the slaughterhouse, and
>> crowded into cages, feedlots, trucks and holding pens which are perfect
>> environments for disease to spread. And as if that weren't enough, the
>> slaughterhouses themselves could hardly be better designed for the spread of
>> disease.
>>
>> It is not just food reformers and vegetarians who are concerned. The Journal
>> of the American Veterinary Association surveyed a cattle slaughterhouse and
>> found a very high percentage of the carcasses were contaminated with
>> salmonellosis.
>>
>> When 60 MINUTES asked the head of the USDA Inspection Service, he answered
>> (in March, 1987) that if you go into a supermarket anywhere in the United
>> States and buy a chicken, the odds are better than one in three it will be
>> contaminated.
>>
>> Alarmed, 60 MINUTES conducted its own test, and the results brought no peace
>> of mind. Over half the birds they purchased were found to be contaminated
>> with salmonellosis. Amazed, they interviewed a number of meat inspectors, who
>> publicly acknowledged on national television that the inspection system
>> provides no protection to the consumer.
>>
>> Even the industry acknowledges this is the case. Poultry Science, a journal
>> of the poultry trade, reported that 90% of the dressed product from a poultry
>> processing plant was contaminated with salmonellosis. The National Research
>> Council, evidently not believing things could be this bad, conducted its own
>> survey, and found out things were worse. No less than 90% of the poultry from
>> a federally-inspected plant they examined were contaminated with
>> salmonellosis.
>>
>> o Statement by Richard Novick, Hearings before the Subcommittee on
>> Agricultural Research and General Legislation of the Committee on
>> Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; September 21, 1977
>>
>> o "Salmonellae in Slaughter Cattle"
>> Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 160(6):884, 1972
>>
>> o "Salmonella Contamination in a Commercial Poultry Processing Operation,"
>> Poultry Science, 53:814-21, 1974
>>
>> o Robbins, John, "Diet For A New America"
>> Stillpoint Publishing, Walpole, N.H., 1987, pgs. 302-303
>>
>> o Wellford, H., "Sowing the Wind"
>> Bantam Books, 1973, pgs. 133-134
>> "Twelve years after the chemical was banned in the United States, researchers
>> checked 27 bottle-nosed dolphins found dead off the coast of California. They
>> found `extremely high' concntrations of DDT in every one."
>> - "DDT and the Dolphin," ANIMALS' AGENDA, 1985.
>> Quoted in DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA by John Robbins, 1987.
>>
>> o "On June 26, 1980, the U.S.D.A. revealed that turkey products from Banquet
>> Foods Corporation contained intolerable levels of dieldrin. Eventually two
>> million packages of frozen turkey dinners, turkey pies, and other turkey
>> products were recalled."
>> - Associated Press, "Banquet Foods Recall Turkey,"
>> WASHINGTON POST, June 27, 1980.
>> Quoted in DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA by John Robbins, 1987.
>>
>> o "Even in the few cases where the use of a pesticide has been restricted,
>> the poison simply does not disappear from the environment. Quite the
>> contrary, toxic chemicals like DDT take decades or even centuries to degrade.
>> Even if by some miracle we stopped all pesticide use today, these chemicals
>> would remain with us, contaminating our environment and our food chains for
>> the foreseeable future."
>> John Robbins in his book DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA, 1987.
>>
>> o "DDT, one of the earliest pesticides, is one of a mere handful of these
>> poisons that has actually been banned [in the USA.] Yet four years after the
>> moratorium on DDT had been declared, the government tested soils in Arizona
>> that had once been treated with DDT and found no measurable decrease in the
>> amount in the soil."
>> - THE 6TH ANNUAL REPORT, COUNCIL ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY, 1975.
>> Quoted in DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA by John Robbins, 1987.
>>
>> o "Researchers from the National Cancer Institute [USA] assured Congressmen
>> that it might be possible for only one molecule of DES in the
>> 340,000,000,000,000 present in a quarter pound of beef liver to trigger human
>> cancer." - Food and Drug Administration biochemist Jacqueline
>> Verret, 1974.
>> Quoted in DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA by John Robbins, 1987.
>>
>> o "In the 1970's, mounting public concern [in the USA] overrode pressures
>> from the chemical companies, and forced the passage of the Toxic Substances
>> Control Act. But this Act has not in practice turned out to be the boon to
>> environmental health it was intended to be. More than three years after the
>> Act became law, the agency responsible for its administration had not yet
>> ordered testing for a single one of more than 50,000 toxic chemicals on the
>> market."
>> - Severo, R., NEW YORK TIMES, May 6, 1980.
>> Quoted in DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA by John Robbins, 1987.
>
> The environmental benefits of vegetarianism
>
> By Gabe Bronk and Arthur Su
> Special To The Tab
> Wednesday, July 5, 2006
>
> Vegetarianism is not only a response to the inhumane practices of factory
> farms; it is also a way to conserve natural resources, improve the
