Right on AC.

Adventists should be on the forefront of caring for the earth. The single most important think we can do is change our diet. Animal farming contributes more to global pollution than all transportation combined. The following is an excerpt from the McDougall Newsletter commenting on a U.N. report on the effects of Livestock on the health of the earth.

According to a report, Livestock’s Long Shadow –Environmental Issues and Options, released in November of 2006 from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, livestock* emerges as one of the top two or three most significant contributors to every one of the most serious environmental problems. (The release of this report was not covered by any of the major news outlets, only a few mentions are found on the Internet.)

*livestock refers to beef cattle, dairy cattle, chickens, pigs, and a few other animals domesticated for food uses.

The Following Are Some of the Findings from the UN Report:

Atmospheric Damage

Animal agriculture is responsible for 18 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. By comparison, all transportation emits 13.5% of the CO2. In addition to CO2, environmentally toxic gases produced by livestock include nitrous oxide, methane, and ammonia generated from the animals’ intestines—belching, flatus, and manure. The report says “The impact is so severe that it needs to be addressed with urgency.”

Livestock:

• Produces 65 percent of human-related nitrous oxide, which has 296 times the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of CO2.
• Accounts for 37 percent of all human-induced methane (which is 23 times as warming as CO2).
• Generates 64 percent of the ammonia, which contributes to acid rain and acidification of ecosystems.

Land Damage

• The total area occupied by grazing livestock is equivalent to 26 percent of the ice-free terrestrial surface of the planet. In addition, the total area dedicated to producing feed crops for these animals amounts to 33 percent of the total arable land.
• Clearing forests to create new pastures is a major source of deforestation, especially in Latin America where, for example, some 70 percent of former rain forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing. The forests are the major “sinks” for removing the greenhouse gases from the atmosphere—they are the “lungs of the Earth.”

Water Damage

• The livestock business is among the most serious users of the earth’s increasingly scarce water resources; in addition, contributing to water pollution, excessive growth of organisms, depletion of oxygen, and the degeneration of coral reefs, among other things.
• The major water-polluting agents are animal wastes, antibiotics, hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers, and the pesticides used to spray feed crops.
• In the United States livestock is responsible for 55 percent of the erosion and sediment, 37 percent of the pesticide use, 50 percent of the antibiotic use, and a third of the load of nitrogen and phosphorus put into freshwater sources.
• Widespread overgrazing disturbs water cycles, reducing replenishment of above and below ground water resources. Significant amounts of water are withdrawn for the production of feed.

Species Loss

• Livestock’s very presence in vast tracts of land and its demand for feed crops also contribute to loss of other plants and animals; livestock is identified as a culprit in 15 out of 24 important ecosystems that are assessed as in decline. The loss of species is estimated to be running 50 to 500 times higher than background rates found in the fossil record.

How much of the above U.N. Report made it into the popular press? Why did it not make it into the press? You think money is involved? You think?

Another reference to check: John Robbins - an heir to Baskin-Robbins. robbins book, "Food Revolution" has many references with which to check the facts.

Reminds me of an old "Zippy the Pinhead" cartoon (from 1994).

Adventists are certainly ironic. We must give ourselves credit for that.

With a choice between Trader Joe's and "Whole Paycheck" I choose the former for lower prices and great vegetarian entrees and new stuff all the time. Of course, for you imbibers, their wine is said to be great, also.