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Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

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

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj

soc.culture.indian,alt.fan.jai-maharaj,alt.religion.hindu,alt.religion.vaisnava,a lt.food.vegan,alt.animals.ethics.vegetarian,alt.an imals.rights.promotion,alt.health.ayurveda,sci.env ironment,soc.culture.usa,soc.culture.india
Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth
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 mo
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

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.jai-maharaj
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Posts: 73
Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

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.

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
https://tinyurl.com/jaimaharaj
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Posts: 73
Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

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.

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://7.ly/jai
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Posts: 73
Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

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
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Posts: 13
Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

On Fri, 01 Jun 2018 18:04:06 GMT, (Dr. Jai
Maharaj) wrote:

>Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce
>your impact on Earth


· Vegans contribute to the deaths of animals by their use of
wood and paper products, electricity, roads and all types of
buildings, their own diet, etc... just as everyone else does.
What they try to avoid are products which provide life
(and death) for farm animals, but even then they would have
to avoid the following items containing animal by-products
in order to be successful:

tires, paper, upholstery, floor waxes, glass, water
filters, rubber, fertilizer, antifreeze, ceramics, insecticides,
insulation, linoleum, plastic, textiles, blood factors, collagen,
heparin, insulin, solvents, biodegradable detergents, herbicides,
gelatin capsules, adhesive tape, laminated wood products,
plywood, paneling, wallpaper and wallpaper paste, cellophane
wrap and tape, abrasives, steel ball bearings

The meat industry provides life for the animals that it
slaughters, and the animals live and die as a result of it
as animals do in other habitats. They also depend on it for
their lives as animals do in other habitats. If people consume
animal products from animals they think are raised in decent
ways, they will be promoting life for more such animals in the
future. People who want to contribute to decent lives for
livestock with their lifestyle must do it by being conscientious
consumers of animal products, because they can not do it by
being vegan.
From the life and death of a thousand pound grass raised
steer and whatever he happens to kill during his life, people
get over 500 pounds of human consumable meat...that's well
over 500 servings of meat. From a grass raised dairy cow people
get thousands of dairy servings. Due to the influence of farm
machinery, and *icides, and in the case of rice the flooding and
draining of fields, one serving of soy or rice based product is
likely to involve more animal deaths than hundreds of servings
derived from grass raised animals. Grass raised animal products
contribute to fewer wildlife deaths, better wildlife habitat, and
better lives for livestock than soy or rice products. ·


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Posts: 73
Default Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth

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


"A vegetarian diet can prevent 97 percent of our coronary
occlusions."

- "Diet and Stress in Vascular Disease," JOURNAL OF THE
AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, Vol. 176, No. 9, June 3,
1961, page 806.

Cited in Robbins, J., DIET FOR A NEW AMERICA, Stillpoint
Publishing, 1987.

Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi
Om Shanti
http://tiny.cc/jaimaharaj
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