Kathy Freston: Top 10 (Recent) Developments On Factory Farming And Vegetarianism

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Top 10 (Recent) Developments On

Factory Farming And Vegetarianism

 

 

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Read More: Chickens, Climate

Change, Eating

Animals Jonathan Safran Foer, Environment, Factory

Farms, Food Politics,

Global Warming,

Jonathan

Safran Foer, Presidential

Turkey Pardon, Vegan, Vegetarianism

 

 

 

 

 

 

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On Thanksgiving, I spent some time taking stock of my life and the

world around me and, as we're supposed to do over the holiday, giving

thanks for all the joys -- little and big -- in my life. One of the

larger joys for which I am giving thanks is all of the recent attention

that has been lavished on a topic that is near and dear to my heart --

the cruelty and environmental harm involved in raising animals for

food.

 

I struggled to cohesively construct an article about some of the

many recent and important developments on this topic, but there is just

too much. Instead, I decided on a top 10 list (a tip of the hat to

David Letterman) -- the 10 most interesting articles on the farmed

animal welfare front.

 

So without further ado:

 

World Bank scientists conclude that eating meat causes more than

half of global warming (conservatively).

 

 

World Bank agricultural scientists Robert Goodland, who spent 23

years as the Bank's lead environmental advisor, and Jeff Anhang, a

research officer and environmental specialist for the Bank, argue convincingly that more than half of all

greenhouse gas emissions are attributable to our desire to eat chicken,

pigs, and other farmed animals. That's right: Add up all the causes

of climate change, and you find that eating meat causes more than

everything else combined.

 

Honestly, this was the biggest point for me: How can I possibly

take the environment seriously if I'm still participating in what is --

by far -- the biggest contributor to warming?

 

Which might explain:

 

 

Prominent Stanford biochemist pledges to focus all his

energy on promoting veganism.

 

 

Most of us have heard of Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. RK Pachauri

from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and his lectures all over the world promoting

vegetarianism. Now along comes Dr. Patrick O. Brown who, as reported in (of all places) Forbes,

will spend the next 18 months focused on "put[ting] an end to animal

farming." Explains Dr. Brown, "There's absolutely no possibility that

50 years from now this system will be operating as it does now... I

want to approach this as a solvable problem. Solution: 'Eliminate

animal farming on planet Earth.'"

 

 

Al Gore is taking notice.

 

 

Although Gore's Global Warming Survival Handbook noted that

"refusing meat" is the "single most effective thing

you can do to reduce your carbon footprint" (emphasis in original),

Gore had not spoken publically about the issue. Now he has --

repeatedly. For example, on Larry King recently, Gore explained that

"the impact of meat-intensive diet is a significant factor" in warming

the planet, that "the growing meat intensity of diets around the world

is bad for the planet," and that "the more meals I've substituted with

more fruits and vegetables, the better I feel about it..." The truth is

becoming less inconvenient, thankfully.

 

 

Celebrated author of Everything is Illuminated and Extremely

Loud and Incredibly Close publishes Eating Animals a

riveting book based on a three-year

investigation of factory farming.

 

 

Jonathan Safran Foer has been widely hailed as one of the greatest

novelists of his generation, was one of Rolling Stone's

"People of the Year," and Esquire's "Best and Brightest" --

and after just two extraordinary works. As Nobel Prize-winning novelist

J.M. Coetzee puts it about Foer's latest work, "The everyday

horrors of factory farming are evoked so vividly, and the case against

the people who run the system presented so convincingly, that anyone

who, after reading Foer's book, continues to consume the industry's

products must be without a heart, or impervious to reason, or both."

 

In his interview with Mother Jones Magazine

(the entire interview is worth reading), Foer points out that Americans

"now eat 150 times as much chicken as we did 80 years ago," and that it

"takes between 6 and 26 calories to make one calorie of meat. It is an

incredibly inefficient protein because we are cycling through all of

these other grains that humans could eat."

 

 

Actor Alicia Silverstone and Chef Tal Ronnen on the New York

Times bestseller list.

 

 

For some weeks now, Chef Tal Ronnen's Conscious Cook

and actress Alicia Silverstone's Kind Diet

have joined Foer and former model agent Rory Freedman (whose book

convinced home run slugger Prince

Fielder to adopt a vegan diet) on the list with books that

make the case for vegetarian eating. You may recall Ronnen from his appearances on Oprah, which caused Oprah to

exclaim, "Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so

satisfying."

 

 

Martha Stewart promotes a vegetarian Thanksgiving.

 

 

As my friends at Ecorazzi put it, "Martha Stewart has

proved once again why she's a pioneer in the kitchen. Having someone

with as much sway as the famous host show people that the big feast

doesn't have to include meat to be successful is huge. Even better, she

took the opportunity to educate her audience on factory farming

industry -- with help from author Jonathan Safran Foer (of Eating

Animals) and filmmaker Robert Kenner (Food, INC.)."

 

 

Egyptian mummy heart disease in LA Times

 

 

I'm not sure it belongs in my top 10 list, but I found it extremely

interesting that "CT scans of Egyptian mummies, some as much as 3,500

years old, show evidence of atherosclerosis, or hardening of the

arteries, which is normally thought of as a disease caused by modern

lifestyles..." What on earth could have caused it? I think I know: "The

high-status Egyptians ate a diet high in meat from cattle, ducks and

geese, all fatty." If only the ancient Egyptians had the wisdom of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn!

 

 

Honesty at the Turkey Pardoning

 

 

First Obama talks about factory farming and animal rights as a candidate. Then he puts in a

garden at the White House. Now he's adding some honesty to the annual

turkey pardoning -- talking about the fate of other birds, the fact

that it's a fairly new ceremony, etc.

 

Might he have celebrated a vegetarian Thanksgiving? The White House isn't saying, according to Gail

Collins of the New York Times

in her delightful Thanksgiving Day contemplation of the turkey

pardoning. Okay, I'm kidding a bit (could he really get away with

having a veggie Thanksgiving, given the power of Agribusiness -- as

documented in this sad piece on FoodConsumer.org), as was

Collins of course, but the honesty at the event is refreshing, and we

do have the first president who understands the harms of factory

farming and who is taking global warming seriously.

 

 

Cargill launches dairy-free cheese!

 

 

The largest privately held company in the United States (six times

the size of McDonald's) has just launched "a 100 percent non-dairy cheese

analogue for pizza and other prepared food applications" that

"replicates the functionality of dairy protein and replaces it fully at

an outstanding cost advantage for the manufacturer." According to

Cargill, "its appearance, taste and texture perfectly match those of

processed cheese" and it "also offers health advantages as it contains

reduced calories (less fat and no saturated fats) and... a unique

opportunity for vegans to enjoy a product that has the characteristics

and taste of cheese but without any animal-derived ingredients." It's

also Halal and Kosher.

 

 

Yet another study is exposing the horrid treatment of workers by

the all-powerful meat industry.

 

 

A recent six-part piece in the Lincoln Journal-Star documents the horrid

conditions endured by slaughterhouse workers. Sadly, nothing has

changed since Human Rights Watch released their report on the industry,

"Blood, Sweat, and Fear," six years ago. Then and

now, researchers have documented "systematic human rights violations

embedded in meat and poultry industry employment." It's becoming all

too obvious that if we care about worker rights, it makes sense to go

vegan.

 

For information on making the switch to vegetarianism, please check out

my previous post, "A Beginner's Guide to Conscious Eating."

 

Also visit Eco-Eating at www.brook.com/veg