> environment and benefit human health.
>
> The meat industry is very wasteful of natural resources. An inherent problem
> with eating meat is that an animal must be fed roughly ten pounds of plants
> to produce one pound of meat. Therefore, much more food is consumed to
> support the animals than would be needed if more people were vegetarians.
> Seventy percent of the grain grown in the US is used to feed livestock.
> Because of the growth of so much animal feed, half the water consumed in the
> U.S. is used by the meat industry, and our groundwater is being withdrawn 25%
> faster than it is being replenished. In the High Plains states from South
> Dakota to New Mexico, it is projected that the aquifer will be depleted in 60
> years. Erosion and nutrient depletion caused by animal feed production and
> overgrazing by livestock are destroying vast areas of arable land.
>
> We are currently in an oil crisis, and the meat industry is exacerbating it.
> Eight times as much fossil fuel energy is used in the production of animal
> protein as is used in plant protein production due to the fuel required to
> manufacture fertilizers and pesticides for animal feed, to operate farming
> machinery, for transportation and for irrigation. Four hundred gallons of
> fossil fuels are used to produce food for the average meat-eating American
> each year.
>
> A meat eater requires two to four times more farmland than a vegetarian. To
> make room for enough farmland, the meat industry constantly destroys vital
> ecosystems, thus taking away the habitats of myriad species and reducing
> biodiversity. The vast Amazon rainforest is rapidly being destroyed to make
> way for ranching and growing animal feed and will be gone by the end of this
> century if the current rate of destruction continues. Do you want to let this
> happen?
>
> The damage to the environment does not stop at animal feed production. The
> plants are fed to the livestock, which, after digesting the food, produce
> 1.37 billion tons of manure in the U.S. annually. The manure often spills out
> of open-air storage pits and into waterways, accelerating the growth of
> algae. When the algae die, their decomposition depletes the water of oxygen.
> This causes the deaths of millions of fish. Manure also releases ammonia into
> the air, which can contaminate rain, killing forests. Fumes from factory
> farms cause people in the area to experience respiratory problems and other
> ailments. Nitrates leak from manure into community drinking water, causing
> serious human health problems.
>
> The meat industry contributes significantly to global warming. Methane, a
> greenhouse gas, is released by bacteria in the rumens of cattle and in the
> manure of many farm animals. Furthermore, forests and grasslands that would
> absorb high amounts of carbon dioxide are cleared to make way for farmland.
> To make matters worse, the enormous fires used to burn down these forests
> release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
>
> The fishing industry also contributes to environmental degradation. Many
> species are being fished faster than they can reproduce. 15 of the 17 major
> ocean fisheries are exhausted or overexploited, so many marine food webs are
> depleted, and ocean ecosystems are seriously damaged. Myriads of other
> animals are accidentally caught and killed in the nets, such as nearly
> 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises killed each year. Pulling bottom
> trawls across the seafloor devastates habitats including coral reefs.
>
> You can help save the environment and keep yourself healthy at the same time;
> according to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada,
> vegan and vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of life as long as
> the vegetarian gets all necessary nutrition, which is easy to do. Visit
> www.veganhealth.org for nutrition information.
>
> A well-planned vegetarian or vegan diet offers many health benefits.
> Vegetarians have lower blood cholesterol levels, lower rates hypertension and
> lower rates of death from ischemic heart disease due to the lower levels of
> saturated fat found in animal products and the higher levels of antioxidants
> found in fruits and vegetables. Fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and whole
> grains, all staples of a vegetarian diet, provide better nutrition and help
> prevent many diseases.
>
> Spurred by this knowledge as well as by the meat industry's brutality towards
> animals, we became vegetarian/vegan and have examined and promoted
> vegetarianism as a project for our biology class at Newton North High School.
>
> Consider the possibilities. There are many delicious and varied foods that do
> not contain animal products. We're not just talking lettuce and bananas;
> think grilled veggie burger or bean burrito. If becoming vegetarian seems
> like a difficult task, try reducing your consumption of meat gradually; cut
> out meat one day a week at first. Soon you will have a healthier diet and be
> saving natural resources and the environment. If you do become vegetarian,
> email us at to let us know that this article had the
> desired effect.
>
> http://www2.townonline.com/newton/ar...ticleid=529805
>
> "Our ideal is not the spirituality that withdraws from life but the conquest
> of life by the power of the spirit." - Aurobindo.

Environment

Assessing the Meat Industry's Impact on Earth's Climate

Aside from the deplorable treatment of farm animals, consider for a moment
that giving up beef alone can have more environmental benefit than giving up
your car

By Mat McDermott
Hinduism Today Magazine
January-February-March 2017

THE MEAT INDUSTRY HAS CAREFULLY cultivated a benevolent image of itself and
worked hard to instill that image in our minds. We look out over the
quintessential American family farm. A dog sleeps on the large, hospitable
front porch of an old white two-story house. The warm orange first light of
day rises beyond a distant treeline over a lush green landscape. Fog rises
from a small pond. Facing us is a red barn with open front doors. Just
visible are rows of cows, eagerly awaiting their keeper's attention. The
farmer, dressed in denim overalls, white t-shirt and rubber boots, carries a
wooden stool and a milk bucket into a clean stall to milk a black-and-white
Holstein, her udder bulging. She steps forward to meet him, and he takes his
seat and begins milking. A dog barks in the distance, and we hear a woman's
voice. The scene fades as milk fills the bucket under the farmer's deft
hands.

Marketers of milk, eggs and meat want us to believe our food is produced by
this kindly bucolic chain. It starts with salt-of-the-Earth people working on
small farms, lovingly caring for their animals; it ends with a happy, healthy
family seated around the dinner table. No doubt there are still farmers who
deeply care about the animals they raise. But statistically this image is as
much a relic of America's past as paddle-wheel boats, bustle skirts and the
wild West.

The reality of the livestock industry is grim. Undercover investigators and
whistle-blowing farm workers have made countless videos documenting the
depraved treatment received by farm animals. These have spread via the
internet to millions on their mobile phones. While these videos clearly show
the inhumanity of the industry, they do not show its impact on the
environment, which equals or even exceeds the devastation caused by our use
of fossil fuels for energy and engines.

The Scale of the Problem

To understand the sort of damage being caused by intensive raising of
animals, we need to grasp the prodigious numbers of animals involved. USDA
data shows that in 2015 9.2 billion land animals were killed in the United
States alone for their meat -- 8.8 billion chickens, 232 million turkeys, 115
million pigs, 28 million cows, 28 million ducks and two million sheep. That's
28 animals killed for every US resident. Globally, according to statistics
compiled by Compassion in World Farming, 70 billion land animals are killed
for food by humans, an average of 10 per human, with two-thirds of them
raised on factory farms. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
places the total weight of meat produced in 2015 at 350 million tons.

When you include sea life, the figures are even more mind boggling. Again
based on FAO data, each year some 2.7 trillion animals are harvested from the
world's oceans, totaling 90-100 million tons of fish -- 386 sea creatures per
person. But for now, we will focus on land animals and leave the impact on
the oceans for another article.

Continues at:

https://www.hinduismtoday.com/module...hp?itemid=5745

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
https://v.gd/jaimaharaj